Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Working for the Man in the Moon, March 18, 2008
This book provides a great visual representation of life in New York city at the turn-of-the-century. The author uses his words like an artist uses paint on canvas. This book leaves a great visual and colorful impact on the reader. The story is energetic, fast paced and filled with great human interest, overall a fascinating read. This is an historical era novel about a powerful charismatic politically connected figure who wielded a great deal of influence in New York city during the height of his career. It was a time when various people from Europe and Russia were clashing as they fought to create a new and better life for themselves and their families. They escaped the political forces and prejudices which held them back in the "old world" but faced new and different enemies and circumstances instead. Sometimes, the new circumstances were nearly as daunting as the old but as time marched on, the powerful walls which kept people of different cultures from achieving their potential cracked and broke apart. Times created situations where someone with a powerful personality who had major chutzpah and intelligence could work the system and become highly influential. This book is about such a man, his name is Harry Leonoff, a man of Jewish descent who beat the odds and made himself into a success. He become politically connected and indispensible to the politicians who needed major jobs done around the city. He hung around Tammany Hall with the Irishwho got Harry hooked on politics. Harry's reputation grew as he strove to maintain his values and integrity while he got jobs done. Unfortunately, his strong need to maintain his integrity prevented him from backing down from a position once he took a strong stand and this became his undoing after clashing with Mayor Fiorello La Guardia who also possessed a similar ego and style of behavior.
Harry Leonoff's rise to power and his fall from grace makes for a fascinating novel. Harry's early life began on the Lower East Side of New York in Jewish tenement houses and apartments. This milieu provided the foundation for Harry's developing a strong character. His character was tested when he developed polio and underwent rigorous stretching exercises, without benefit of analgesics. Fortunately, he eventually received more humane treatment from Andrew Craig a Scotsman who developed a successful home treatment for polio victims. Harry retained a limp due to this childhood illness. Perhaps this is where Harry learned to care so much about the poor and less fortunate. Harry's fearless reputation got him hired by a local group of Jewish leaders who wanted some anti-Semetic thugs taught a lesson. By age 23, Harry realized he needed education and hung out at a local Democratic Club, where he overheard Big Jim Connolly express that lawyers ran the city. This gave Harry the grand idea to become a law clerk. At the time there were several avenues to entering the legal profession, one was attending law school, another was graduating from college and preparing for the bar exam, and a third for those with little formal education, as was Harry's case, was to become a law clerk. Harry was hired to apprentice for Mr. Levine who had won some rather famous cases. This is where Harry's sense of fair play arose as he noticed not everyone was getting justice under the legal system ...in fact, the rich and powerful seemed to receive most of it. He concluded only those with political influence could correct the deficiences in the system so Harry attempted to do just that. He returned to Tammany Hall to work for Big Jim Connolly. Harry's success continued as he gained experience and grew to have a reputation for getting the job done.
The author does a superb job of describing the rise and fall of Harry's fame. The stories are realistic and believable, most are serious, others are humorous. The author does a particularly excellent job of drawing the reader into the story from the beginning when Harry's grandson visits at the hospital where Harry resides. The description of the harbor, the weather, the landscape and views and then the inside of the mental hospital are very visually realistic and appealing. The author's description of how Harry's frame of mind flips from current reality into the past is highly accurate of how confused elderly people behave and react. The book was inspired by the life of the author's own grandfather. This book is most highly recommended. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb 5-Star Story--WELL Told, December 18, 2007
Reviewed by C. L. Rossman
Out of the ranks of the poor and downtrodden immigrants in the early 1900s, there rose a champion for the masses: Harry Leonnoff. As a mistreated kid himself, who never knew kindness except from one foster farm family, Harry contracted polio at an early age, and willed himself to walk again., although with a limp.
In this "fictional biography," he author places Harry at the scene of some famous injustices--such as the case of the "Scottsboro boys," and makes him a lightning-rod of justice, protecting people against discrimination and even wrongful death. Jewish himself, Harry never could understand the instant hatred he received from people who didn't even know him. Uneducated yet trained to read the law, he aligned himself with one facet of Tammany Hall and became a U. S. Marshal, yet always worked for the benefit of the little guy.
If you knew of something happening that was wrong, you called on Harry Leonnoff to "fix it."
The novel gives a vivid look at turn-of-the-century New York City politics, including the career of Fiorello La Guardia, who becomes Harry's nemesis. The author, a motivational speaker who previously wrote nonfiction like Negotiation Boot Camp, and Beating the Success Trap, wrote this book in honor of his real-life grandfather Harry Wolkoff and modeled his main character after him. So this is a fictionalized biography of sorts, but one which the author hopes remains true to his grandfather's character--who was "the most extraordinary human being I have ever met," he write.
Author is a motivational speaker with many books, but this is his first non-fiction.
Armchair Interviews says: This makes for an equally extraordinary book, and one you won't be able to put down.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Can't wait to see the movie!, November 28, 2007
Brodow weaves an amazing story around the intricacies of New York City politics and what it meant to be an immigrant at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. This is reason enough to read this fine work. I never really knew what Tammany Hall was until I read Fixer. But the real attraction is the story of Harry Leonnoff, a character who succeeds in capturing the reader's affection and empathy. He overcomes the poverty of the Lower East Side, the lack of a formal education and a frightening bout with polio to become a kind of Robin Hood during the Depression. At a time when immigrants and the poor were victimized by a crooked political system, Harry becomes their champion.
The tragedies of Harry's personal life offer a counterpoint against his success in helping other people. I can't wait to see who plays Harry, Fiorello, Marie, and Willie in the movie!
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