Thy Father's Son: A Novel [Hardcover]

Leo Rutman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 4, 2002

New York City, October 1962: The Cuban missile crisis threatens the world as a drug war consumes the mafia. Caught up in its midst is Davey Rossi, former lightweight champion and son of Mafia don Vince Rossi. As Davey trains for his comeback to regain the title, he learns of a secret kept by Vince and his brother Johnny--a betrayal that split the Rossi family and caused its tragic involvement in the long-buried wars between the Jewish and Italian gangsters of the 1920's and 30's.

The past and its deadly mystery force Davey to enter the violent life he has tried to avoid. He is pitted against ambitious, cunning Mafiosi steeped in guile and treachery. Davey searches for Dolly Irving, the reclusive stage star of the 1920's who knew the mobsters of that glamorous, roaring decade. And he falls in love with Julie Alpert, a beautiful tax attorney whose covert agenda threatens to bring down the Rossi family.

Told in a pitch-perfect voice, with a rich and varied cast, and set against the backdrop of the Kennedy brothers' vendetta against the Mafia, Thy Father's Son is a stunning novel of family loyalty, redemption, and the sins of the past that can only be expiated by vengeance.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The son of an Italian New York mafia don finds out he's Jewish in Leo Rutman's unusual novel of American organized crime and cultural identity. Set in 1962, Thy Father's Son is the story of Davey Rossi, a prizefighter and scion of an important syndicate family who finds out that he's actually the adopted, orphaned son of a murdered Jewish mobster and his showgirl moll. Furthermore, his adoptive father took part in the hit on his biological one. The stunned Rossi tries to track down his mother and find out the real story of the gangland machinations behind his father's death while becoming embroiled in vendettas of his own; along the way, Rutman reveals much about the heyday of Jewish organized crime, as well as the evolution of the Italian-American mafia in the 1960s. The book's first-person narration and dialogue can be stiff, but Rutman's original, intricate plot and well-researched historical details make up for the shortcomings of his prose.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Prizefighter Davey Rossi must face the fact that he was adopted by the Italian Mafia don who killed his Jewish gangster father. This well-told tale unfolds in late-fifties/early-sixties New York City, just as the Mafia embraces the drug trade. Rutman delivers knockout boxing descriptions, and the mobsters behave in exactly the way we have come to expect from every pop-culture depiction since The Godfather. That's only a problem for those who have grown a bit weary of stories that rehash the gang wars of a bygone era and attempt to imbue them with a profundity Sopranos fans realize they never really had. Readers looking for a traditional Syndicate story with all the right moves will embrace this book. Others, driven forward by the compelling narrative even as they bemoan its seeming inability to break free of old-style Mafia tropes, might find themselves ruefully quoting Michael Corleone's famous line from The Godfather, Part III : "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!" Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (October 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312290616
• ISBN-13: 978-0312290610
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,474,772 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Thy Father's Son" is a new generation of Mafia tales., October 27, 2002

By 

"diagold" (Yonkers, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thy Father's Son: A Novel (Hardcover)

This completely different take on the standard Mafia genre has a
lot going for it. The twists of plot, interesting and well-defined characters, great descriptions of Depression Era and Sixties New York City, all add to its page-turning qualities. The plot involves an orphan who is raised by a Mafia don, becomes
a Championship boxer to stay out of the "life", but circumstances
and Fate force him to search for his true roots. His search ultimately leads him to find those roots, but only by getting deeper into the "Life". The boxing sequences are described and even choreographed so well by the author, that it becomes a boxing story within a Mafia tale. The book is exciting and fast-moving. With the streets of New York City as a background, this terrific book could become a great movie.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific old-style mobster novel, October 15, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Thy Father's Son: A Novel (Hardcover)

Thy Father's Son is old-fashioned in the best sense: it's set in early 60s New York on the brink of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and centers around the Five Families of the Mafia and their struggle for power. But the novel isn't just about the Italian mafia; it also links back (via the novel's central character, a boxer called Davey Rossi who is the adopted son of a Don), to the... mobsters of the 20s and 30s and their war with the newly-arrived gangsters from Sicily for control of the city. That's what makes it different from The Godfather and, for that matter, The Sopranos (with which it has almost nothing in common). And there's a stylish quality to the book, with the suits and hats and nightclubs and hideaways all described faithfully by someone who clearly knows New York as it was. But maybe the best stuff in the book is the boxing; if you like reading about the fights, this novel has two or three of the most visceral boxing sequences ever put on paper, it's like you are ringside with the blood and sweat hitting you in the face. A great read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Achievement, October 29, 2002

By 

M Kaplan (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thy Father's Son: A Novel (Hardcover)

This impressive new novel is a well crafted blend of gritty NY gangster life, the sport of boxing, and an intriging, albeit semi-believable, love story. I felt that I was truly taken back to a time uncomplicated by 21st century technology. A great escape. This book is easy and fun to read, but has layers of complexity.