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Even though this book, "Smalltime" by Russell Shorto is informative and interesting. At the suggestion of one of his relatives, Shorto begins his research into his family's history, asking the right and often embarrassing questions. He has written a detailed rich history of his family's immigration from Italy to Johnstown, PA. In it he attempts to discover just who was his grandfather. This memoir is filled with lots of interesting vignettes on how the poor Italian immigrants made it rich during Prohibition era, the rise of the local Italian mobsters and their gaming hustles. I was unaware of the kinds of prejudice Sicilians faced when coming to America in the early 1900's.

I found myself putting it aside to read another book and needed to force myself to finish it for review. I struggled with the middle of the book as I had a hard time keeping track of the small town mobsters, the numbers racket and other illegal games.

Lots of individual vignettes are interesting in this memoir. Many individuals and their stories make for a challenging read trying to keep them all straight. Shorto has written a detailed narrative genealogy of his father’s family in an attempt to discover who murdered Pippy and to discover the “real” person who was his grandfather.

I found it difficult to maintain interest in the book as Shorto leapt from person to person and time frame to time frame. A listing of the numerous characters with their relationship to Shorto would have been helpful. I did learn a great deal about small time criminals and how the numbers racket and other “mob” games worked.
I do not think my book groups would be interested in discussing this book, but some folks would find it fascinating as an individual read.

I started reading this book, thinking it was going to be a great read. Unfortunately, I am very disappointed. This book would be interesting to those in the author's family, but not to me. I cannot continue to read this book since there are some many books out there that I want to read and will find fascinating.