Mini-Mob

In this book the author, Russell Shorto, reluctantly investigates the story of his family's immigration from Sicily to Pennsylvania and their subsequent involvement in organized crime. He says he avoided that topic for years but finally relented as his father's health was failing. The back cover of the book talks about the connection of small-time crime that spanned the nation, "from Yonkers to Fresno". Having grown up near Fresno, I was hoping there would be some mention of that part of the country, but Shorto specifically focuses on his family and their immediate environs. You delve into the author's family history, and there are definitely some intriguing parts. In the process of writing, he discovers some of his longstanding "memories" may have been fallible, and I'm glad he had that experience.

Darkly Engaging

A teenager girl goes missing in a small midwestern town. People love to tie a neat bow around things, and collectively focus their suspicion on a mentally challenged young man, a local working for the curmudgeonly school bus driver, Alma, and her husband. Weaving sorrow, mystery and hope, this story keeps you reading along right to the end.

Heartbreaking and Victorious

An injured girl is recovering in the hospital, while two regular visitors quietly sit by her bedside and forge their own relationship apart from her. This girl goes on to live with a family member, as she has no apparent nuclear family to take her in. The storyline ping pongs back and forth, from her early years, to the "present" (the 1980s), and to the past of one of her hospital visitors. Gradually these threads all coalesce, and you realize what they've all lost, gained and are seeking. With elements of racism, classism, homelessness, mental illness and abandonment, I can't say this is an uplifting book, but there are triumphs, too.