Pitt

[CornerBoy]

how is this new pittsburgh book thats been bandied about?

[craigs48]

I enjoyed it. A good companion to "Little Chicago" (if you can find a copy).

[Adam]

I think it was a great read on Pittsburgh that we haven't gotten yet. Especially the whole drug dealing Pittsburgh was involved in under Porter/Raucci and others.

[CornerBoy]

is it a light read or academic?

[CornerBoy]

also whats it called

[Adam]

also whats it called

Steel City Mafia

And I think it's well worth the read. It's nonfiction and is similar to a lot of similar books. Keep in mind it's not autobiographical like Gravano's Underboss, so it's not really telling a narrative story. And it's .it written like it's trying to tell a story the way Anthony DeStefano writes his books. Or Capeci. Or Pileggi where the book is essentially interviews. It's a straight forward accurate and well researched nonfiction book about the Pittsburgh mob. And I like those.

[CornerBoy]

thanks man. cant find it on kindle though. maybe ill just read anyway

[coldshoulder]

1. Don't know if you can edit or change the thread title, but you'd get more views if you did, say to: Pittsburgh: Steel City Mafia Book.

2. Don't think it's available on Kindle or any other e-book format. I purchased the softcover printed edition from Amazon, and I believe that was my only option. I'd even be willing to put it an envelope and mail it off to you if you'd like, because I finished it within a week, and don't intend to keep it for any reason, because...

3. While I appreciate the author's intent and certainly what had to be long and painstaking research, it still was disappointing, to me. I'm a Youngstown guy, so the long-standing ties and interconnection between Youngstown and Pittsburgh sparked my interest in the book. But I was expecting a little more depth and background to both John LaRocca's and Mike Genovese's character, activities, and actions, especially as they related to the early-80's Youngstown war that was fought over control in that area between the Pittsburgh and Cleveland factions. I was also disappointed in the lack of depth and detail about Kelly Mannarino and later Sonny Ciancutti, who were important liaisons with the Youngstown crew. Charlie Imburgia's importance was also understated (although that's how he operated), and I felt more of the 1990's relationship between Pittsburgh's Henry Zottola (oversee-er) and Youngstown's Lenny Strollo (made man and Youngstown boss, but was under Zebo's thumb) could have been explored and reported with more details.

Overall, I felt the book for the most part was well-written, factual, and did touch on many individuals and situations that expanded my knowledge of the Steel City Mafia from the 70's, 80's, and 90's. But I also felt like the narrative was disjointed and did not follow a logical, chronological pattern. Look, I understand that writing a book of this magnitude on this subject is inherently a difficult and challenging task. And while the book's footnotes detail a vast and comprehensive list of (mostly) newspaper articles, in my mind there was too much reliance on them, with the overall feel of the book being one of a series of newspaper stories strung together to write a book, without enough development, depth, and background of the main characters.

(At least one minor error: Photo on page 71 identifies the structure as Jimmy Prato's Calla-Mar Manor, when it was actually Prato's residence on the second floor, and former nightclubs of different names on the first floor, in Poland Township, outside of Youngstown. The Calla-Mar was a one-story brick restaurant and banquet hall in Beaver Township near the Youngstown interchange of the Ohio Turnpike.)

[FriendofHenry]

+1

[antimafia]

1. Don't know if you can edit or change the thread title, but you'd get more views if you did, say to: Pittsburgh: Steel City Mafia Book
[snip]

The author is a poster here.

There are already two other threads about the book:

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=10200&p=251907&hil ... ia#p251907

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=9903

IMHO, the current thread should never have been created by the original poster in the first place because of existing threads regarding the book, and the first thread to which I’ve linked above should have been posted in the BOOK LOUNGE forum, which of course the original poster should have checked first.

I’m not a moderator here but I do care a lot about this place, accordingly reporting to the mods team all spam, duplicate threads, flaming posts, and unnecessary threads to make the mods’ job easier, as they have a thankless job that could be made so much easier if posters used the board’s search features and exercised just a little common sense.

[Stroccos]

1. Don't know if you can edit or change the thread title, but you'd get more views if you did, say to: Pittsburgh: Steel City Mafia Book.

2. Don't think it's available on Kindle or any other e-book format. I purchased the softcover printed edition from Amazon, and I believe that was my only option. I'd even be willing to put it an envelope and mail it off to you if you'd like, because I finished it within a week, and don't intend to keep it for any reason, because...

3. While I appreciate the author's intent and certainly what had to be long and painstaking research, it still was disappointing, to me. I'm a Youngstown guy, so the long-standing ties and interconnection between Youngstown and Pittsburgh sparked my interest in the book. But I was expecting a little more depth and background to both John LaRocca's and Mike Genovese's character, activities, and actions, especially as they related to the early-80's Youngstown war that was fought over control in that area between the Pittsburgh and Cleveland factions. I was also disappointed in the lack of depth and detail about Kelly Mannarino and later Sonny Ciancutti, who were important liaisons with the Youngstown crew. Charlie Imburgia's importance was also understated (although that's how he operated), and I felt more of the 1990's relationship between Pittsburgh's Henry Zottola (oversee-er) and Youngstown's Lenny Strollo (made man and Youngstown boss, but was under Zebo's thumb) could have been explored and reported with more details.

Overall, I felt the book for the most part was well-written, factual, and did touch on many individuals and situations that expanded my knowledge of the Steel City Mafia from the 70's, 80's, and 90's. But I also felt like the narrative was disjointed and did not follow a logical, chronological pattern. Look, I understand that writing a book of this magnitude on this subject is inherently a difficult and challenging task. And while the book's footnotes detail a vast and comprehensive list of (mostly) newspaper articles, in my mind there was too much reliance on them, with the overall feel of the book being one of a series of newspaper stories strung together to write a book, without enough development, depth, and background of the main characters.

(At least one minor error: Photo on page 71 identifies the structure as Jimmy Prato's Calla-Mar Manor, when it was actually Prato's residence on the second floor, and former nightclubs of different names on the first floor, in Poland Township, outside of Youngstown. The Calla-Mar was a one-story brick restaurant and banquet hall in Beaver Township near the Youngstown interchange of the Ohio Turnpike.)

I did enjoy the book but I agree with your take Cold shoulder . If you are well versed on Pittsburgh then probably nothing really new in there for you .

If you know nothing or very little about Pittsburgh then pick up the book .