Résumé
Résumé de Les Apaches de New York
Go deeper: the whole of Les Apaches de New York
About 4 h to read.À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For readers who love true crime, old New York, tough street talk and dark humor, and for anyone curious how gangs, police and politicians lived side by side a century ago.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
What happens when the police know the killer but cannot prove a thing? In The Apaches of New York, the newspaper writer Alfred Henry Lewis tells twelve stories of gang life, written in 1911 from what detectives and gangsters told him. And you learn the one rule every story depends on, the rule of silence.
Dans ce résumé
- 1Gangland lives by silence and political coverFree
- 2A sneer at a dance can start a feud
- 3Poverty and jealousy push a small gunman too far
- 4Protection money and stuss breed murder plots
- 5A fearsome name is a business, and it gets tested
- 6Jealousy over women drives much of the violence
- 7Gangland never forgives snitching
- 8Chinatown has its own law and its own wars
- 9The talkers and the telling give the book its voice
Point clé 1 sur 9
Gangland lives by silence and political cover
Lewis begins by telling you that the stories are true in name, time and place. He also warns that few of them end in a prison cell, because the police often know what they cannot prove and no one in Gangland will testify.
The rule behind that silence is simple. Anyone who informs is a snitch, and a snitch can be killed by anyone. Two great gangs, the Five Points and the Eastmans, divide the East Side, and smaller gangs fight under their flags. A gang protects its members and avenges them, while a man with no gang is robbed by both sides.
Then comes the politician, whom Lewis calls the middle link between the policeman and the criminal. He holds them together and keeps them apart. When a killing is awkward, a friend of the killer takes the arrest, and he walks free once the public forgets.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Go deeper: the whole of Les Apaches de New York
About 4 h to read.Questions about Les Apaches de New York
What is The Apaches of New York about?
It is a set of twelve stories about New York gang life in the three years before Lewis's 1911 preface. They follow gangsters, their women, the police and the politicians who protect them, from the Bowery dance halls to Chinatown.
Are the stories in The Apaches of New York true?
Lewis says the stories are true in name, time and place, and that he heard them from police officers and gangsters. He wrote them in 1911 as a newspaper writer, and the events are set within three years before.
Who are the Apaches in the title?
The book follows New York's street gangsters and the world they inhabit. The book's main groups are the Five Points and the Eastmans, plus the smaller gangs.
What is a snitch in this book?
A snitch is anyone who informs the police. In Lewis's Gangland it is the one unforgivable offense, and fear of that label keeps witnesses silent.
Is The Apaches of New York easy to read?
Its chapters are short, each built on one person or one night, with lively street talk, quick scenes and plenty of humor from characters such as old Jimmy and the Irish Wop.