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Prodigal Father, Pagan Son: Growing Up Inside the Dangerous World of the Pagans Motorcycle Club
Winner of the USA Book News National Book Award for Best Nonfiction True Crime and Best Memoir/AutobiographyBy the time he was thirteen, he already had attended thirteen funerals.Abandoned by his mother, and with his father, "Mangy" Menginie—president of the Pagans Motorcycle Club, Philadelphia chapter—in jail, Anthony "LT" Menginie is raised inside the Pagans and inducted into a life of sex, violence, drugs, and organized crime.In Mangy's absence, LT finds a father figure in the Saint, a club member who helps teach him the difference between the club members you respect…and those you fear. The author recounts the power struggles that occur when Mangy is released from jail and tries to resume his role as father and president. Soon all hell breaks loose when Mangy betrays the club by going over to the rival Hells Angels, helping to touch off the "Biker Wars" in Philadelphia. The chapter's new president grooms LT to one day confront his father for his treachery. Faced with an impossible decision, LT has to decide where his loyalties lie.Prodigal Father, Pagan Son is a voyeuristic glimpse into the shocking and hypnotic underworld of notorious "one-percenter" biker clubs, hit men, drug dealers, and the other individuals who operate under no other rules than the "club code." But more than this, Menginie's story is the gritty and powerful true tale of surviving amid personal trials and tragedies, and of one man's determination to escape to a better life.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2011
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328 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
August 20, 2011
I love glimpses into other peoples lives especially those who have had larger than life experiences or are able to tell their tales in compelling ways. For the most part Mr. Menginie's story rings true but there are, what appear to me, to be several inconsistencies and sometimes things just don't jibe. There are other times where I see glimpses of quite good writing. I'm going with a three this time and hope that he does write another book.
November 7, 2012
Good book, diffrent to what I thought it would be like. I admit, I picked this book up and was intrested in reading it, because of the fact that I heard the author on the radio, and thought what a intresting and articulate person he seemed. Read if you are intrested in the culture of motorcylce club.
(Personally after reading this book, I'm damed why some women would be. The diffrence in images of the authors mother when she was younger, to what she was later is awful really)
(Personally after reading this book, I'm damed why some women would be. The diffrence in images of the authors mother when she was younger, to what she was later is awful really)
April 17, 2024
Overall his story is wild. The book was written how someone would really tell the long version of their story.. it was a bit all over the place but I felt like I was watching it happen with how good his descriptives were. I wasn’t expecting the ending.
The part where he sees a homeless man living in a box and “the saint” says to him: “we will all end up in a box someday” damn. I Put that in my pipe and smoked it
The part where he sees a homeless man living in a box and “the saint” says to him: “we will all end up in a box someday” damn. I Put that in my pipe and smoked it
November 29, 2023
A memoir that is nearly completely impossible to fact check, but which peels away the glamor that media like Sons of Anarchy gives to the world of outlaw motorcycle clubs and displays instead the seedy characters, desperation, and fear that are rife in that world. I'm always somewhat skeptical of memoirs that retell things in great detail, down to the dialogue that happened years or decades earlier. I can hardly remember what I did last week so I always have to suspend some disbelief at people telling richly detailed stories like this.
I didn't love the writing style, though whether that's due to Menginie's choice in narration or cowriter Kerrie Droban's stylistic choices, who knows. The voice just didn't always seem to match what we know of Menginie. I also wish things were a bit more chronological and/or with less diversions--we'll be in the middle of action and then get flashbacks to something that happened years prior. The book is very good at sucking you into the action, though, even as you shake your head in disbelief at what you're reading.
Published in 2011, this is one I'd love to see an updated edition of, to know how Menginie fares today. (A quick Google does turn up his LinkedIn, at least.) He clearly goes through a lot of stuff and has a lot of troubled people in his life. I'd love to know how a mid-40-something Anthony Menginie has been processing all of this trauma that he experienced.
I didn't love the writing style, though whether that's due to Menginie's choice in narration or cowriter Kerrie Droban's stylistic choices, who knows. The voice just didn't always seem to match what we know of Menginie. I also wish things were a bit more chronological and/or with less diversions--we'll be in the middle of action and then get flashbacks to something that happened years prior. The book is very good at sucking you into the action, though, even as you shake your head in disbelief at what you're reading.
Published in 2011, this is one I'd love to see an updated edition of, to know how Menginie fares today. (A quick Google does turn up his LinkedIn, at least.) He clearly goes through a lot of stuff and has a lot of troubled people in his life. I'd love to know how a mid-40-something Anthony Menginie has been processing all of this trauma that he experienced.
September 22, 2021
Sad. Unreal the shit that goes on...
Want to read
November 20, 2020Author's guest post at my blog:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2020/11...
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2020/11...
July 19, 2017
This book rarely leaves the darkness as it keeps the reader in the thick of a violent world. Prodigal Father, Pagan Son follows the harsh account of Anthony Menginie as he is raised by a One-Percenter Motorcycle Club. His story focuses a great deal on the negatives of his life and to be fair there did not seem to be many positives. It starts fairly depressing and holds that feeling for most of the book. All in all I think that anyone curious about the MC world should give this a read, especially if you have only read titles like Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club. Where Sonny Barger’s account turns a blind eye to the darker side Anthony Menginie’s story seems to turn away from the light completely. It also shows that not all Clubs are created equal neither are their members.
April 22, 2011
I thought this book showed a very different perspective since the author lived the biker lifestyle his entire life. It is the second book I have read on the MC subculture that shows a very gritty, dark, and depressing side to the MC.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in a truly different story of the MC subculture. Not one based on the glamourized "sons of anarchy" criminal drama or one based on the bikers who party with the MC, but from an absoutely hard & gritty account of the lifestyle.
Still the best book I have read in this genre is No Angel by Jay Dobyns.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in a truly different story of the MC subculture. Not one based on the glamourized "sons of anarchy" criminal drama or one based on the bikers who party with the MC, but from an absoutely hard & gritty account of the lifestyle.
Still the best book I have read in this genre is No Angel by Jay Dobyns.
September 22, 2014
Prodigal Father Pagan Son: Growing Up Inside the Dangerous World of the Pagans Motorcycle Club by Anthony Menginie and Kerrie Droban (St. Martin's Press 2011)(364.1066) started out with a bang then predictably petered out. The author knew his father only by reputation, but Anthony Menginie was literally raised in the clubhouse door and has lots of insight into the day to day working of the club's enterprises. This was a good first effort. My rating: 6/10, finished 7/19/11.
April 20, 2011
Spoilers.
I was very dissiapointed with this book. While it does provide a rare glimpse into a biker lifestyle. However he never becomes a pagan. He has had a hard luck life, and I wish him the best.
However.
In 15 years I am fully expecting another book from him about re-joining the lifestyle.
Time will tell.
I was very dissiapointed with this book. While it does provide a rare glimpse into a biker lifestyle. However he never becomes a pagan. He has had a hard luck life, and I wish him the best.
However.
In 15 years I am fully expecting another book from him about re-joining the lifestyle.
Time will tell.
June 9, 2011
Kind of interesting since I know nothing about motorcycle gangs, but horrifying to read how they operate and treat their friends/family.
May 28, 2011
Interesting book since the author grew up in my area. It gave me a perspective of the type of lives some children go home to and reminded me that school is a safe haven for some kids.
June 10, 2011
I couldn't read this book past the first few chapters. For me, it was too graphic and heart breaking.
August 15, 2011
A little confusing at times but over all a good book.
September 15, 2011
Sometimes it was a little confusing to read because it jumped around so much, but overall a good book. Its terrible to to its a true story and these things really happened to him and others.
October 22, 2011
I really liked this book. It was really detailed, some of the things shocked me. The writer seemed to have a really hard life. I recommend this book to anyone who likes biker books.
December 8, 2011
Very interesting reading into motorcycle gangs...
December 18, 2016
Reality in a MC
Not for the faint of heart. A glimpse into the world of a child born into an MC. A real eye opener
Not for the faint of heart. A glimpse into the world of a child born into an MC. A real eye opener
May 23, 2022
Two stars, mainly for false advertising.
Anthony "LT" Menginie is the son of "Mangy" Menginie, the president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Pagans Motorcycle club. Anyone who's seen Sons of Anarchy will go into this memoir with certain expectations of where they think this story is going to go, and the publishers were definitely banking on that association - most of the blurbs for this book that I found spent a lot of time playing up the fact that Anthony Menginie's father was in prison for most of Anthony's childhood and, once released, committed the ultimate betrayal by signing up with a rival club. To hear the publishers' blurbs tell it, this is the story of a son being raised to take revenge on a father he never met, all in service of the club he betrayed.
Unfortunately, none of that really happens in the book. There is no calculated grooming of Menginie to get revenge or take over the club, the character of his "mentor" kind of drifts in and out of the narrative at will, and Menginie himself doesn't seem to have any strong feelings about his father, good or bad. If we're being honest, this memoir mostly explores the complex relationship between Menginie and his mother, an addict whom he repeatedly tried to help.
The true selling point of Prodigal Father, Pagan Son is that it swiftly and thoroughly dispells every romantic notion about biker clubs that stuff like Sons of Anarchy and the literal thousands of "MC Romance" books series have tried so hard to keep up. The first two thirds of the memoir are basically Angela's Ashes, but with bikers, as Menginie takes us on a thorough tour of his truly awful childhood. Because - shocker! - being raised by criminals and addicts actually makes you a fantastically maladjusted human being, and is no fun for anyone involved.
(That it lasts for more than half the book was a confusing choice, since for so much of the story Menginie is still a child and can't do much of the revenge the publishers promised us; and as he grows up it also makes it hard to keep track of how old our narrator is supposed to be any given time.)
Another thing I appreciated about Menginie's story and his refusal to look at motorcycle club life with rose-colored glasses is when he talks about how the girlfriends and wives of the members could expect to be treated. Anyone carrying romantic notions of what it means to be an "old lady" into this memoir will be shocked when Menginie tells us, oh yeah, these guys treat women like shit. I'll go ahead and admit here that I've personally read some of those MC romance novels (verdict: not my jam but you do you, babes) and know firsthand that authors of those books have to bend over backwards to put a romantic, sexy spin on the fact that the girlfriends and wives of bikers are known as "so-and-so's property." Menginie, on the other hand, spells it out plainly when he recounts the time a club member's "old lady" became chronically ill and abandoned her without a second thought. The point of property, Menginie says bluntly, is that it can be discarded as soon as it no longer serves a purpose. Sorry, Jax/Tara stans, but them's the brakes.
A profoundly depressing account of a truly terrible upbringing, with no redeeming characters or dramatic confrontations or (god forbid) accountability in sight. But Menginie was honest, and I have to at least give him credit for that.
Anthony "LT" Menginie is the son of "Mangy" Menginie, the president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Pagans Motorcycle club. Anyone who's seen Sons of Anarchy will go into this memoir with certain expectations of where they think this story is going to go, and the publishers were definitely banking on that association - most of the blurbs for this book that I found spent a lot of time playing up the fact that Anthony Menginie's father was in prison for most of Anthony's childhood and, once released, committed the ultimate betrayal by signing up with a rival club. To hear the publishers' blurbs tell it, this is the story of a son being raised to take revenge on a father he never met, all in service of the club he betrayed.
Unfortunately, none of that really happens in the book. There is no calculated grooming of Menginie to get revenge or take over the club, the character of his "mentor" kind of drifts in and out of the narrative at will, and Menginie himself doesn't seem to have any strong feelings about his father, good or bad. If we're being honest, this memoir mostly explores the complex relationship between Menginie and his mother, an addict whom he repeatedly tried to help.
The true selling point of Prodigal Father, Pagan Son is that it swiftly and thoroughly dispells every romantic notion about biker clubs that stuff like Sons of Anarchy and the literal thousands of "MC Romance" books series have tried so hard to keep up. The first two thirds of the memoir are basically Angela's Ashes, but with bikers, as Menginie takes us on a thorough tour of his truly awful childhood. Because - shocker! - being raised by criminals and addicts actually makes you a fantastically maladjusted human being, and is no fun for anyone involved.
(That it lasts for more than half the book was a confusing choice, since for so much of the story Menginie is still a child and can't do much of the revenge the publishers promised us; and as he grows up it also makes it hard to keep track of how old our narrator is supposed to be any given time.)
Another thing I appreciated about Menginie's story and his refusal to look at motorcycle club life with rose-colored glasses is when he talks about how the girlfriends and wives of the members could expect to be treated. Anyone carrying romantic notions of what it means to be an "old lady" into this memoir will be shocked when Menginie tells us, oh yeah, these guys treat women like shit. I'll go ahead and admit here that I've personally read some of those MC romance novels (verdict: not my jam but you do you, babes) and know firsthand that authors of those books have to bend over backwards to put a romantic, sexy spin on the fact that the girlfriends and wives of bikers are known as "so-and-so's property." Menginie, on the other hand, spells it out plainly when he recounts the time a club member's "old lady" became chronically ill and abandoned her without a second thought. The point of property, Menginie says bluntly, is that it can be discarded as soon as it no longer serves a purpose. Sorry, Jax/Tara stans, but them's the brakes.
A profoundly depressing account of a truly terrible upbringing, with no redeeming characters or dramatic confrontations or (god forbid) accountability in sight. But Menginie was honest, and I have to at least give him credit for that.
December 23, 2022
This was a hard read for me. On a completely personal level, I'm glad I read it. But I don't think a lot if people who pick it up find what they want in it.
I was legitimately disturbed by the depravity LT saw and lived through, especially as a child. Having grown up with addicts myself (I was still way more sheltered than Menginie), I found it comforting to see some of the parallels between our lives. Seeing a few of my own actions and pains reflected back in someone else made me feel so much less alone, so much fuller as a person. I will always be grateful to have read this memoir purely for that sense of connection I felt, though I know how different my life is from Menginie's and I know I can never understand the majority of his experiences. I was hurt that he had gone through so much, yet comforted that he survived (of course, not without scars.) Fans of Cathy Glass will likely appreciate the first half of the book.
I can't help but respect Menginie's thorough honesty. He makes statements about things he'd done, thought, and seen with a bluntness that incurred me to tear through the first half of the book. It's a brave and intriguing memoir from start to end. There are images in this book that will live in my mind forever. Frankly I'm glad I didn't have to see them first-hand.
However, I didn't learn as much about the ins and outs of biker life as I wanted to. There were relatively few references and memories of biking written about at all. There's a large amount of crime and brutality described, but we never get a scene where Menginie is thundering down an open road with his comrades or weaving through traffic in the inner city. Menginie makes offhand references to the rules and structure of the Pagans, often out of context, but we're never given a full overview. I found that Menginie would mention a rule, and then a few chapters later a Pagan would openly break the rule without consequence. Much of the violence in the group seemed senseless, despite Menginie insisting how much sense it made to him. He insisted that everyone libed by a very specific code, yet from an outside perspective there was only chaos. Perhaps that's the point, and I'm just missing it. It's hard to know without a guiding frame of reference.The book lacks a journalistic eye for balancing emotional detail with reflection and fact.
The back half of the book lagged. I still finished it fairly quickly, but it didn't have the punch of the first half of the book. Even the specific conversations Menginie remembers have a flatness to them. Menginie lived through chaos in a haze and it shows in his writing. The viewpoint skips from event to event, sometimes with no context, sometimes losing its context along the way. Both the events and the way Menginie writes about them end up being fairly anticlimactic. We don't even get a real update on his mother, who's featured in an intense first chapter as she enteres withdrawal in what seems to be Menginie's present-day life. I feel that the epilogue was rushed, perhaps written a bit too soon. Perhaps with some added chapters on Menginie's journey into his current life, struggles to change, and updates on the Pagans would have made this book feel more complete.
Overall, this book is a 3 for me.
If the author reads this, good luck to you. I hope you heal as much as possible.
I was legitimately disturbed by the depravity LT saw and lived through, especially as a child. Having grown up with addicts myself (I was still way more sheltered than Menginie), I found it comforting to see some of the parallels between our lives. Seeing a few of my own actions and pains reflected back in someone else made me feel so much less alone, so much fuller as a person. I will always be grateful to have read this memoir purely for that sense of connection I felt, though I know how different my life is from Menginie's and I know I can never understand the majority of his experiences. I was hurt that he had gone through so much, yet comforted that he survived (of course, not without scars.) Fans of Cathy Glass will likely appreciate the first half of the book.
I can't help but respect Menginie's thorough honesty. He makes statements about things he'd done, thought, and seen with a bluntness that incurred me to tear through the first half of the book. It's a brave and intriguing memoir from start to end. There are images in this book that will live in my mind forever. Frankly I'm glad I didn't have to see them first-hand.
However, I didn't learn as much about the ins and outs of biker life as I wanted to. There were relatively few references and memories of biking written about at all. There's a large amount of crime and brutality described, but we never get a scene where Menginie is thundering down an open road with his comrades or weaving through traffic in the inner city. Menginie makes offhand references to the rules and structure of the Pagans, often out of context, but we're never given a full overview. I found that Menginie would mention a rule, and then a few chapters later a Pagan would openly break the rule without consequence. Much of the violence in the group seemed senseless, despite Menginie insisting how much sense it made to him. He insisted that everyone libed by a very specific code, yet from an outside perspective there was only chaos. Perhaps that's the point, and I'm just missing it. It's hard to know without a guiding frame of reference.The book lacks a journalistic eye for balancing emotional detail with reflection and fact.
The back half of the book lagged. I still finished it fairly quickly, but it didn't have the punch of the first half of the book. Even the specific conversations Menginie remembers have a flatness to them. Menginie lived through chaos in a haze and it shows in his writing. The viewpoint skips from event to event, sometimes with no context, sometimes losing its context along the way. Both the events and the way Menginie writes about them end up being fairly anticlimactic. We don't even get a real update on his mother, who's featured in an intense first chapter as she enteres withdrawal in what seems to be Menginie's present-day life. I feel that the epilogue was rushed, perhaps written a bit too soon. Perhaps with some added chapters on Menginie's journey into his current life, struggles to change, and updates on the Pagans would have made this book feel more complete.
Overall, this book is a 3 for me.
If the author reads this, good luck to you. I hope you heal as much as possible.
April 25, 2019
Not impressed
The book used too many descriptive words with no substance. A very anticlimactic ending for a person you care very little about. I can tell most of the conversations and events never happened.
The book used too many descriptive words with no substance. A very anticlimactic ending for a person you care very little about. I can tell most of the conversations and events never happened.
December 11, 2017
This was a disjointed mess
This book was all over the place. It was more a collection of thinly related events than a cohesive story. I am giving it a single star.
This book was all over the place. It was more a collection of thinly related events than a cohesive story. I am giving it a single star.
Read
September 5, 2020THIS BOOK WAS ALL OVER THE PLACE HARD TO FOLLOW i BELIEVE HE WAS ON DOPE WHEN HE WROTE THIS, DONT WASTE TIME OR MONEY,
February 15, 2023
The writing jumped around a bit, but it was still an evocative and intimate portrait of growing up in the motorcycle gang. Lots of great Philadelphia/se pa references.
January 20, 2025
An honest, brutal story of growing up in a gang.
October 24, 2011
Hardback -- from the library
it is raw and arachaic almost primative. very difficult to believe and no emotional connections to family. very dark life and I wonder how he survived. After reading the last page I do not believe him. One can not just live normal smoking a blunt without doing some real work in therapy. I was glad to hear that he did not marry and did not have a child. I wonder if he is in prison now for a sex crime?
it is raw and arachaic almost primative. very difficult to believe and no emotional connections to family. very dark life and I wonder how he survived. After reading the last page I do not believe him. One can not just live normal smoking a blunt without doing some real work in therapy. I was glad to hear that he did not marry and did not have a child. I wonder if he is in prison now for a sex crime?
March 10, 2016
A strain to finish
While reading this book, I kept thinking it was written by someone in Jr. High School. The whole book was written with the subtext of "poor me." There really is no structure as it jumps around. I certainly have to call BS on multiple things in this book. I really try to finish books I start. This one was difficult. I found it easier to read if I thought of it as fiction, which I'm sure most of it was.
While reading this book, I kept thinking it was written by someone in Jr. High School. The whole book was written with the subtext of "poor me." There really is no structure as it jumps around. I certainly have to call BS on multiple things in this book. I really try to finish books I start. This one was difficult. I found it easier to read if I thought of it as fiction, which I'm sure most of it was.
January 27, 2013
A very readable book, although at times I had a hard time believing what the author was saying as fact. I really didn't like the fact that their wasn't a timeline. As with any first person crime book, the author comes across as a narcissist. Normal, well adjusted people just don't do these things. I read this book in one day and I'm not a speedy reader.
February 21, 2017
I didn't go into this expecting a literary treasure, but I still came away disappointed that no editor or publisher bothered to guide LT and Kerrie in the right direction.
The bones of this story are poignant, and important in understanding where people like LT come from, and how it happens, but unfortunately a lot of it is lost in drabble.
The bones of this story are poignant, and important in understanding where people like LT come from, and how it happens, but unfortunately a lot of it is lost in drabble.
August 18, 2011
Currently pondering how much of this book lies in fiction and how much in truth...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews