Louis Beretti

by Donald Henderson Clarke

This is the story of a kind of American success that is seldom mentioned. It is the story of a tough Italian kid from the toughest part of New York's East Side, a boy who was a natural leader and who grew up in the pattern set by his environment. When Louis Beretti was a tot hardly able to walk, he searched for money in the shoes of drunks sleeping in the hallway. Later he went through the gamut of crime, from juvenile delinquency to murder. He became affluent and respected outside the law. And in the dramatic climax of this gutsy, realistic novel, he faced a situation which he never could have understood or solved had he been brought up any other way.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

285 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1929

Reviews

[Arthur Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather an odd book, the first 2/3 or so comprised of various incidents in the life of the title character, an almost heroric figure who was destined for a career as a gangster. It's a very "rugged," no holds barred tale of the way it was in the underworld of the 1920s and it doesn't try to romanticize anything or to pleed for symphony for the main character. The final 1/3 of the book does focus on one cohesive story, and presents the "hero" in a more sympathetic light, though there is never a hint that he has become a "reformed" character. I found this book to be sometimes unpleasantly realistic and often fascinating.

[Pat Camalliere · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was interesting to be reading about someone involved in mob activity in a book that was written during prohibition (in 1929) instead of years later. It started off very promising: the writer had a wonderful ability with the written word with some amazing passages of prose I can only envy. And yet, as a whole, the book failed in my estimation. Louis Beretto grows up in New York with friends and instincts that make him a natural for mob life and his own code of honor. He doesn’t treat people well, except for his friends, and that leads to criminal activity above and beyond making and selling illegal alcohol. The problem with the book is that after introducing the character and his life, it gets repetitive, with little lead-up events that don’t really go anywhere or are of particular interest, and they are told in a manner that is also overly repetitive. The reader is confused by the repetitive use of same or similar names – there must be ten Bills in the book, and Louis, Louise, Lucious, and Luigi. The real story doesn’t develop until the last eighty pages or so, and most of that event itself is drawn out and boring. The end of the story delivers for the most part. But I was anxious for it to be over by about page 60.

[Gonzalo Blanco Arnedo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro me lo leí en mi pubertad y me marcó. Recientemente me crucé con el, y decidí volverlo a leer, con miedo de que le tuviera idealizado y no está vez no me gustara….pero no ha sido así. Me ha vuelto a encantar.

[Creolecat]

Born Reckless (1931)

[Kenneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a crime novel originally published in 1929, the story of the title character, Louis Beretti, a son of Italian immigrants in the early 20th century who grows up on the tough streets in pre-World War I New York City. He serves with the Army in the war and returns home to find Prohibition has become the law of the land. He becomes a successful bootlegger and restaurateur, in the context of the Prohibition-era gangs of New York. What stood out to me was that there was no mention of the Italian Mafia. The gangsters were as likely to be Irish or Jewish. Don't know whether that was because the author, Donald Henderson Clarke, didn't really know much about them or whether he felt it was better not to mention them. After all for years J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director at the time (and who remained in that position until his death in the early 1970's) denied the existence of the Mafia for most of his years as director. Regardless, it is a fast paced and entertaining story of the 1920's.