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My Life in the NYPD:: Jimmy the Wags
More information to be announced soon on this forthcoming title from Penguin USA
- GenresNonfiction
370 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2000
2 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
James Wagner
2 books3 followersJames Wagner retired from the New York Police Department in 1990 with the rank of Sergeant. He worked as a private detective for ten years.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 12, 2010
James Wagner, nicknamed "Jimmy the Wags" is a retired New York City street cop who, with the help of writer Patrick Picciarelli, also a retired cop, describes his police experiences in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 60s, 70s and 80s. It's an authentic voice that rings with the cadence of the city and the job he worked day after day, dealing with the dregs of society and everyday crime, as well as some of the major social issues of the time.
We first meet Jimmy as a nine-year old boy, listening to Dragnet with his police officer father in their Staten Island home. We follow him through the police academy and then out to the streets. We meet his fellow cops and feel the pressures of the job, watching some of them turn into alcoholics or commit suicide. We see how many of the rules are bent to accommodate the reality of what is going on in the street. We're right alongside Jimmy, feeling his anger and despair when he goes to funeral services for fellow cops brutally gunned down. We meet celebrities and junkies and Hell's Angels and other assorted oddball characters. We're surprised at some stories, and we cringe at others and wonder how one man could have experienced so many outrageous things. Then we realize that these are the highlights of a long career, all compressed into a fast paced, action packed narrative with something new on every page.
We first meet Jimmy as a nine-year old boy, listening to Dragnet with his police officer father in their Staten Island home. We follow him through the police academy and then out to the streets. We meet his fellow cops and feel the pressures of the job, watching some of them turn into alcoholics or commit suicide. We see how many of the rules are bent to accommodate the reality of what is going on in the street. We're right alongside Jimmy, feeling his anger and despair when he goes to funeral services for fellow cops brutally gunned down. We meet celebrities and junkies and Hell's Angels and other assorted oddball characters. We're surprised at some stories, and we cringe at others and wonder how one man could have experienced so many outrageous things. Then we realize that these are the highlights of a long career, all compressed into a fast paced, action packed narrative with something new on every page.
March 21, 2015
fiction?
At the end of the book it says it's a work of fiction. It didn't read like one, and I bought it thinking it was non-fiction. Kind of misrepresented. Disappointing. In the end, it's readable, but not good enough to rise above the misrepresentation.
At the end of the book it says it's a work of fiction. It didn't read like one, and I bought it thinking it was non-fiction. Kind of misrepresented. Disappointing. In the end, it's readable, but not good enough to rise above the misrepresentation.
October 27, 2008
I don't like this guy or his book. I hope he does't come to get me.
April 18, 2016
It's an ok book. The writing is a little choppy and the transitions are not smooth.
March 30, 2018
I Thought it was a great memoir,a Good read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews