Little Caesar

I read an annotated version of this book within Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s.

Little Caesar is the first major gangster novel, published in 1929. It was made into a famous 1931 movie--and essentially created the gangster stereotype (one I became most familiar with through Bugs Bunny cartoons). The book itself is an interesting study on the 'voice' of a book, as the author goes deep into gangster lingo. At the end of my edition, the editor included a foreword that the author wrote in the 1950s about the writing and rejection process behind the book. He made a conscious choice to strip away adjectives to make the prose bloody and blunt. It works. The book doesn't try to make you like its characters--it just shows them as show more they are. I was grateful to have the annotations to help me parse the lingo and explain details about Chicago and guns of the period.

I never would have expected to like the book this much, but it fascinated me. It shows the era with all its ugliness and racism and dames and plates of spaghetti with wine. Now I want to watch the movie to compare. show less

This 1929 novel of the rise and fall of a Chicago gangster will still hold your attention, even if Burnett's storytelling technique is a hodgepodge of pretty good no-holds-barred dialog and obtrusive prose that don't quite fit together. There's a lot more to the story here than in the rather concise classic film starring Edward G. Robinson. The portrayal of the underworld life certainly doesn't make it sound glamorous, though the book is written in a way that still leaves you rooting for the bad guys, who are a lot less one-dimensional than the various cops who are after them.

The classic gangster book, which became a famous movie starring Edward G. Robinson. This wasn't a particularly well-written book, from a literary point of view, and it seems rather cliched today, but I'm guessing it was more-or-less the genesis of the gangster cliches.

Basically, it's the story of a tough guy who worked his way up in the Chicago gangster pantheon. Then he was identified and became a fugitive, eventually ending back in Toledo, where he'd begun his life of crime. He finds it horrible not to be a big cheese, and eventually becomes one in Toledo again, but at the cost of identifying himself. Thus, he is soon faced with the quandary of whether to be taken dead or alive.

I dunno. Other than for historical reasons, I don't see show more much point in taking up this book. It was ok, and short, but didn't seem imaginative. show less

Skönlitterärt om Capone och Chicago

Small-time criminals Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello and his friend Joe Massara move to Chicago to seek their fortunes. Rico joins the gang of Sam Vettori, while Joe wants to be a dancer. Olga becomes his dance partner and girlfriend.

Joe tries to drift away from the gang and its activities, but Rico makes him participate in the robbery of the nightclub where he works. Despite orders from underworld overlord "Big Boy" to all his men to avoid bloodshed, Rico guns down crusading crime commissioner Alvin McClure during the robbery, with Joe as an aghast witness.

Rico accuses Sam of becoming soft and seizes control of his organization. Rival boss "Little Arnie" Lorch tries to have Rico killed, but Rico is show more only grazed. He and his gunmen pay Little Arnie a visit, after which Arnie hastily departs for Detroit. The Big Boy eventually gives Rico control of all of Chicago's Northside.

Rico becomes concerned that Joe knows too much about him. He warns Joe that he must forget about Olga and join him in a life of crime. Rico threatens to kill both Joe and Olga unless he accedes, but Joe refuses to give in. Olga calls Police Sergeant Flaherty and tells him Joe is ready to talk, just before Rico and his henchman Otero come calling. Rico finds, to his surprise, that he is unable to take his friend's life. When Otero tries to do the job himself, Rico wrestles the gun away from him, though not before Joe is wounded. Hearing the shot, Flaherty and another police officer give chase and injure and capture Otero. With information provided by Olga, Flaherty proceeds to crush Rico's organization.

Desperate and alone, Rico "retreats to the gutter from which he sprang." While hiding in a flophouse, he becomes enraged when he learns that Flaherty has called him a coward in the newspaper. He foolishly telephones the police to announce he is coming for him. The call is traced, and he is gunned down by Flaherty behind a billboard – an advertisement featuring dancers Joe and Olga – and, dying, utters his final words, "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?" show less

Relato crudo de pasión humana de un pistolero elevado por sus crímenes al rango de pequeño reyezuelo de una ciudad.