5 comments about Memoir: Delaware County Prison.

1. In MEMOIR: DELAWARE COUNTY PRISON, author Reginald Hall painstakingly chronicles his sojourn as a prison inmate. Using a very clear, simple and precise writing style, Hall essentially unveils a story filled with all the nuances, innuendoes and uncertainties of prison life. More importantly, MEMOIR: DELAWARE COUNTY PRISON gives insight into the indignities suffered by an eighteen year old, who also happens to be gay, in an environment where machismo is the dominant culture.
   
   Hall's unobtrusive writing style adds an edge to the story, but this is blurred by his introduction of characters that are often superficial or one dimensional. The story never quite reaches its true potential and often the reader is left with the sense that there are exciting and at times dangerous possibilities lurking beneath the author's straightforward prose, which are never fully realized.
   
   MEMOIR: DELAWARE COUNTY PRISON is a valiant first effort for noted gay rights advocate Reginald Hall. He manages to capture the readers attention with the possibilities the title seems to offer, and it does have its bright moments. The story, however, would benefit from more attention to detail especially in the area of character development.
   
   Reviewed by Autumn
   of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers



2. Memoir: Delaware County Prison chronicles the months Reginald (a.k.a. Reg) has to spend in the prison for committing credit card fraud. The author doesn't give detail of the offense and I'd assume there was a prior offense because he was already on probation and a "detainer" by the probation office is the main reason he's confined for eight months, as opposed to a couple of days. I'm confused. So the question is: What was he on probation for? Was it for committing credit card fraud or something else?
   
   The memoir starts with his initial intake, goes through his perils of being gay and in prison and ends at outtake. Hall speaks of the incidents he was subjected to just for being gay (i.e., attempted rape, gay bashing, and assault). He also brings to light another interesting subject that seems to plague Black men - homosexual behavior while inmates. There were a few instances where Reg noted he had "crushes" on a few "straight" men and one ultimately led to a sexual encounter. However, the person he had the encounter with emphasized that he didn't "go that way" yet he went there with Reg. How scary is that?
   
   Memoir: Delaware County Prison reads like he has jotted down his memory of the incidents but without much detail. It misses the most important element - a plot. To have been written by a teenager, expressing his horrible time in prison, it's cute. The synopsis makes the book seem interesting; however, none of the subjects were touched upon. Had he given detail on his attempting suicide, taking drugs, engaging in other self-destructive behavior, along with "why" he was in prison it would have made for a more interesting read. But for now it's just - cute.
   
   Reviewed by Esther "Ess" Mays for Loose Leaves Book Review



3. This Book was very well written ,Reginald Hall takes the reader inside behind prison walls to experience life as he lived it, I really enjoyed this book, my only issue is that The author did not expose how Violent and brutal life behind bars really is, but I guess it was his personal experience that he wrote about,other han that it was a Very Good Book & I recommend it!Im half way thru his other book Smoking Ciggarets and so far it too is very Good!



4. I read Memoir: Delaware County Prison in a few hours. Reginald's story telling was straight to the point and fresh. However, I typically am drawn to books whose main character is at least sympathetic, and I found the author's experience to be extremely unsympathetic. At no point did I, the reader, feel that he was the least bit remorseful for what he did to get himself into this situation.Rather, he was just sorry that he got caught.
   We the readers are treated to a rainstorm of tears and homesickness, laced with his quest to find the right guy with the right feet. Nothing was ever right for this poor soul. It was too hot in E-Block, and too cold in the trailers..everything was too nasty and the food wasn't good enough so he opted to starve himself than eat what was given him.
   Everytime he was moved somewhere relatively better, he messes it up. There were a few intances where other inmates were trying to use him as their form of "release" and some even took a liking to him, and he used it to get what he wanted. But then, later, he complains that he can't understand why one day, the inmates like him, and the next day they don't.
   On the synopsis at the back cover, there is talk of drug dabbling and illicit sex..and I found nothing of the sort in the story. The author's narrative was however very entertaining and probably at times inadvertently so.
   Overall, I thought it was a good book; it certainly kept my attention. But, I love to read about people who I feel I can root for, and with him, I felt, "Let him stay his behind in there!"



5. Pitiful. If you want a book that has no point to it and too many grammatical errors to count this book is for you.

4 comments about The Prisoner: An Invitation To Hope.

1. This book is a special and important story of redemption and forgiveness. It follows the life of Jim Townsend, from his troubled youth, to his commission of a horrible crime, to decades spent in jail, and finally to a life of promise and hope. The lessons that Jim learns throughout his life help him finally to see his self-worth and prompt him to work on behalf of youth and inmates in this country. I found the story harrowing - and the take-away incredibly meaningful. While Jim's life is dramatic, its messages resonated with me (and, I wager, with all of us): forgiveness, freedom, love, self-worth. I highly recommend this book.



2. This book is very good. I was skeptical at first, but I realized that the change in the man happened over a long period of time.



3. A very compelling true story...It's very hard to put the book down. I read the book in 3 days, at work, at home and where ever I could get 10 minutes of spare time.



4. An excellent book and a keeper. I have bought it for several of my friends.

No comments about Al Capone - Scarface (Biography).

5 comments about Crossed Over: A Murder, A Memoir.

1. I am shaking as I write this. I have never read something so biased and so upsetting in my life. I am more convinced than ever after reading this book that Karla Faye Tucker got exactly what she deserved. This book portrays her as some sort of wonderful, mislead, genuine person who made a mistake. I am stunned beyond belief at this portrayal of a murderer. It sounds to me after reading this book, that Karla Faye did not make any genuine changes, she just simply learned how to play the game, and in this case ultimately and fortunatley did not win.



2. "Compassion" seems to be in short supply when it comes to Karla Faye Tucker --- starting with then-Gov. Bush's smirk on the occasion of her execution and continuing in these reader comments. This she-got-what-she-deserved feeling stems, I think, from the view that People Don't Change. What grim philosophy! Change --- the hope of it, the longing for it --- is, in fact, what drives most evangelical religions. Given that, you'd think Karla Faye Tucker would be the Poster Child for Christian conversion. She never denied the terrible crimes she committed, she prostrated herself before her Lord, and, if you believe her, Jesus bathed herin His love. That is the subject of the book Beverly Lowry has written --- a book powered by a head-splitting irony: The murderesss gives comfort to the professional writer (a mother whose son was killed in an unsolved highway accident). My advice: Just read the book. Decide for yourself.



3. The author seemed all too willing to forget what Ms. Tucker did. No matter how "rehabilitated" a murderer claims to be or how much they claim to to have "changed", that does not bring back their victim(s).

   (I feel sorry for Richard Thornton's loss, but what was his wife Deborah doing in another man's apartment in the middle of the night. I don't think I would mourn the loss of a spouse who cheated on me. I also cannot believe how the victims' siblings could buy her act and forgive her.)

   Question: would Pat Robertson have plead for the life of a murderer who'd "converted" to Judaism or Islam?




4. Unfortunately, the direction of this book was, in my opinion, completely and improperly focused. I am so extremely grateful that I read a much more meaningful and inspiring book by Linda Strom titled "Set Free" first! I highly recommend "Set Free" to everyone with any kind of even just plain ol' common sense. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that in this world, there will always be tragedy, and that there is a God who forgives, heals, and does in fact Set Free. He can and will continue to set free those who committ the crimes(regardless of how hideous), as well as those in their own prison of the unforgiveness of being a victims spouse, family member, or friend. I do understand the dreadful sting and what seems to be never-ending pain of death, having a brother who was murdered the day after his 21st birthday. The final(and only) true judge awaits us all once we pass through those doors and, in my opinion, Karla was more free "in there" than most "out here" will ever be.



5. All I read is true crime. This book is one of the best I have ever read. I will never forget this book. If you are a true crime fan you have got to read this book!!!

5 comments about Descent into Madness: The Diary of a Killer.

1. I found the book at a local used bookstore and was drawn to it immediately. I am interested in wilderness survival and the fact that Michael Oros was able to survive in the wild for that length of time was reason enough for me to check this book out. I greatly enjoyed the personal look inside Oros' mind that his diary entries afforded. I could relate to alot of what Oros was feeling and it was unfortunate that his hopefull idealism had to come to such a tragic end. It gives alot of insight into the alienation that Oros and alot of people today are feeling when it comes to modern society. The author did a very good job putting it all together into this story.

   Definitely a good read.




2. This book is very interesting and I just couldn't put it down. I recomend it to everyone.



3. We don't know how many there are each year ... people who walk away from society and disappear into the bush. They all have their reasons. We never hear about most of these folks. Their futures are unknown. We only learn about the extraordinary ones whose stories later emerge in the news and intrigue us for years afterwards. If you liked reading about Michael Oros' life in the bush, You'd probably also like these other books: 1) "Notes From The Century Before" by Edward Hoagland (a detailed report on the area where Oros lived, written a few years BEFORE he arrived there; 2) "The Secret Life of Ted Kaczynski" by Chris Waits & Harold Shors (details of his 24 years in the Montana backwoods, written by someone who knew him well during all those years); 3) "The Ridgerunner" by Richard Ripley (the story of the fabled "human coyote", a loner who roamed the forests and mountains of northern Idaho for many years; 4) "Cache Lake Country" by John J. Rowlands (first-person account of his life in the Great North Woods, full of info on woodcraft and nature). Someone else has already mentioned "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer, which is an absolute "must read" book. There's also a different but somehow appealing book called "Within this Wilderness" by Feenie Ziner, which I enjoyed enough to read a couple of times. It's an account of communal life during the early 1970s on an island in the Inside Passage between Vancouver and mainland BC.



4. A fascinating look at what happens when you mix utopian ideals, a strong will, and too much time in isolation. The story of Michael Oros was published three years before Krakauer's "Into the Wild" and shares many similarities, including a gripping, page-turning quality.
   
   Oros dodged the Vietnam draft and headed northward after a stint at a New Mexico commune where drug use was heavy. (Wish we could have learned more about this period, which is only alluded to.) It's not clear how much the period lent to his mental instability. Oros landed in brutally cold northern British Columbia, near the Yukon, and spent about 13 years in the bush eating berries, salmon, moose and building his own cabins from hand-hewn logs. He became a woodsman extraordinare. He envisioned building a "sanity sanctuary" for urbanites, but alienated every would-be business partner with his inflexible ideals and hot temper. He lived alone for a decade under the Northern Lights, with just his dogs to keep him company, and kept thousands of pages of journals, which record his slow descent into madness. It begins one frigid winter night, when he hears voices and laughter taunting him from outside his cabin...
   
   Oros eventually became such a misanthrope that every contact with a trapper or even far-off airplane in the sky was interpreted as a vast conspiracy to crush his virtuous example pure living. His delusions eventually have murderous consequences, and the story is equal parts gripping and tragic.
   
   I'd classify Oros with the contemporaneous Shiva Lila cult (see "Commune" DVD for brief glimpse) and killer Charles Manson ("In His Own Words"). Not on a scale of murderousness, but in the sense that Oros came preaching love, brotherhood and selflessness but in the end strayed into narcissism and murderous intolerance. A great read.



5. We picked this book up while camping in Washington State. Being from British Columbia and having lived in Northern B.C., this book had a special fascination for me. This was an interesting look inside the mind of man looking for peace and a utopia in his life but whose plans went astray. Very good book that we (my girlfriend and I) could not put down. It's on of those books that sticks with you for a long while afterward as you mull over the chain of events that led to the books violent and tragic ending.
   
   Some other reviewers have mentioned "Call of the Wild" in relation to this book "Descent into Madness". I would also say that the movie "Grizzly Man" has certain parallels with this book. Although, Timothy Treadwell of Grizzly Man was not a violent person. Rather, they both appear to be men who were seeking peace and an escape from the confusion and pain of a modern world gone mad. Sadly, both men with a violent end.

3 comments about Brigham's Destroying Angel: Being the Life, Confession and Startling Disclosures of the Notorious Bill Hickman, Danite Chief of Utah.

1. I really enjoyed reading this book though I did read it with a little grain of salt added. Seeing how Hickman wrote it himself I'm sure the truth and fact was sprinkled with a little sugar.

   I was glad Beale didn't do much editing and left the manuscript mostly as Hickman wrote it. I could almost hear the screaming indians, hear the cries of wounded men, hear the horses being lead out of the coral...by thives. I could see the murdered men fall from the saddle, watch the hangings and sit in court watching justice....sort of being served.

   If you enjoy non fiction western then this is the book to read, providing you can read a little between the lines.

   There's no doubt living in those days of the untamed west was trying and difficult, all of the settlers and emigrants had to be a very tough and hardy bunch.




2. Basically simply the story of Bill Hickman in his own words. There is a preface from his lawyer J.H. Beadle which is quite insightful. The issue is, was Mr. Hickman truthful in his account. I would recommend reading a companion book like Hiltons "Wild Bill" Hickman and the Mormon Frontier. It is good to get someone elses views based on their research. I am really glad to have been able to get a copy of this mans most important history in print. It is really a good read. I highly recommend it.



3. Perhaps all people thinking about joining up with LDS should check out history reading this book and perhaps 'Ninth Wife' and 276 page book 'Who wrote the book of Mormon'. This book is well written and reads like a early western novel.

5 comments about Conversations with the Capeman: The Untold Story of Salvador Agron.

1. Conversations with the Capeman, the story on which the musical Westside Story is loosely based, blew me away. I literally read this 500+ page book in two days. I almost could not sleep for want of finishing it on the first day.
   
   The life of Salvador Agron provides a window into humanity that society tends to overlook when confronted with a crime in light of the death penalty. Mr. Agron's life can be viewed as social commentary that makes this a very important look at our penal system but more importantly it renders him human.....not an evil animal. The loyalty that Salvador garnered from people he didn't even know was overwelming. This is the first book that ever brought me to tears to the point that I could barely see the words on the page while reading the last two chapters.
   
   I subsequently bought Paul Simon's Songs from the Capeman and was pretty impressed by the way that he captures Salvadors life in music.



2. This insightful, sensitively written book which brings to light Salvador Agron's life that was imprinted by race, sexual abuse and the condemnation of society gave me not only a new awareness of the criminal justice system, but of human redemption as well. Reading Conversations with the Capeman was a powerful eye-opening experience.



3. Each page of this beautifully written book brings raw emotion to the surface. Richard Jacoby paints a vivid picture of the poverty stricken, abusive childhood that surer than any court sentenced Salvador Agron to a life of alienation and despair. Yet despite being the youngest person ever sent to New York State's electric chair, Agron possessed a spark of human spirit that would not die. It is Jacoby's great accomplishment that he lets Agron's story speak for itself as he takes us through the dark alleys of Puerto Rico, the doo-wop drenched streets of New York and the cold corridors of state prisons where despair is plentiful, yet hope lives. If you want to know why we should treat our kids better and why giving people in trouble a second chance is NOT some mushy-headed idea, read this extremely engaging book.



4. Conversations with the Capeman is an absolutely stunning, beautifully written book about the life of convicted murderer Salvador Agron. Richard Jacoby weaves a brilliant and sensitive memoir of his real-life interviews and relationship with Agron. Jacoby paints a compelling, unbiased portrait of a tragic life; from Agron's youth as a member of a violent New York street gang to his conviction for a murder that he may not have committed, to life beyond prison. This impossible to put down book reads as if one is watching a motion picture. It involves all the elements of a modern-day epic; heartbreak, mystery, deception, love, friendship, redemption, and ultimate tragedy. This novel, of all the books I have read, has had the biggest impact on me...Simply amazing.



5. I picked up the book a little skeptically, even though I admire the author, because I was afraid it might glorify a murderer. Richard Jacoby has a simpler goal. He humanizes the Capeman and makes him understandable.
   
   The Capeman was a 16 year old involved in a gangfight in which he stabbed two other teenagers and they died. Sentenced to death, Governor Rockerfeller commuted the sentence under heavy pressure.
   
   Meantime, Richard Jacoby was doing a thesis about whether people on death row had life changing experiences. He got in touch with the Capeman, letters were exchanged, then they met in person and a deep friendship started. The author also got to know the Capeman's family very well. The original goal was for the Capeman to write his life story, but as it becomes clear, after he's paroled that he won't really do it, Jaocby uses all of his notes to put the story together.
   
   Meantime, Paul Simon wrote a musical based on parts of the Capeman's life. It's a story of redemption, but to Richard, that's only part of the story. He uses this book to tell the whole story, not just about the Capeman's life, but about our prison system and about our insane asylums. He's very careful to let the fact's speak for themselves.
   
   The biggest surprise is how hard the book is to put down. You get inside the head of the Capeman and his relatives and his story becomes an American story and yet, still a very individualized story. The book can perhaps best be summed up by Jacoby's encounter with a racist cop, where, referring to the Capeman, he tells the cop "Yeah, but he's still a human being" At it's most basic, that's what the book is about. Without glossing over his crimes, Jacoby shows us the Capeman as a human being. It's a moving, well balanced portrait that is completely compelling reading. Highly Recommended.

1 comments about The Desperate Ones: Forgotten Canadian Outlaws.

1. The Desperate Ones by Edward Butts is truly a fascinating book, well-written with an exceptional account of Canadian history at its best. In this new work, Canadian outlaws are researched to an insight never before reached. This ground-breaking insight is a refreshing look at the infamous criminals across the U.S. borders.
   This is recommended reading, bringing new light to many forgotten criminals including America's largest public enemy John Dillinger. The Desperate Ones brings forth a legendary, yet blazing ride through America's golden age of bank robbers. A must to read! Review by 7ony Stewart, author of Dillinger, The Hidden Truth

5 comments about Flim-Flam Man: A True Family History.

1. Jennifer Vogel's dad was not like other dads. Sure he loved Jennifer and her siblings, remembered birthdays, took them fishing and on vacations. But John Vogel was a criminal, a conman and a crook. In FLIM-FLAM MAN Jennifer Vogel shares the story of her complicated relationship with her father --- his life of crime and secrecy, his affection for her and his bloody death at the end of a police chase almost a decade ago.

   Estranged from her father for years when he died, Vogel's guilt and sadness fuel this memoir. And so does her love for him and her understanding of his outlaw ways. She tries to get closer to him by examining his childhood (his father was absent and his mother emotionally distant) and his other relationships. Still, this is not a family history in the traditional sense. Vogel gives the reader sketches, impressions of her family more so than details and facts. The result is emotional, fascinating and quite personal.

   Vogel's parents divorced when she was a child. Her mother, left to raise three children alone, was the disciplinarian. Her father's mystique grew. The children spent summers with him, driving in his fancy Cadillacs, spending time at his cabin, entertaining guests and having fun. But over the years Vogel pieced together truths about her father. Her mother told her early on that he was delinquent in his child support. To Vogel, his gifts and personality seemed to make up for this somehow. Yet how was she to balance out his other crimes such as arson? And how was she to make sense of the fact that her father had served prison time as a young man for a violent crime? Or what about his justification to rob a corporate retail chain for sociopolitical reasons by creating and passing counterfeit money? Or the armed bank robberies? How could his rap sheet sum up the creative and eccentric man she knew and loved?

   It is not just Vogel's father's faults that are laid bare. Jennifer Vogel exposes herself as well. Despite his shortcomings, or perhaps because of them, Vogel felt a propinquity with her father's life of crime; she understood the need to subvert the system and had a distrust of authority. She eventually channels those tendencies in a way her father was never able to, and as she grew up she steered clear of the choices and mistakes her father made.

   Moving between childhood scenes and 1995, the year her father was on the run from the FBI and Federal Marshals, Vogel tells the tale of her family with honesty and even humor. At first glance this appears to be a family unlike most, but she proves they share much in common with families across America. FLIM-FLAM MAN is the poignant story of a challenging father-daughter relationship. It is also about the struggle for the American dream: in John Vogel there was a not uncommon sense of alienation coupled with the not uncommon sense of entitlement. Here we read about a man who makes disastrous and dangerous choices his entire life, yet is also a loving and charming father. It is easy to understand why Vogel is so conflicted about him.

   This is not exactly a book about forgiveness or recovery or anything quite as simple as that. Jennifer Vogel's short book is emotionally complicated but a joy to read. Both the joy and the complication seems a fitting tribute to the man presented in its pages: a loving and lovable father, and a career criminal. FLIM-FLAM MAN is a moving, interesting and highly recommended debut.

   --- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman




2. What I thought would be a kind of cute, whimsical tale about a lovable rogue and his gifted but troubled daughter turned out to be the most compelling story I've ever read about the complex and often conflicted relationships between parents and children. The author is an extremely talented writer who is not the least bit afraid of exploring those internal areas that are sometimes better off ignored. I laud her for sharing so much of herself and her family, and only hope that writing this book was as cathartic for her as reading it was for me. It is rare that a book has such a profound effect on me, but this one blew me away.



3. Gorgeously written, highly compelling. Jennifer Vogel is a deeply complex woman who understood her deeply complex father in a mystical way. This book is riveting. I read it cover to cover in one sitting. One of the best memoirs I've ever read, right up there with ANGELA'S ASHES and CHANGE ME INTO ZEUS' DAUGHTER.



4. A brilliant book that captures the essence that both good and evil exist in a single person. A criminal and con-artist who is an enemy to victims is a loving father and husband away from that life. It has the same complexity of character that Rikki Lee Travolta used to dissect the actor's life as both nepotistic and self-aggrandizing but counterbalanced with fear and insecurity in his book "My Fractured Life." Jennifer Vogel's dissection of the real man behind the conman is just as moving and equally as poignant. A highly recommended book.



5. It shows the reality of the depression and how americans were never the richest nation. It reminds us of our roots as well as a warning message about our values while it is also often humorous.

3 comments about Toppamono: Outlaw, Radical, Suspect, My Life In Japan's Underworld.

1. This is quite a good read which I can recommend to anybody who likes to read that genre which Japan produces so much of so well: The personal reminiscence. This particular one is penned by a chap who was able to make strides in two worlds, the so-called Underworld and the above-board one occupied by the likes of you and I. Author was born into a Kansai region Yakuza family of some means, albeit perhaps deplorable ones, which afforded him the opportunity to get an unusually good education despite his best efforts. This recounting is the fifty year trajectory of the man's life as he went from neighborhood tough to University-enrolled student activist (often of the most violent kind) to scandal rag newshound to General Manager of Yakuza-affiliated family construction (well, destruction, actually) business to Yakuza enforcer and point man to Bubble economics land speculater and enabler, to authorial spokesman for the Burakumin, traditional gangster and Third Country National minority. Although Mr. Miyazaki is not the most talented author, he is a wonderful raconteur with a gift for the nifty vignette that will often have you laughing or sympathizing with the subject of his little stories. The difficulty with this book is that there is a lot of information contained in it that has cultural taglines significant only to a Japanese of the author's era and while the Western authors tried to edit much of it out, there are large bits of the book that get bogged down in detail that make little sense to and hold less interest to the western audience. I am speaking directly to the authors years spent in protest whilst enrolled at Waseda University. I know from anecdotal experience that the student activism that occurred on Japanese campuses during the 1960's still has reverberations in Japanese contemporary culture, but much like the exploits of Weather Underground or the Berkeley Califorinia culture of the same era, this is historical ephemera that is hard-pressed to hold one's interest for long. Overall, this is definitely a worthwhile read, it would have been a spell-binding one if the author had chosen to go into more detail. H'mmm, and finally, this author does not entirely convince me that he is NOT the 'Fox-eyed Man' of the Morinaga scandal.



2. Toppamono is a speedy, exciting and somewhat bumpy ride through the first 50 years of the author's life as yakuza scion, student subversive, criminal suspect, paparazzi reporter and eye-witness to the expansion and eventual bursting of Japan's bubble economy. Although neither an intellectual nor a gifted writer, Miyazaki tells a riveting tale of postwar Japan as it successfully pulls itself out of poverty only to devour itself with greed. Like his life, his writing style is unpretentious and choppy, and he frequently flits back and forth between personal observations, historical events and the nitty-gritty now. However, there is method to Manabu, as he concludes in the Epilogue. And this is where things go a little bit loopy. Toppamono, one must not forget, was written for a Japanese audience, whose weltanschauung differs considerably from that of Americans and that of Europeans. Throughout Toppamono, Miyazaki's sympathy for Japan's gangster class is never far from the surface, and he frequently hints at an expanded role in society for the yakuza. In the book's Epilogue, he fesses up, describing the ideal future as one where the chivalrous yakuza will join with its Korean and Chinese counterparts to punch a hole in global Western culture and recreate a brave new world; and as one in which the scar-faced will rightly return to their roles as community cops and enforcers of corporate and political purity. Cuckoo. Fortunately, his sentimentality can be put down to his yakuza roots, and the reader doesn't have to take Miyazaki's opinions too seriously to enjoy what is a rollicking story and an important piece in the literary jigsaw of post-war Japan.



3. Toppamono is a Japanese phrase for someone who pushes ahead regardless. Miyazaki Manabu has been doing just that for the last sixty-one years -- regardless of the law, regardless of social convention, and now, alas, regardless of his readers' patience. Eighty-plus pages describing the student riots of the 1960s are used mostly to recount how the writer charged around Tokyo hitting people over the head with lumps of wood. Coming early in the 460-page book, this section presents a strong disincentive to finish it. But that's a pity, because there's some fascinating stuff later.
   
   And earlier, for that matter. Miyazaki's description of the milieu into which he was born is riveting. He was the son of a Kyoto gang boss and made his entrance back in the days when yakuza were mostly working men, tough and industrious. His father specialized in demolition and selling off whatever could be salvaged from the postwar ruins. To call the competition fierce is a serious understatement. It was as if the war was still being fought -- not the war against the Allies (interestingly, MacArthur and his army of occupation aren't even mentioned) but the endless skirmishing over limited resources which characterized so much of Japan's history. In the late 1940s they were scarcer than ever. The gangs staked out their own territory, and any incursion was a call to battle. Members would gather in the boss's house, dressed in black so the blood would not be visible if they were hurt, and turn the tatami over so they wouldn't slip. Armed with shotguns, bamboo spears, swords, and sticks of dynamite, they drank, and awaited the enemy's assault.
   
   It was an unorthodox childhood, and not surprising that Miyazaki turned out as he did, with a propensity to rely on violence and intimidation. His story has a larger-than-life quality, from bankruptcy and massive debt to the dazzling glitter that was Tokyo in the 1980s. "Beneath society's peaceful façade there is always a storm blowing," he writes at the end of Toppa Mono. "It tosses people together and reeks of sweat and cosmetics, sometimes even of blood. I have lived all these years thinking it wasn't such a bad smell." He has passed on a strong whiff of it in this book.