Overview

Late one night in the summer of 1897, Morris Massimo Levy, nearly sixteen, of mixed Italian-Catholic and East-European Jewish background, watches as the father of the girl he loves is dropped from the Brooklyn Bridge by the notorious Jewish gang leader (and actual historical figure) Monk Eastman. The event helps propel Morris into a dangerous involvement in the notorious wars between the ethnic gangs of the Lower East Side of New York City and prompts his initiation, despite his idealistic impulses, into the ruthless means one often needed to survive and flourish in early modern America.

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9781956440973

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The saga of a first-generation Jewish/Italian American boy in New York City, Allen Stein's novel, My Youth and Early Deaths, moves with an inescapable swiftness that parallels Morris's coming of age once pressured into service by a mob boss. Handsome, strong, and almost fatally self-assured, the sixteen-year-old is inexorably drawn into inner-city gangster war, meanwhile endangering those most dear to him, in particular, Esther, the girl he loves, and a Socialist teacher whose kindness and affection offer a bridge to Morris's dying mother, who immigrated to the U.S. with Socialist ideals. Stein's prose is electric in this period piece from the turn of the last century. The novel offers rich material for current deliberations about the ways poor immigrant families and ethnic minorities are often trapped by corrupt systems or left to drown. My Youth and Early Deaths ripples with energy and passion. -Elaine Neil Orr, author of Swimming Between Worlds

Author Information

Allen Stein was born in the Bronx and is Professor Emeritus of English at North Carolina State University. His stories and poems have appeared in numerous journals, among them The Hudson Review, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, Valparaiso Review and Salmagundi. He is also the author of two poetry collections, Your Funeral Is Very Important to Us and Unsettled Subjects: New Poems on Classic American Literature.

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