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July 17, 2009
Brownsville Boys are a hit
Murder Inc.'s Jewish gangsters come to life in a new graphic novel.
JEFFREY BROWN
This is the continuation of a series coordinated by the Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library and the Jewish Independent, featuring local community leaders reviewing books that they have recently read.
Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, John Gotti. If you're the least bit interested in popular culture, these names instantly evoke mental images of Italian American mobsters.
But what if I mention Meyer Lansky, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter or Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro? Unless you're an astute buff of Jewish American history, you're probably drawing a blank. We don't normally think of Mafioso hanging out in a deli eating gefilte fish and herring.
Well, thanks to Brownsville (Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing Inc.), the epic graphic novel from author Neil Kleid and artist Jake Allen, the rich and colorful history of the Jewish Mafia is brought to life.
Brownsville, named after the crime-ridden neighborhood, tells the story of the rise and fall of the Jewish syndicate that controlled Brooklyn and the Lower East Side of New York in the 1930s. Based on true events, Kleid takes us on a fictionalized ride through one of the most romanticized decades in U.S. history. He introduces us to the actual players who for a brief period formed the deadliest band of gangsters in America ... Murder Incorporated.
Kleid recounts the times through the eyes of his protagonist, hit man Albert "Allie" Tannenbaum. Allie's journey begins as an impressionable young boy working at his father's modest country club in the Catskills. He meets Gurrah Shapiro, a high-ranking gangster for mob boss Lepke Buchalter (Lepke is short for the Yiddish Lepkele or Little Louis). Gurrah takes a shining to the awestruck youth and wants to bring him into the fold; but Allie's father intercedes, hoping to protect him from a future no honest father wants for his son. A few years later, Allie arrives at his destined crossroads and, drawn by the allure of the mafia lifestyle, takes the fateful turn, leading him down a path of greed, murder and false loyalty.
In only 205 pages, Kleid ambitiously attempts to dramatize more than a decade of assassinations, mob wars and the Brownsville Boys' fall at the hands of Assistant District Attorney Thomas Dewey. Not surprisingly, the narrative seems rushed and a bit hollow in places. I think Kleid's intention was to tell an historical account of the same scope as Mario Puzo's The Godfather or Sergio Leone's film Once Upon a Time in America. His talent is evident, but in the cinematic context of a graphic novel, one volume is just not sufficient.
The author is much more effective in his exploration of the contrasting motives of and conflicts between Allie, his father and the novel's antagonist Abe "Kid Twist" Reles. Where Allie was brought up middle class, Reles was from the mean streets and, in order to survive, had to claw his way up to the top of the food chain by any means necessary. The mirror image of the two characters and their indignation for each other plays out in some of the more meaningful and interesting moments in the book. I found it interesting that even as Allie and Reles are both murderers and each of them eventually rats out the bosses to the district attorney, we end up sympathizing with Allie's conflicting morals, yet frown upon Reles' honest sense of self-preservation.
Dig a little deeper into the story and you'll find a moving subplot of a son who desperately needs the respect of his father; and the elder Tannenbaum, who wants Allie to have a better life than he. The importance of family to the moral undertone of the plot drives the novel from being just an account of historical events to something more profound to the modern reader.
When it comes right down to it, Brownsville earns a place in our bookshelves not just for its subject matter, but because of its format – the graphic novel, a unique literary art form. And just like the notion of a Jewish Mafia, Jewish authors and artists have a critically acclaimed, but not always generally recognized, history in the field. Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus, the legendary Will Eisner and cult favorite Neil Gaiman instantly come to mind.
The emotions of the characters and the flow of a narrative come to life by the talent of skilled illustrators, painters and animators. In this case, Allen uses only pencil and ink to give the reader visuals of the streets, style and people and we get to know it all more intimately than if we were reading a traditional novel. The decision to go black and white accurately parlays the grittiness of the times. Allen's use of broad ink strokes to enhance the intensity of facial expressions works quite well, but I did find his physical detailing too general, which made recognizing supporting characters in a scene somewhat difficult.
Overall, Brownsville is a wonderful introduction to both the history of American Jewish mobsters and the graphic novel art form. I highly recommend it to adults and older teens alike.
Jeffrey Brown is a local wine columnist, freelance writer and graphic novel enthusiast. Originally from Montreal, he proudly calls Vancouver his home.
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