Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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Ebook344 pages
Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
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About this ebook
Now a PBS documentary, this astonishing memoir of growing up in rough-and-tumble Jersey City “will steal your heart” (People)
With deadpan humor and obvious affection, Five-Finger Discount recounts the story of an unforgettable New Jersey family of swindlers, bookies, embezzlers, and mobster-wannabes. In the memoir Mary Karr calls “a page-turner,” Helene Stapinski ingeniously weaves the checkered history of her hometown of Jersey City—a place known for its political corruption and industrial blight—with the tales that have swirled around her relatives for decades. Navigating a childhood of toxic waste and tough love, Stapinski tells an extraordinary tale at once heartbreaking and hysterically funny.
Praise for Five-Finger Discount
“By turns hilarious and alarming, [Helene Stapinski’s] book reads on the surface like something by Damon Runyon and Elmore Leonard, with a dark undertow of real-life pain and disillusion.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“It’s a brilliant book, a darling book. It is the blessedly modest chronicle of a magical consciousness that seems to have been born pulling diamonds out of the muck, hearing angels’ voices in the fiercest thunder. . . . I adored every word of this wondrous book. Get it. Read it.”—Michael Pakenham, The Baltimore Sun
“In the tradition of . . . Rita Mae Brown and Amy Tan, Ms. Stapinski is an exciting writer, unabashedly candid, and at the same time unashamedly self-contained. Five-Finger Discount is a must-read.”—Victoria Gotti, The New York Observer
“What [Frank] McCourt did for Limerick, Ireland, Helene Stapinski does for Jersey City.”—The Star-Ledger
“Hugely entertaining.”—The Sunday Times (London)
With deadpan humor and obvious affection, Five-Finger Discount recounts the story of an unforgettable New Jersey family of swindlers, bookies, embezzlers, and mobster-wannabes. In the memoir Mary Karr calls “a page-turner,” Helene Stapinski ingeniously weaves the checkered history of her hometown of Jersey City—a place known for its political corruption and industrial blight—with the tales that have swirled around her relatives for decades. Navigating a childhood of toxic waste and tough love, Stapinski tells an extraordinary tale at once heartbreaking and hysterically funny.
Praise for Five-Finger Discount
“By turns hilarious and alarming, [Helene Stapinski’s] book reads on the surface like something by Damon Runyon and Elmore Leonard, with a dark undertow of real-life pain and disillusion.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“It’s a brilliant book, a darling book. It is the blessedly modest chronicle of a magical consciousness that seems to have been born pulling diamonds out of the muck, hearing angels’ voices in the fiercest thunder. . . . I adored every word of this wondrous book. Get it. Read it.”—Michael Pakenham, The Baltimore Sun
“In the tradition of . . . Rita Mae Brown and Amy Tan, Ms. Stapinski is an exciting writer, unabashedly candid, and at the same time unashamedly self-contained. Five-Finger Discount is a must-read.”—Victoria Gotti, The New York Observer
“What [Frank] McCourt did for Limerick, Ireland, Helene Stapinski does for Jersey City.”—The Star-Ledger
“Hugely entertaining.”—The Sunday Times (London)
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Author
Helene Stapinski
Helene Stapinski is the nationally bestselling author of three memoirs: Five-Finger Discount, Murder in Matera, and Baby Plays Around. She writes regularly for The New York Times; her work has also appeared in The Washington Post, New York magazine, Travel & Leisure, and dozens of other publications. She teaches at New York University and lives in Brooklyn.
Read more from Helene Stapinski
The American Way: A True Story of Nazi Escape, Superman, and Marilyn Monroe Murder In Matera: A True Story of Passion, Family, and Forgiveness in Southern Italy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Five-Finger Discount
Rating: 3.5526315789473686 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
38 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent personal history of Jersey City. I would highly recommend this book to any new resident.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This memoir is well-written. I particularly like the way the earlier part of the book is filled with humorous remembrances of "criminal" activity by her family members, while the later parts are shown through the eyes of an adult who knows better and is sickened and saddened by the lack of morals.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Funny, tough childhood growing up in Italian-Polish New Jersey in the 70s. Very evocative of a time and place but halfway through I just lost interest in the genealogy of family criminals.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stapinski's account of life growing up in Jersey City as a child of immigrants is hilarious. Although she recounts the tales of her family there is a tremendous amount of reference to Jersey City history. Not only is the corruption of Stapinski's family included but that of Jersey City in general during this time period. Terrific, easy read!