-
You Can't Win (Annotated)
- With Glossary of Hobo, Tramp, and Transient Terminology
- Narrated by: Jason Rosette
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
You Can't Win is the pioneering American criminal underworld memoir written by Jack Black, a burglar, drifter, and criminal active in early 1900s America. Black's astonishing accounts of hopping trains, cracking safes, escaping prison cells, and drug addiction offer an unusually vivid portrait of American underworld life over a century ago.
Beat legend William S. Burroughs ("Junkie") cited the book as influential in his life and writing. In his striking, and often deadpan and humorous, memoir, the author recaptures the transient underworld of the early 20th century.
In You Can't Win, the listener will meet unforgettable underworld characters as diverse and fascinating as Foot and a Half George, Salt Chunk Mary, The Sanctimonious Kid, Soldier Johnnie, and many more.
With an accompanying bonus glossary of hobo, tramp, and transient terminology, You Can't Win tells of Black's experiences in the hobo and criminal underworld, freight-hopping around the United States and Canada from the late 1880s to the early 1900s.
The audiobook is among the first to introduce the fascinating "yegg" subculture, a prototypical form of criminal hobo or bum prevalent in the USA around the turn of the century. You Can't Win is a must-listen for fans of true crime, American history, Beat writers, and hobo-yegg culture.
The main criminal activity of Black's life, and of the book, is thievery, which leads to discussions of various technical aspects of the thief's trade, including: the casing of prospects (surveillance of targets), safe-cracking, fencing of stolen goods, the disposal of evidence, maintaining aliases and avoiding attention or traceability, the social networks of criminals, the experiences of being arrested, and the experience of doing time in jails and prisons. The vices and addictions Black reveals include alcoholism, abuse of opium ("hop"), gambling, prostitution, and stealing.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
The Road
- By: Jack London
- Narrated by: T. Anthony Quinn
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Road, Jack London embraces the concepts of unconfined individualism and Darwinism through his autobiographical account of his time riding the rails of Canada and the United States. The author of White Fang, The Call of the Wild, and Sea Wolf, relays the time leading up to turning point in his life - a perfunctory trial and a 30-day imprisonment in the Erie County Penitentiary for the crime of vagrancy - an experience so degrading that he turned to a career in writing.
-
-
Charming, insightful, mind blowing.
- By Grover M Smith II on 05-27-20
By: Jack London
-
The Mansion
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mansion tells of Mink Snopes, whose archaic sense of honor brings about the downfall of his cousin, Flem. "For all his concern with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man," noted Ralph Ellison. "Thus we must turn to him for that continuity of moral purpose which made for the greatness of our classics." This volume includes a new introduction to the trilogy by acclaimed novelist George Garrett, author of Death of the Fox and The Succession.
-
-
Mink Cometh
- By daniel fam on 11-01-12
By: William Faulkner
-
The Last Madam
- A Life in the New Orleans Underworld
- By: Christine Wiltz
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1916: Norma Wallace, age 15, arrived in New Orleans. Sexy and shrewd, she quickly went from streetwalker to madam and by 1920 had opened what became a legendary house of prostitution. There she entertained a steady stream of governors, gangsters, and movie stars until she was arrested at last in 1962. Shortly before she died in 1974, she tape-recorded her memories. With those tapes and original research, Christine Wiltz chronicles Norma's rise and fall with the social history of New Orleans.
-
-
pronunciations
- By lynda on 07-29-19
By: Christine Wiltz
-
Red Harvest
- By: Dashiell Hammett
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the last honest citizen of Poisonville was murdered, the Continental Op stayed on to punish the guilty--even if that meant taking on an entire town. Red Harvest is more than a superb crime novel: it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain. From the author of The Maltese Falcon.
-
-
Great story, great narration, terrible reccording
- By yep on 08-21-14
By: Dashiell Hammett
-
The Town
- A Novel of the Snopes Family
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of Flem Snopes' ruthless struggle to take over the town of Jefferson, Mississippi, this is the second volume of Faulkner's trilogy about the Snopes family, his symbol for the grasping, destructive element in the post-bellum South.
-
-
Accessible Faulkner
- By Doug on 03-28-11
By: William Faulkner
-
Epitaph
- A Novel of the O.K. Corral
- By: Mary Doria Russell
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 19 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A deeply divided nation. Vicious politics. A shamelessly partisan media. A president loathed by half the populace. Smuggling and gang warfare along the Mexican border. Armed citizens willing to stand their ground and take law into their own hands.... That was America in 1881. All those forces came to bear on the afternoon of October 26, when Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers faced off against the Clantons and the McLaurys in Tombstone, Arizona. It should have been a simple misdemeanor arrest.
-
-
SO GOOD!
- By Cait on 06-30-15
-
The Road
- By: Jack London
- Narrated by: T. Anthony Quinn
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Road, Jack London embraces the concepts of unconfined individualism and Darwinism through his autobiographical account of his time riding the rails of Canada and the United States. The author of White Fang, The Call of the Wild, and Sea Wolf, relays the time leading up to turning point in his life - a perfunctory trial and a 30-day imprisonment in the Erie County Penitentiary for the crime of vagrancy - an experience so degrading that he turned to a career in writing.
-
-
Charming, insightful, mind blowing.
- By Grover M Smith II on 05-27-20
By: Jack London
-
The Mansion
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mansion tells of Mink Snopes, whose archaic sense of honor brings about the downfall of his cousin, Flem. "For all his concern with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man," noted Ralph Ellison. "Thus we must turn to him for that continuity of moral purpose which made for the greatness of our classics." This volume includes a new introduction to the trilogy by acclaimed novelist George Garrett, author of Death of the Fox and The Succession.
-
-
Mink Cometh
- By daniel fam on 11-01-12
By: William Faulkner
-
The Last Madam
- A Life in the New Orleans Underworld
- By: Christine Wiltz
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1916: Norma Wallace, age 15, arrived in New Orleans. Sexy and shrewd, she quickly went from streetwalker to madam and by 1920 had opened what became a legendary house of prostitution. There she entertained a steady stream of governors, gangsters, and movie stars until she was arrested at last in 1962. Shortly before she died in 1974, she tape-recorded her memories. With those tapes and original research, Christine Wiltz chronicles Norma's rise and fall with the social history of New Orleans.
-
-
pronunciations
- By lynda on 07-29-19
By: Christine Wiltz
-
Red Harvest
- By: Dashiell Hammett
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the last honest citizen of Poisonville was murdered, the Continental Op stayed on to punish the guilty--even if that meant taking on an entire town. Red Harvest is more than a superb crime novel: it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain. From the author of The Maltese Falcon.
-
-
Great story, great narration, terrible reccording
- By yep on 08-21-14
By: Dashiell Hammett
-
The Town
- A Novel of the Snopes Family
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of Flem Snopes' ruthless struggle to take over the town of Jefferson, Mississippi, this is the second volume of Faulkner's trilogy about the Snopes family, his symbol for the grasping, destructive element in the post-bellum South.
-
-
Accessible Faulkner
- By Doug on 03-28-11
By: William Faulkner
-
Epitaph
- A Novel of the O.K. Corral
- By: Mary Doria Russell
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 19 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A deeply divided nation. Vicious politics. A shamelessly partisan media. A president loathed by half the populace. Smuggling and gang warfare along the Mexican border. Armed citizens willing to stand their ground and take law into their own hands.... That was America in 1881. All those forces came to bear on the afternoon of October 26, when Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers faced off against the Clantons and the McLaurys in Tombstone, Arizona. It should have been a simple misdemeanor arrest.
-
-
SO GOOD!
- By Cait on 06-30-15
-
The Onion Field
- By: Joseph Wambaugh
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hollywood. Saturday night. A broken taillight leads to a routine traffic stop. It shouldn’t have changed the lives of the four men involved, but it did. The Onion Field is the frighteningly true story of a fatal collision of destinies that would lead two young cops and two young robbers to a deserted field on the outskirts of Los Angeles, towards a bizarre execution and its terrible aftermath.
-
-
Haunting
- By Avalon on 03-03-13
By: Joseph Wambaugh
-
Back Bay
- Peter Fallon, Book 1
- By: William Martin
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 17 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet the Pratt clan. Driven men. Determined women. Through six turbulent generations, they would pursue a lost Paul Revere treasure. And turn a family secret into an obsession that could destroy them. Here is the novel that launched William Martin’s astonishing literary career and became an instant bestseller. From the grit and romance of old Boston to exclusive - and dangerous - Back Bay today, this sweeping saga paints an unforgettable portrait of a powerful dynasty beset by the forces of history...and a heritage of greed, lust, murder and betrayal.
-
-
Good story idea, disappointing production.
- By Kathleen on 04-23-20
By: William Martin
-
Hard Rain Falling
- By: Don Carpenter
- Narrated by: Elijah Alexander
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The novel follows the adventures of Jack Levitt, an orphaned teenager living off his wits in the fleabag hotels and seedy pool halls of Portland, Oregon. Jack befriends Billy Lancing, a young black runaway and pool hustler extraordinaire. A heist gone wrong gets Jack sent to reform school, from which he emerges embittered by abuse and solitary connement. In the meantime Billy has joined the middle class - married, fathered a son, acquired a business and a mistress. But they will meet again....
-
-
A Well Read, American Noir Novel from The 1960s
- By Frank Donnelly on 01-19-20
By: Don Carpenter
-
Death Wish
- By: Brian Garfield
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What do you do when murderers have killed your wife and destroyed your daughter? Until that awful moment Paul Benjamin was an ordinary man - but the unspeakable violence that shattered his life turned him into someone quite different. Someone destiny was shaping into a bizarre instrument of vengeance. This is the novel that spawned the classic movie starring Charles Bronson.
-
-
alonzo
- By lloyd on 10-19-11
By: Brian Garfield
-
The 42nd Parallel
- By: John Dos Passos
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This first entry in John Dos Passos's celebrated U.S.A. trilogy paints a grand picture of the United States at the dawn of the twentieth century.
-
-
Powerful document of an all-too-familiar past
- By Ryan on 06-01-13
By: John Dos Passos
-
The Land Across
- By: Gene Wolfe
- Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An American writer of travel guides in need of a new location chooses to travel to a small and obscure Eastern European country. The moment Grafton crosses the border he is in trouble, much more than he could have imagined. His passport is taken by guards, and then he is detained for not having it. He is released into the custody of a family, but is again detained. It becomes evident that there are supernatural agencies at work.
-
-
Give the man a (dead) hand
- By Tango on 11-29-13
By: Gene Wolfe
-
Pietr the Latvian
- Inspector Maigret, Book 1
- By: Georges Simenon, David Bellos - translator
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first audiobook which appeared in Georges Simenon's famous Maigret series, in a gripping new translation by David Bellos.Inevitably Maigret was a hostile presence in the Majestic. He constituted a kind of foreign body that the hotel's atmosphere could not assimilate. Not that he looked like a cartoon policeman. He didn't have a moustache and he didn't wear heavy boots. His clothes were well cut and made of fairly light worsted. He shaved every day and looked after his hands. But his frame was proletarian. He was a big, bony man.
-
-
Long live Maigret
- By Adeliese Baumann on 11-19-14
By: Georges Simenon, and others
-
The Fixer
- A Novel
- By: Bernard Malamud
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in Kiev in 1911 during a period of heightened anti-Semitism, the novel tells the story of Yakov Bok, a Jewish handyman blamed for the brutal murder of a young Russian boy. Bok leaves his village to try his luck in Kiev and, after denying his Jewish identity, finds himself working for a member of the anti-Semitic Black Hundreds Society. When the boy is found nearly drained of blood in a cave, the Black Hundreds accuse the Jews of ritual murder.
-
-
Technical Problems Need To Ne Resolved
- By REX LANYI on 12-24-20
By: Bernard Malamud
-
The Butcher's Boy
- By: Thomas Perry
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Perry's Edgar Award-winning debut novel follows a professional hitman on the run from both the mafia and the government.
-
-
A writer with extreme talents.
- By richard on 02-26-12
By: Thomas Perry
-
90 Church
- Inside America's Notorious First Narcotics Squad
- By: Agent Dean Unkefer
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
90 Church is both the unbelievable memoir of one man's confrontation with the dark corners of the human experience and a fascinating window into a little-known time in American history. Learn the story of the agents who make the DEA look like choirboys.
-
-
AMAZING!!!
- By Nick on 03-22-16
-
A Rage in Harlem
- A Grave Digger & Coffin Ed Novel
- By: Chester Himes
- Narrated by: Samuel L. Jackson
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Academy Award nominee Samuel L. Jackson ( Pulp Fiction, Star Wars films), fresh off the success of his uproarious, Audie-nominated performance of the mock children’s book Go the F**k to Sleep, delivers a swaggering, darkly-humored rendering of Chester Himes’ classic first novel.
-
-
Go the f--k to Audible and get this now!
- By Julie W. Capell on 03-22-12
By: Chester Himes
-
The Confessions of Al Capone
- By: Loren D. Estleman
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 19 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1944 Al Capone, the most notorious Mob boss in history, has already been released from prison. Though Capone is no longer the enormously powerful force who dominated Chicago’s underworld for years, he is still a thorn in the side of J. Edgar Hoover. The FBI chief knows that if he can somehow manage to get Capone to reveal details of crimes he and his Outfit committed, the Bureau has a good chance of nailing key members who now are active in the wartime black market.
-
-
Interesting story
- By Michael on 02-07-17