American Gangster and Other Tales of New York

By: Mark Jacobson

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

In the 1970s, Frank Lucas was the king of the Harlem drug trade, bringing in over a million dollars a day. He lived a glamorous life, hobnobbing with athletes, musicians, and politicians, but Lucas was a ruthless gangster. He was notorious for using the coffins of dead GIs to smuggle heroin into the United States, and, before being sentenced to 70 years in prison, he played a major role in the near death of New York City.

In American Gangster, Mark Jacobson's captivating account of the life of Frank Lucas joins other tales of New York City from the past 30 years. The collection features a number of Jacobson's most famous essays, as well as previously unpublished works and more recent articles. Together, they create a vibrant, many-layered portrait of the most fascinating city in the world, by one of the most acclaimed journalists of our time.

©2007 Mark Jacobson (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Behind the Scenes

I loved the vocal delivery that the narrator injected into the reading of this book. The book should’ve been entitled "American Gangster - behind the scenes". I think it was very interesting on how he explained on how the movie came about and how the actual person felt about it (Frank Lucas). It could've been more detailed but since I saw the movie it gave me a few bits and pieces that were missing from the actual movie. If you liked the movie I would definitely recommend to this book.

OK

Not really what I expected. I thought it was an entire book on American Gangsters.

American Gangster and Other Tales

Excellent collection of journalistic bits and pieces. Jacobson is a really engaging writer who loves New York. He worked at Village Voice and New York magazine. Several stories focus on the NY underworld, but they are biographical sketches of characters. As such, they provide great historical backdrop to NY in the 70's, 80's and the 21st century. HIs stories sparked the TV series Taxi, and the movie, American Gangster.

Couldn't stop listening

A great book, a great narrator and the stories in it, are extremely interesting. Definitely worth a listen....

Nope I don’t think so!

Started out as the Frank Lucas story then went on to the writers life. As I listen to it the book changed so much I had to check the title to make sure it was really American gangster not the story of the writers life. I think there was two chapters on Frank Lucas the rest just took a turn far away from what I expected. Could not even finish listening to it.

Bait and Switch

I was hoping to hear a lot more detail regarding the life of Frank Lucas. Rather, only there was only about 1 hour of this 9+ hour book devoted to the story of Frank Lucas. Appoximatly 8 hours of this book consisted of other short stories written by the same author; not what I was looking for.

Total Bait and Switch.

Like one of the reviewers before me I was definately let down by the one hour at most about Frank Lucas. The rest of the stories were unrelated to Frank Lucas and had nothing to do with his gang or the police department involved with Frank Lucas. I definately felt duped! This audio book should read stories about New York People. Don't get it if your looking for Frank Lucas imformation!