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Jimmy Breslin
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The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Jimmy Breslin (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 out of 5 stars 478
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New York Times bestseller: A novel of a messy mob war in Brooklyn that “makes you laugh out loud” (Chicago Sun-Times).
  Kid Sally Palumbo has been a loyal servant to the Brooklyn Mafia for years. His specialty is murder, and he is so skilled at it that he has gotten the attention of Mafia boss Papa Baccala. But unfortunately for Kid Sally, murder pays poorly. He wants to make real dough, to get respect, and to be able to tell his colleagues where to sit when they eat dinner. In short, he wants to be boss. The job would be his for the taking—if only Kid Sally weren’t a Grade A moron.  To keep Sally from stirring up trouble, Baccala tosses him an easy assignment: Organize a bicycle race through Brooklyn, and keep the profits. Kid Sally bungles it, setting off a turf war that quickly engulfs the borough. The dimwitted mobsters are masters in the art of murder, and they are about to put on a show. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Jimmy Breslin including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.
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  1. Print length
    258 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Open Road Media
  5. Publication date
    February 14, 2012
  6. File size
    4627 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A very funny novel . . . and a good one.” —The Village Voice “Pure Breslin, which is enough to recommend it to anyone who has a weakness for the English language.” —Chicago Sun-Times “A very fine, very strong, and often remarkable book.” —The Washington Post Book World

About the Author

Jimmy Breslin (1928–2017) was a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and one of most prominent columnists in the United States. Born in Queens, New York, Breslin started working in New York City newsrooms in the 1940s. He began as a columnist in 1963, when he won national attention by covering John F. Kennedy’s assassination from the emergency room in the Dallas Hospital and, later, from the point of view of the President’s gravedigger at Arlington Cemetery. He ran for citywide office on a secessionist platform, befriended and was beaten up by mobsters, and received letters from the Son of Sam during the serial killer’s infamous 1977 spree. Known as one of the best-informed journalists in the city, Breslin’s years of insightful reporting won him a Pulitzer in 1986, awarded for “columns which consistently champion ordinary citizens.” Although he stopped writing his weekly column for Newsday in 2004, Breslin continued to write books, having produced nearly two dozen in his lifetime. He passed away in 2017 at the age of eighty-eight.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00704TS48
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media; 1st Back Bay ed edition (February 14, 2012)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 14, 2012
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4627 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 258 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 out of 5 stars 478

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Jimmy Breslin

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
478 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Diana H. Maine
5.0 out of 5 stars Get ready to chuckle at every page
Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2017
Verified Purchase
THE GANG THAT COULDN’T SHOOT STRAIGHT by Jimmy Breslin is one of my all-time favorite reads. I love Breslin’s style - humorous, satirical, ‘pull no punches’ writing. I reread this title as a memoriam to Breslin who died in March, 2017. He was a hard-hitting journalist and a lovely author. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1986 “for columns which consistently champion ordinary citizens”.
You will chuckle at every page reading about Kid Sally Palumbo and his ‘gang’ of incompetents.
The funniest bit (for me) was the lion in the basement!
THE GANG THAT COULDN’T SHOOT STRAIGHT was published in 1970. One of his first titles was published in 1963 - CAN’T ANYBODY HERE PLAY THE GAME? - his commentary on the New York Mets. A great book, also.
RIP Jimmy Breslin
11 people found this helpful
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George E. Dawson
4.0 out of 5 stars GOOMBA-OLOGY 101
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2017
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“…the Mafia originally became a national success during Prohibition, as evil everywhere flourishes under repression.” (p. 12)

In northern New Jersey in the early 1950s, where I lived at the time, there were only two types of people—especially in my fifth grade class—‘goombas’ and those who wanted to be ‘goombas’. And why not? They were the rock-stars of middle-school. They were the kids that knew how to dress, how to talk, and how to charm any little girl—and her mama—and to get away with practically anything, anywhere, anytime. They got all the respect.

What yankee-New England, WASP, kid wouldn’t have traded it all to be an Arthur Fonzarelli—‘The Fonz.’ Or a rock-star. Even before we had a Fonzarelli, or even had rock-’n-roll, for that matter.

Heck, we didn’t even have Jimmy Breslin’s delightful, madcap of a book, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight (first published in 1969) to use as a guide. But, we would have loved it if we had. It would have been nice to know that Brooklyn was so much like northern Jersey. And that the wannabe wise-guys of Brooklyn, in Breslin’s novel, would all have been, intellectually, ‘right at home’ in the fifth-grade.

Recommendation: TGTCSS is a delightful romp through street-life in Brooklyn’s 1950s Marfia-land. You should read it for the laughs (if you don’t have too many qualms at laughing at the impaired).

A Novel Open Road Media. Kindle Edition, 249 pages.
16 people found this helpful
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Mcgivern Owen L
3.0 out of 5 stars Sorry, Jimmy.
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2008
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This reviewer has read Jimmy Breslin for years, going back to his days at the late, lamented "New York Herald Tribune". He believes that JB is far more skilled at shorter, more focused real time stories than he is at fiction, even the thinly-veiled type. "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" bears that opinion out. "Gang" is about a Queens-based bunch of Mafiosi that "just couldn't get it together". Queens is an honorable borough of New York City. The plot has that coating of fiction surrounding it, but there is no doubt that the characters are a compendium of those wise guys, hoods, quiffs and neighborhood guys that the author knows so well. The problem is that JB is best at the true real life stuff. There is good news here: "The Gang" has plenty of those quick one liners about life in the Big City at which the author excels. A sampling: "Roz loved her new job as a traffic agent. Instead of scrubbing floors for white people, she could give them parking tickets".... "On Marshall Street, men could get up in the morning to work with grappling hooks as longshoremen. Or they could go out at night with guns"....... "Frank Costello, the Italian mobster did most of his fixing through Jewish bagmen or Irish judges". We learn in passing of Abba Dabbba Bernstein, who tried to fix the numbers racket for Dutch Schultz. But the quips and war stories can't carry it all over 249 pages. This reviewer suggests an alternative: Jimmy's newest release, "The Good Rat". That one has those same sharp interjections about the sidewalks of New York, but it is steeped in the hard who-what -where-why and how prose that plays to the author's newspaperman/reporter strengths. When Breslin is on, he is very strong indeed but with fiction, he is simply out of his element.
8 people found this helpful
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Great Uncle
5.0 out of 5 stars Damned good fun!
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2013
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What would happen if Vito Corleone came up against Moe, Larry and Curly? It would have to be something like Jimmy Breslin's story.
Using the career (?) of real life gangster Joey Gallo as a stepping off point, Mr. Breslin spins a tale of lunacy that involves guns, bombs, lions, bike races, modern art, politics and power plays. He creates a crew of the most inept gangsters who ever shot themselves in their collective feet.
I read this book years ago when it first came out. I liked it then, I love it now.
Each chapter is like following a lighted fuse to get to the explosion. There are lots of funny surprises and a hoot of a finish.
By the way, it was made into a movie. Many good actors appear but it never takes flight.
Give yourself a few good laughs. Read "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight".
12 people found this helpful
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Cheddie
4.0 out of 5 stars Funny, Wild Farce Set in the Wild West of Manhattan
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2019
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The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight is a “comic book” of a novel – funny, quite politically incorrect (from a different era), loosely plotted, populated with one-dimensional characters like the “Water Buffalo” and “Big Jelly.” This is definitely not “serious” literature. As I was reading it, I imagined Jimmy Breslin, himself, cigar in hand, reading the text, which made the experience even more enjoyable.
In a nutshell, it’s the story of an older Mafia don – Baccala – and the wildly inept efforts by younger upstart Kid Sally Palumbo to unseat, and eventually, “whack” him to take over control. Kid Sally is coached by a tough of old bird of grandmother whose dialogue is peppered with “a’s” – “you no-a miss-a.” A long list of casualties ensues, and even a lion makes a guest appearance.
The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight is a very easy, quick read that will have you smiling and chuckling, from beginning to end. I wonder how much this book influenced David's Chase later Sopranos TV show, with it's mix of comedy and violence. I was further struck by how similar Breslin’s conclusion foreshadowed David Chase’s ending to the Sopranos.
7 people found this helpful
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Rio
5.0 out of 5 stars I wish there were more books that were as funny as this book.
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2022
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This is the third time I've read this book. I felt like I was there. If you need to lighten up this is the book.
2 people found this helpful
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CN
3.0 out of 5 stars THE GANG THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT BY JIMMY BRESLIN
Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2023
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THE GANG THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT BY JIMMY BRESLIN

The book is a little "Mickeyish". What more can I say?
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars Not a gang book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 10, 2019
Verified Purchase
Really????
Not worth the money at all, badabing badabang, badaboop. Forget about it, did you speak to the guy with the nose?
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Remle33
5.0 out of 5 stars History Revisited
Reviewed in Canada on March 1, 2014
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The first time I read this novel was over 48 years ago. I was single at the time and stayed up all night to finish the story and had many,laughs.
While reading another good tale (The Hundred Year Old Man Who Went Out The Window And Disappeared - very entertaining, a smile, chuckle, or laugh on every other page, highly recommended) "recall" set in and The Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight came to mind.
I'm happy that I sent for it, I was afraid that it would no longer be available. I'm going to hang on to it this time and pass it on to my grandson.
One person found this helpful
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D. Bain
5.0 out of 5 stars Good job Jimmy Breslin.
Reviewed in Canada on July 27, 2018
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Read this as a kid and kept remembering bits and pieces over the years. Nice to re-read this and laugh all over again.
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EDWARD KAZMIERCZAK
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on August 13, 2017
Verified Purchase
excellent quality and shipping, an interesting novel
One person found this helpful
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