Lorenzo Carcaterra’s “Gangster” (2001, 406 pages in paperback format) is a book that I wish I’d been able to read before I read Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather.” Carcaterra gets inside the mind of the boss of one of the biggest and most successful Italian gangs of the Depression Era. We don’t always get a peek at what Angelo Vestieri is thinking, but we understand enough to get the chills running up and down our spines.
Angelo comes to America with his father Paolino after the rest of his family has been killed in Naples. Paolino’s hope for Angelo is that he will grow into a good and honest man, a hard worker like his father, and a law-abiding citizen of his new country, the United States. But Angelo starts running numbers for the mob at the tender age of ten. His move up the leadership ladder is predictable. Although he loves his father, the lure of wealth and respect is irresistible.
After he becomes the “boss,” he takes a young “orphan,” a street urchin who reminds him of himself, under his wing. The youth is named Gabe, and the see-all eye of Angelo looks after him for the rest of his life. However, much of the story comes to us from a conversation between Gabe and Mary, who sit at the bedside of a dying Angelo decades after Angelo became the undisputed “godfather” of his time.