I have just finished reading Asbury's "Gangs of New York". Having watched the film some time ago, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book bore no relation to the film.

I was slightly skeptical about some of the content in the book, and that he would describe every gang as being the most evilest, worst gang, ever, ever to walk the streets of New York, which got a little tiring as the book went on. Also some of the stories about the criminals were taken from the police officers or criminals own recollections about what happened, and this always leads to "hyping up" or distortion of events.

Because I didn't take on board all that Asbury wrote, it kind of felt like the book was somewhere in the middle of a work of fiction and fact. But it was still a damn good read.

Politcal corruption, murder, thievery, prostitution, drugs, - some things are indeed timeless.

Oh - and gangs - lots of gangs!


!SR