Salvatore &quote Lucania, Sal&quote Gangster's Cousin

Annotation

The autobiography of a member of Charles ';Lucky' Luciano's Mafia family. ';The reader gets a real sense of code, of honor, courage and commitment' (London TV).';I was born an outlaw in outlaw culture. I refused to be forced into the powerless class of the ordinary, law-abiding citizen. I always saw things from outside the box because I was born outside the box, so I was free to think for myself.'Born in 1942, Salvatore ';Sal' Lucania was not only raised but educated by the streets of East Harlem.Dropping out of his Catholic high school at fifteen after punching out a priest, a formal education was not Sal's future. As such, it would have been easy to fall into the trappings of ';made man' status in the mafia, like his cousin Charles ';Lucky' Luciano. But Sal had a different vision of the future, if he could just escape the confines of his neighborhood and defy the ways of the people in power: the bullies, the ';ruling class,' local government corruption and his own mafia family culturein order to create a different life than the one fate might have otherwise intended.The Gangster's Cousin is a wonderfully different take on the usual Mafia story.Sal's memoir takes the reader on a sometimes exciting, sometimes poignant, and often humorous adventure as he finds himself in unbelievable situations and meeting an array of unique and funny characters along the way. Follow Sal's one-of-a-kind perspective and find out why he strives so hard to stay ahead of a different type of criminal classthe people who make the rules.