The Long Firm

Rating:
Summary: A Must For Britcrime Fans
Review: Arnott uses a variety of first-person voices to tell the story of the rise and fall of a '60s London crime boss in this largely entertaining trip back in time. "Mad Harry" is a charming, but mentally unstable gay East End thug, contemporary to, and sometimes mirroring the famous Kray brothers. His story unfolds though the voices of several people his life has impacted, each of which gets its own section: a kept rent-boy, a debt-ridden fading member of Parliament, an aging washed-up actress, a freelance thug (easily the best section), and a hippie sociologist. Each tells how they became enmeshed in Harry's world, and in telling their tale, reveal a little more about him and his enterprises. The sectional narrative leads to an uneven novel, but compelling nonetheless. There are all kinds of cameo appearances, and according to the Times Literary Supplement, in addition to these, many of the characters are thinly veiled depictions of real people. Arnott does a nice job of recreating some of the seedier side of swinging London (including a bit of mod and skinhead subcultural stuff as well!), along with the argot of the times. Well worth it if you're into British crime movies like 1980's The Long Good Friday, 1971's Get Carter, or even the recent Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.

Rating:
Summary: Pleasant Diversion for a Couple of Days
Review: Arnott's book is basically a quick-read, light novel, but it uses some interesting devices from more "serious" literature to make an engaging little book. The book focuses on Harry, a gangster in 60s London, but it does it by portraying him solely through the eyes of others. The book has five sections, each of which is written from within the perspective of each of 5 characters who relate to Harry in markedly different ways. Some characters are handled more effectively than others, but overall it is competently done. The gay sex scenes are described with more enthusiasm than the straight, and the last section in which the relevant character is a professor becomes somewhat didactic, but otherwise it is fairly well-balanced. I enjoyed reading it, and would have been happy for it to continue.

Rating:
Summary: Great book until Lenny.....
Review: I really enjoyed reading the Long Firm..the characters of Harry and the others are brilliantly written. My only two complaints are the preachy criminal-sociology analysis that takes up a good bit of the Lenny segment and Harry the Hat's demise is a little close to the events of the Goodfellas. When Arnott gets back to the story line, the book takes off again. A good read.