An edition of Five-Finger Discount (2000)

Five-finger discount

a crooked family history

1st ed.
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Last edited by MARC Bot
July 17, 2024 | History
An edition of Five-Finger Discount (2000)

Five-finger discount

a crooked family history

1st ed.
  • 5.00 ·
  • 1 Rating
  • 1 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 1 Have read

"On a summer night when she was five years old, Helene Stapinski watched out her kitchen window as her Grandpa Beansie was carted off to jail for the last time. Beansie (so nicknamed because he had stolen a crate of beans as a child) had spent the better part of that day in the Majestic Tavern, a dive bar on the ground floor of the Stapinskis' apartment building. As the afternoon wore on, Beansie's usual ranting turned mean.

He flashed a loaded gun, "a silver .22 glowing in the light from the Yankee game on the tavern TV," and bragged to his drinking buddies that he had a bullet for each of his relatives living above the Majestic. But news traveled fast in the neighborhood, and before Beansie - a convicted murderer and armed robber - could stumble upstairs, the cops had him in handcuffs. The headline in the local newspaper the next day read Man Seized on Way to Kill 5 Children.

As Stapinski writes, "Jersey City was a tough place to grow up, except I didn't know any better."".

"In this unforgettable memoir, Stapinski tells the heartbreaking yet often hilarious story of growing up among swindlers, bookies, and crooks. With deadpan humor and obvious affection, she comes clean with the outrageous tales that have swirled around her relatives for decades, and recounts the epic drama and comedy of living in a household in which petty crime was a way of life.

The dinner Helene's mother put on the table (often prime rib, lobster tail, and fancy cakes) was usually swiped from the cold-storage company where Helene's father worked. The soap and toothpaste in the bathroom were lifted from the local Colgate factory. The books on the family's shelves were smuggled out of a book-binding company in Aunt Mary Ann's oversize girdle (or taken by Grandpa Beansie from the "Free" Public Library).

Uncle Henry did a booming business as the neighborhood bookie, cousins did jail time, and Great-Aunt Katie - who liked to take a shot of whiskey each morning to "clear her lungs" - was a ward leader in the notorious Jersey City political machine."--BOOK JACKET.

Publish Date
Publisher
Random House
Language
English
Pages
260

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Five-Finger Discount
Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History
March 12, 2002, Random House Trade Paperbacks
in English
Cover of: Five Finger Discount
Five Finger Discount
May 20, 2002, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Paperback
Cover of: Five-Finger Discount
Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History
March 20, 2001, Random House
Hardcover in English
Cover of: Five Finger Discount
Five Finger Discount
2001, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
in English
Cover of: Five-Finger Discount
Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History
2001, Penguin Random House
in English
Cover of: Five-Finger Discount
Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History
2001, Random House
Hardcover
Cover of: Five-finger discount
Five-finger discount: a crooked family history
2000, Random House
in English - 1st ed.

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Published in
New York
Genre
Biography.

Classifications

Library of Congress
HV6785 .S73 2001, HV 6785 .S73 2001

The Physical Object

Pagination
260 p.
Number of pages
260

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL20932295M
Internet Archive
fivefingerdiscou0000stap
ISBN 10
0679463062
LCCN
00059104
OCLC/WorldCat
44769401
Library Thing
153800
Goodreads
1264545

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
July 17, 2024 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
February 28, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
February 28, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot remove fake subjects
July 14, 2017 Edited by Mek adding subject: Internet Archive Wishlist
December 10, 2009 Created by WorkBot add works page