05/28/2018
Voice actor Pabon’s fluid narration adds clarity to English’s multigenerational true crime saga about the criminal exploits of the Cuban mafia in America in the decades after the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The book follows the career of José Miguel Battle, aka El Gordo, who led the Cuban mob to the United States and launched a hugely profitable numbers racket known as the bolita while wreaking havoc on the streets of Union City, N.J., and Miami. Actor Pabon guides listeners through a confusing landscape of characters with sure-footedness and fluency in both English and Spanish. The book contains numerous accounts of vicious crimes committed by rival bolita outfits; Pabon’s steady, calm reading voice helps to dial down that violence and allow listeners to stay focused on the larger narrative. Pabon’s skillful narration and English’s rich story combine to make this a gripping audiobook. A Morrow hardcover. (Mar.)
The Corporation: An Epic Story of the Cuban American Underworld
Narrated by Tim Andres Pabon
T. J. EnglishUnabridged — 19 hours, 7 minutes
The Corporation: An Epic Story of the Cuban American Underworld
Narrated by Tim Andres Pabon
T. J. EnglishUnabridged — 19 hours, 7 minutes
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Overview
A fascinating, cinematic, multigenerational history of the Cuban mob in the US from ""America's top chronicler of organized crime""* and New York Times bestselling author of Havana Nocturne.
By the mid 1980s, the criminal underworld in the United States had become an ethnic polyglot; one of the most powerful illicit organizations was none other than the Cuban mob. Known on both sides of the law as ""the Corporation,"" the Cuban mob's power stemmed from a criminal culture embedded in south Florida's exile community-those who had been chased from the island by Castro's revolution and planned to overthrow the Marxist dictator and reclaim their nation.
An epic story of gangsters, drugs, violence, sex, and murder rooted in the streets, The Corporation reveals how an entire generation of political exiles, refugees, racketeers, corrupt cops, hitmen, and their wives and girlfriends became caught up in an American saga of desperation and empire building. T. J. English interweaves the voices of insiders speaking openly for the first time with a trove of investigative material he has gathered over many decades to tell the story of this successful criminal enterprise, setting it against the larger backdrop of revolution, exile, and ethnicity that makes it one of the great American gangster stories that has been overlooked-until now.
Drawing on the detailed reporting and impressive volume of evidence that drive his bestselling works, English offers a riveting, in-depth look at this powerful and sordid crime organization and its hold in the US.
Editorial Reviews
01/29/2018
Petty gambling leads to grand theft, arson, and dozens of murders in this sprawling true-crime saga. Journalist English (Havana Nocturne) recounts the career of José Miguel Battle, aka “El Gordo,” a refugee from Castro’s Cuba (and Bay of Pigs veteran) who became the boss of bolita, an illegal lottery popular among Cuban exile communities in Miami. By the 1980s, the pastime swelled to a billion-dollar industry and sparked conflicts between rival New York City bolita outfits, with assassinations galore and a rash of arson that killed innocents. Battle’s story reads like an ultraviolent mashup of The Godfather, Scarface, and Bugsy, with plenty of gore, colorful characters, and intricate subplots: the loose-cannon protégé of Battle who started going after the bosses; Ernestico, the drug dealer who killed Battle’s brother Palulu and survived umpteen retaliatory hit attempts; Battle’s Peruvian casino venture, where he wallowed in cocaine and paranoia; mob-linked anti-Castro terrorists; Miami cops who spun wiretaps, stakeouts, and a source code-named “Sexy Cubana” into a RICO case. English stuffs in so much material that the thread sometimes gets lost, but his vast narrative is rich enough to keep the pages turning. (Mar.)
A wild and bloody ride through a harrowing epoch of South Florida history.” — Miami Herald
“English has scored gold again… Riveting nonfiction worthy of the best creative storyteller… A first-rate saga of crime and corruption that is further testament to the author’s reputation among the nation’s most accomplished writers.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“It’s a gripping, blood-soaked story, rich in drama and suspense; if it were a novel, you might expect to see Don Winslow’s name attached to it. Fans of true crime, especially those with a hankering for epic-sized stories, should flock to this book.” — Booklist
“A Mario Puzo-worthy epic story… And it really is a story, as much as it’s a history, in that it has characters we come to know intimately and a narrative arc… It builds to great, Godfather-like dramatic heights.” — Sullivan County Democrat
“Pure enjoyment… The Corporation took over my reading nook, my time and my imagination.” — Living-Las-Vegas.com
“A mob saga that has it all—brotherhood and betrayal, swaggering power and glittering success, and a Godfather whose reach seems utterly unrivaled. What a relentless, irresistible read.” — Don Winslow, New York Times bestselling author of The Force
Praise for Havana Nocturne:“A whiz-bang account of the Mafia’s short-lived romp through 1950s Cuba.” — New York Times Book Review
“While Havana Nocturne makes you glad that Batista and his gangster pals ultimately got what they deserved, it also makes you regret never having gotten the chance to soak up a few mojitos while catching the floor show at the old Tropicana.” — Village Voice
“English capably covers half a century of criminal enterprise, avoiding the clichés of the true-crime genre while stocking his narrative with familiar players: the capos and goons, the cops and informants, a mistress or two, and John F. Kennedy…. Fascinating reading.” — Kirkus Reviews
“A tight storyteller, English provides a juicy mix of true crime and political intrigue, all set against the sexy sizzle of Havana nightlife.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“[An] excellent new book.… [English] provides a detailed account of the personalities and elements that made up Cuban life. His well-researched descriptions of how business, gambling, politics, revolution, music and religion all played off each other give Havana Nocturne a broad context and a knowledgeable edge.” — Washington Post
“Spellbinding prose. . . . Havana Nocturne is a powerful reminder of how the mob nearly achieved its biggest payday and how Castro beat the house, forever changing the course of history.” — San Antonio Express-News
“Finally, the definitive book has been written on the Mob’s heyday in Cuba. Havana Nocturne is at once compelling and incisive—an entertaining page-tuner that will both shock and inform.” — Sam Giancana, author of Double Cross
“Engaging….English’s brand of narrative is history, and he aims to set the record straight.” — Miami Herald on Havana Nocturne
“It’s a roaring story, equal parts fact and myth, and for the first time, it gets told in its violent entirety by no less a crime scribe than T.J. English…compellingly telling.” — Miami Sun Post on Havana Nocturne
“[An] entertaining new book…by veteran crime writer T.J. English” — New York Post on Havana Nocturne
“Crime writer English (Paddy Whacked) unfolds a story whose main outline will be familiar to any fan of The Godfather: Part II, but whose twists and turns no screenplay could keep up with.” — Kirkus Reviews on Havana Nocturne
“True-crime writer English (Paddy Whacked) presents an empire-building saga in which the “Havana Mob” of American gangsters, led by visionary financier Meyer Lansky, controlled Cuba.” — Publishers Weekly on Havana Nocturne
“English’s engaging narrative reads with the gripping quality of fiction: the dark underworld of Havana comes to life....Highly recommended.” — Library Journal on Havana Nocturne
It’s a gripping, blood-soaked story, rich in drama and suspense; if it were a novel, you might expect to see Don Winslow’s name attached to it. Fans of true crime, especially those with a hankering for epic-sized stories, should flock to this book.
Praise for Havana Nocturne:“A whiz-bang account of the Mafia’s short-lived romp through 1950s Cuba.
A tight storyteller, English provides a juicy mix of true crime and political intrigue, all set against the sexy sizzle of Havana nightlife.
A wild and bloody ride through a harrowing epoch of South Florida history.
Pure enjoyment… The Corporation took over my reading nook, my time and my imagination.
A Mario Puzo-worthy epic story… And it really is a story, as much as it’s a history, in that it has characters we come to know intimately and a narrative arc… It builds to great, Godfather-like dramatic heights.
While Havana Nocturne makes you glad that Batista and his gangster pals ultimately got what they deserved, it also makes you regret never having gotten the chance to soak up a few mojitos while catching the floor show at the old Tropicana.
A mob saga that has it all—brotherhood and betrayal, swaggering power and glittering success, and a Godfather whose reach seems utterly unrivaled. What a relentless, irresistible read.
It’s a gripping, blood-soaked story, rich in drama and suspense; if it were a novel, you might expect to see Don Winslow’s name attached to it. Fans of true crime, especially those with a hankering for epic-sized stories, should flock to this book.
A wild and bloody ride through a harrowing epoch of South Florida history.
A tight storyteller, English provides a juicy mix of true crime and political intrigue, all set against the sexy sizzle of Havana nightlife.
Finally, the definitive book has been written on the Mob’s heyday in Cuba. Havana Nocturne is at once compelling and incisive—an entertaining page-tuner that will both shock and inform.
It’s a roaring story, equal parts fact and myth, and for the first time, it gets told in its violent entirety by no less a crime scribe than T.J. English…compellingly telling.
Spellbinding prose. . . . Havana Nocturne is a powerful reminder of how the mob nearly achieved its biggest payday and how Castro beat the house, forever changing the course of history.”
[An] entertaining new book…by veteran crime writer T.J. English
Engaging….English’s brand of narrative is history, and he aims to set the record straight.
[An] excellent new book.… [English] provides a detailed account of the personalities and elements that made up Cuban life. His well-researched descriptions of how business, gambling, politics, revolution, music and religion all played off each other give Havana Nocturne a broad context and a knowledgeable edge.
[An] excellent new book.… [English] provides a detailed account of the personalities and elements that made up Cuban life. His well-researched descriptions of how business, gambling, politics, revolution, music and religion all played off each other give Havana Nocturne a broad context and a knowledgeable edge.
2017-12-24
A stout but fast-moving tale of criminal misdoings from Havana to Manhattan and beyond, courtesy of a Cuban crime boss with a plan.The corporation of the title is not one that Citizens United directly benefits, but it has plenty of political dimensions all the same. This corporation is the Cuban exile version of the Mafia, and its adventures and misadventures might make Don Corleone blanch. At the center of the action is a former police officer who, having fought against Fidel Castro at the Bay of Pigs and logged time as a bagman for corrupt superiors, set up shop in the United States. By English's (Whitey's Payback, 2014, etc.) account, José Miguel Battle y Vargas (1929-2007) reshaped the angles of the Cuban addiction to bolita, a simple lottery game, to work the gambling racket—and then other vices, including, in time, the trade in cocaine. Still young when he started, he "conveyed leadership through his demeanor and gravitas rather than inspiring rhetoric or brilliant business strategies." The business turned violent, and Battle dealt decisively with his many enemies, one of whom killed his brother; as English writes of two of Battle's soldiers, "they had done so many killings together in the last few months, they hardly needed to talk about it. It was all second nature." Naturally, Battle had it in mind to take revenge on Castro as well as keep his empire afloat. Had the movie not had an earlier model, he might have made a good study for Scarface. Still, as will happen, the Corporation fell apart under the strain of rivalries, power struggles, and legal interference only to be supplanted by other criminal organizations. English capably covers half a century of criminal enterprise, avoiding the clichés of the true-crime genre while stocking his narrative with familiar players: the capos and goons, the cops and informants, a mistress or two, and John F. Kennedy.Add another Mafia to the list (Italian, Irish, Russian…), then. Fascinating reading for true-crime buffs.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940173629142 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 03/20/2018 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 1,129,659 |
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