King of the Jews
By Nick Tosches
2005
First Published
3.32
Average Rating
336
Number of Pages
So begins Nick Tosches 's sprawling biography of Arnold Rothstein, which, in fact, is so much not only an elegy to old New York but an idiosyncratic history of the world as told in Nick Tosches' inimitable style. Known by many names—A. R., Mr. Big, The Fixer, The Big Bankroll, The Man Uptown, and The Brain—Rothstein seemed more myth than man. He was gambling, and he was money. The inspiration for Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby and Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, he was rumored to be the mastermind of the Black Sox scandal, the fixing of the 1919 World Series. He was Mr. Broadway and had his own booth at Lindy's Restaurant in Manhattan, where he held court. Now, in King of the Jews, Nick Tosches, "one of the greatest living American writers" ( Dallas Observer ), examines Rothstein's extraordinary legacy by placing him at the center of nothing less than the history of the entire Western world.
Avg Rating
3.32
Number of Ratings
211
5 STARS
18%
4 STARS
28%
3 STARS
32%
2 STARS
13%
1 STARS
9%
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Author
Nick Tosches
Author · 20 books
Nick Tosches was an American journalist, novelist, biographer, and poet. His 1982 biography of Jerry Lee Lewis, Hellfire, was praised by Rolling Stone magazine as "the best rock and roll biography ever written."
