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Brownsville is a historical graphic novel about the Jewish mod that lived in New York from the 1920s to the 1940s. A little known historical aspect of the mob’s history was the Jewish tough guys it had in its rank. They came from Brooklyn and ran their own show. Brownsville covers that history through the eyes of various real players reconstituted from several historical searches and history books.
Brownsville takes the non sequitur approach of a film like Pulp Fiction, but it doesn’t work well. There are many characters introduced and many names to remember. Few of them stand out and the plot is too complex to be captured in these brief pages. More exposure about what it is they did and more background on their activities would have helped. As it is, Brownsville only focused on the gang war. Still, the story remained captivating.
Allen’s art is suitable for the period, but the characters can be difficult to differentiate. They all have the same features. Reading this in several sessions is difficult as the characters are all short, with big noses. The storytelling works well and captures the feel of the era. I bet this book will be turned into a film sooner than later, but it’s not a good choice. More character development and slower storytelling would help.
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