A01=Helene Stapinski
Author_Helene Stapinski
Bad families
Breaking the law
Category=DNXC
Crime spreading through generations
Criminal convict grandfather
Don't like my
Don’t like my
Entertaining poignant biography
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Family history nostalgia
Gritty moving memoir
Jail prison
Parents grandparents bad
Poor relationship
Product details
- ISBN 9780747558316
- Weight: 224g
- Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 20 May 2002
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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‘Hugely entertaining and poignant' - Sunday Times
‘A welcome antidote to knee-jerk nostalgia ... Stapinski's prose hits like bullets ... visceral and memorable' - Image
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‘The night my grandfather tried to kill us, I was five years old, the age I stopped believing in Santa Claus ...'
Helene Stapinski had been playing in the family's apartment above the Majestic Tavern in Jersey City when, in the bar downstairs, Grandpa - an ex-con and armed robber - pointed his loaded gun and bragged he had a bullet for each of them. But news travelled fast and within minutes Helene was watching a handcuffed Grandpa go to jail for the last time.
The Stapinskis have a knack for breaking the law. Helene's daily bread was stolen by her father from the cold storage company where he worked and the books on her shelves were swiped from the local bookbinding company. In her own generation, her first cousin embezzled a quarter of a million dollars, tearing the clan apart.
All these stories are part of Helene's unbelievable heritage and of Five Finger Discount, a raucous and heartbreaking tale.
Helene Stapinski has published stories in the NEW YORK TIMES, NEW YORK MAGAZINE and PEOPLE amongst many other magazines and newspapers.
