Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

| Log in
  1. Follow us on Facebook
  2. Follow us on Twitter
  3. Follow us on Instagram
  4. Follow us on Goodreads
  5. RSS Feeds

  • Home
  • About
    • About CBR
    • Getting Started
    • Cannon Book Club
    • Diversions
    • Fan Mail
    • Holiday Book Exchange
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
    • Participation Badges
    • AlabamaPink
  • Our Team
    • Leaderboard
    • The CBR Team
    • Recent Comments
    • CBR Interviews
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Categories
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • How You Can Donate
    • Book Sale
    • CBR Merchandise
    • Supporters and Friends of CBR
  • FAQ
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Follow Us

Open Registration for CBR13 ends Jan. 31! Sign Up Today!

> FAQ Home
> Genre: Non-Fiction > The Chicago Way

The Chicago Way

Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago by Max Alan Collins

December 9, 2020 by Jake Leave a Comment

I’ve been waiting for this book for years.

There are so many works out there about Al Capone, most of them more fact than fiction, few of them recounting the gritty details of his battles with Eliot Ness during Prohibition. The Untouchables movie is more fantasy than reality, so was the TV show, depicting a Manicheean struggle between good and evil, law and order, etc. I wanted something that covered the full details of how these two met on the playing field of Chicago and what actually went down.

This book satisfied my curiosity and so much more. It layers details in all the best ways, keeping the momentum of the narrative going while maintaining readability. It makes Capone more complex and fascinating than he’s normally portrayed, without letting one forget that he was a stone cold killer. It brings Eliot Ness to life, both demythologizing him but also showing him in a favorable light with quality contributions that helped to nab Capone. And it lays bare the ridiculousness of Prohibition enforcement, coupled with nativist sentiment from WASP power brokers without taking away from the horrors of mass death that came with the beer wars.

If anyone wants a deeper look at Al Capone, the world he made, and how his rise and fall actually occurred, I’d recommend this in a heartbeat. It’s far better than other biographies and it gives the reader a complete picture of what was actually happening in Chicago at the time. Unquestionably, this is one of the best things I’ve read in 2020.

Filed Under: Non-Fiction Tagged With: Al Capone, Chicago, Eliot Ness, Max Alan Collins, prohibition, Scarface and the Untouchable, The Untouchables, true crime

Jake's CBR12 Review No:184 · Genres: Non-Fiction · Tags: Al Capone, Chicago, Eliot Ness, Max Alan Collins, prohibition, Scarface and the Untouchable, The Untouchables, true crime ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

About Jake

CBR13 participantCBR12 participantCBR11 participantCBR10 participant

I love reading! View Jake's reviews»

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.



Recent Comments

  • tiny_bookbot on An amiably low-stakes romantic adventure in Victorian LondonYou are correct (my library didn't have it available)! and no, I don't think you do. Like a lot of romance series, Book #1 focuses...
  • wicherwill on An amiably low-stakes romantic adventure in Victorian LondonDoesn't sound like you read #1 in this series first--do you need to?
  • wicherwill on A Breath of Fresh, Fierce, Queer AirThe biggest issue with Actually Joining cannonball read is that now I have so very many more books on my read list. If I understand...
  • Emmalita on Angry Men and the Women that Save Them: And They All Lived Happily Ever After and Had Many ChildrenI read these when they first came out, and certainly, at the time, enjoyed them. Except for Benedict. He should be dropped in a defunct...
  • llamareadsbooks on Until the mountains are no more, I will love youThank you for the review! I can't wait to read this book! Beverly Jenkins never seems to disappoint.
See More Recent Comments »

Want to Help Out?

CBR has a great crew of volunteers, and we're always looking for more people to help out. If you have a specialty or are willing to learn, drop MsWas a line.

  • How You Can Donate
  • FAQ
  • Shop
  • Volunteers
  • Leaderboard
  • AlabamaPink
  • Contact

Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo
  3. Google Pay
© 2021 Cannonball Read | Log in