Hamill's sprawling novel, however, rushes pell-mell past Tweed and the 1860's like a tourist with a checklist. But ''Gangs of New York'' at least manages to focus its attention on one place and time, the brawling Five Points of Lower Manhattan in the middle of the 19th century, which it calls to life with startling vividness. Both employ the Civil War draft riots of 1863 as a backdrop, both offer a significant supporting role to the legendary Manhattan political godfather Boss Tweed, and both are fables about an Irish immigrant son seeking vengeance against his father's Anglo-Saxon killer.īoth are also lumpy, uneven, overly ambitious works in which the demands of history and of fictional narrative often operate at cross-purposes. THERE are instructive similarities between Pete Hamill's new novel, ''Forever,'' and Martin Scorsese's new film, ''Gangs of New York.'' (In fact, the 1928 Herbert Asbury book on which Scorsese's film is based is mentioned in Hamill's acknowledgments.) Both seek a larger cultural significance in the early history of Irish immigration to New York.
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