SOCIAL SCIENCES

Daughter of the King: Growing Up in Gangland

by William Stadiem
Lansky, Sandra & . Weinstein. Mar. 2014. 272p. photos. index. ISBN 9781602862159. $26; ebk. ISBN 9781602862166. CRIME
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The child of Mafia kingpin Meyer Lansky and a beautiful but unstable mother, Sandra Lansky grew up amid money, power, and celebrity. She dined in fine restaurants with her father and his mobster friends and partied at the hottest night spots. But wealth and glitz couldn't keep away all of life's tragedies: a severely disabled older brother, a chronically depressed mother, a divorce and her father's subsequent marriage to a despised stepmother, and an addiction to diet pills. Then there were the intimations of violence, including the death of her beloved Uncle Bugsy and the whispers of her father's involvement. She writes about her growing awareness of the crime that surrounded her, coming to terms with her past—and her father's—and settling down to live a happily legal existence.
VERDICT Lansky's memoir chronicles an indisputably glamorous life, with some disturbing if understandable denial of the criminal enterprise that enabled it. Captivating reading for fans of celebrity memoirs and true crime.
Reviewed by Deirdre Bray, Middletown P.L., OH , Mar 15, 2014
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