A Stone for Danny Fisher

By Harold Robbins

A Stone for Danny Fisher is the story of a young man who did not start at the bottom. Born into a family of modest means and respectability, Danny Fisher was gradually driven downward into the world of crime, racketeering and poverty. His bitterness, his homesickness over the loss of the house in Brooklyn that was given to him for his eighth birthday, and his feud with his harsh father, pulled him one way; his natural decency and his love for a sweet Italian girl, Nellie Petito, pulled him another. Danny was a boxer - a sensational amateur and potential champion - and he might have gone straight had the fight promoters not tried to exert pressure. He could not escape the gangsters, and later he became deeply involved in the black market and then in slot-machine rackets. Nevertheless, the driving force behind Danny's actions was always his sustaining love for Nellie. In a story that is harsh yet tender, realistic and yet compassionate, Harold Robbins reveals what makes the Danny Fishers what they are.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Hale
• Release date: May 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9780719810220

Harold Robbins

Born in New York City, HAROLD ROBBINS is one of the world's bestselling authors, writing novels that often mirrored his own experiences and that were peopled by characters he had met. He is the author of The Carpetbaggers.

Reviews for A Stone for Danny Fisher

[davewilde-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"A Stone For Danny Fisher, Robbins' 1951 novel, is widely considered his best. It is a portrait of a young Jewish kid in depression-era New York who grows up to be a street tough, a boxer with an undefeated record, and gets mixed up with the rackets and hoods. It is the story of his love affair with an Italian girl who stuck with him through thick and thin. It's a story of poverty and welfare. It's a story about a whore with a heart of gold. It's a boxing story about a young kid on his way to make it big and the hoods who are sponsoring him.

The first part is a typical coming of age story about a kid in a new neighborhood, about a first kiss, about finding a stray dog, about watching the neighbor girl through the window. The story doesn't really get moving until the family has to move to the lower east side tenements and Danny becomes a neighborhood tough. From there, the story just explodes. The boxing sequences are terrific. You feel as if you are right there ringside watching the action.

Robbins incorporates a lot of different themes in this book about growing up, about corruption, about desperation, about family relations, and about trust. It's one of those books that tell a character's life history, not just a particular episode.

At almost five hundred pages, it weighs in as a heavyweight contender, but it's a book you just devour.

[rainpebble_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

To live in the hearts of those left behind is not to die.

[polaris4_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Really enjoyed reading this when I was a teenager.