StartGroepenDiscussieMeerTijdgeest
Doorzoek de site
Onze site gebruikt cookies om diensten te leveren, prestaties te verbeteren, voor analyse en (indien je niet ingelogd bent) voor advertenties. Door LibraryThing te gebruiken erken je dat je onze Servicevoorwaarden en Privacybeleid gelezen en begrepen hebt. Je gebruik van de site en diensten is onderhevig aan dit beleid en deze voorwaarden.

Resultaten uit Google Boeken

Klik op een omslag om naar Google Boeken te gaan.

Bezig met laden...

The Birthday Party: A Memoir of Survival

door Stanley N. Alpert

LedenBesprekingenPopulariteitGemiddelde beoordelingAanhalingen
17913152,178 (3.7)10
On January 21, 1998, federal prosecutor Stanley Alpert was kidnapped off the streets of Manhattan by a carful of thugs looking to use his ATM card, but when they learned his bank balance, the plan changed. They took him, blindfolded, to a Brooklyn apartment. But the later it got, the more the plan changed, as his captors held guns to his head, threatened his family, engaged him in discussions of gangsta philosophy, or sought his legal advice. All the while, Alpert, still blindfolded, played on their attitudes and fears, tried to figure out where their mood swings would take them next, and memorized every detail he could in the event he ever managed to get out of there alive. Meanwhile, his friends and law enforcement colleagues launched a major investigation. It, too, would take many twists and turns before it was done--and some of them would be strange indeed.--From publisher description.… (meer)
Geen
Bezig met laden...

Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden.

Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek.

» Zie ook 10 vermeldingen

1-5 van 13 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
"Every one of our days on earth contains a series of small adventures, or small threads that, when woven together, make up the fabric of our lives." (p. 164)
A day in the life of Stanley N. Alpert, federal attorney, accounted in this book, was, to say the least, more remarkable and adventurous than most. He was abducted at gunpoint by, to say the least, a bumbling gang that "could not shoot straight", the "Bad News Bears" of crime. That is not to say that it was not a psychologically horrifying experience. He was ultimately released, unharmed after 25 hours of captivity.
During that time, he kept his wits about him, and, as he recalls, "I was responding to their inquiries, a trial lawyer and street-smart kid giving the best performance of his life." (p. 58) He used his skills as a lawyer and negotiator to keep his dignity and form a bond of humanity with his captors...and a little comic relief helped him as well. "All my friendliness and respect were paying off... the comedy approach worked." (p.117)
Eventually his captors laughingly ask him to join their gang... in order to recommend enemies of his that they can kidnap and rob. They even mock themselves saying... "what's going on here? we give you food...we offer you weed...what kind of robbery is this anyway?!" (p.122)
Thank God that no harm came to Stanley. The unimaginable events deserved better telling. The book reads like a rejected Seinfeld script, and is about 100 pages too long. Alpert includes unnecessary descriptions of the accomplishments of minor characters and reminisces about events that have no bearing on the story. As a reader, I found them a distraction and therefore skipped over these passages.
2.5 stars rounded to 3 due to some memorable quotes, several good laughs and sincere admiration for Mr. Alpert's grace under pressure. ( )
  Chrissylou62 | Apr 11, 2024 |
Stanley Alpert, an Assistant US Attorney in New York City, was grabbed on the street on the night before his thirty-eighth birthday by three guys who shoved him into a car at gunpoint and demanded his ATM card and his PIN. Frustrated by the daily withdrawal limits on the card, they kept Stanley captive for more than twenty-four hours while they worked on plans to get more cash out of his accounts. Then, somewhat surprisingly, they let him go.

In this book, Alpert describes his ordeal, with a particular focus on his attempts to remain calm and rational and make the best choices for getting out of the situation alive. To that end, he made an effort to be polite and accommodating towards his captors -- at one point, he had them asking him for legal advice! -- and to gather as many clues as possible to the criminals' identities and the location of the house they were holding him in. There turned out to be quite a lot of those; these were not exactly the most skilled and savvy kidnappers in the history of crime. He also talks about the police investigation afterward and how the experience affected him, and intersperses the story of the kidnapping with various digressions about his experiences growing up in Brooklyn, the details of his career in environmental law, and his opinions on crime and race relations in New York.

Alpert sometimes comes across as a bit of a lech when he's talking about women, which is a bit annoying, but I do have to admire his ability to properly handle a situation that would have undoubtedly turned me into a gibbering wreck. His writing sometimes feels like he's trying a little too hard to mimic the style of a thriller or gangster novel, but it's still an interesting read about an interesting experience, with a few moments that are unexpectedly, darkly funny. ( )
2 stem bragan | Jan 7, 2014 |
A very interesting memoir about the 26 hours Stan Alpert spent as a kidnapping victim and the investigation and aftermath. He was incredibly fortunate that they did not murder him. Certainly Alpert had substantially better survival skills than I do (and, I suspect, better than most of us). For me, the weakest part of the book was the final 1/3, which followed the investigation, probably because I worked as a legal assistant in a criminal defense firm for 14 years and it was all very familiar to me. Otherwise, I enjoyed Stanley's story. ( )
  whymaggiemay | Sep 14, 2011 |
Very interesting account of Mr. Alpert's kidnapping off the streets of New York City. Nowhere in the book does the author mention being targeted by the kidnappers specifically because he is Jewish. Despite this fact the author felt the need to pepper his book with stereotypical references about Jewish culture and his own Jewish upbringing. They occur so often I found them to be a bit distracting and a little out of place in this book. ( )
  Paulslibrary | Jan 1, 2010 |
1-5 van 13 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Je moet ingelogd zijn om Algemene Kennis te mogen bewerken.
Voor meer hulp zie de helppagina Algemene Kennis .
Gangbare titel
Oorspronkelijke titel
Alternatieve titels
Oorspronkelijk jaar van uitgave
Mensen/Personages
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis. Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Belangrijke plaatsen
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis. Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Belangrijke gebeurtenissen
Verwante films
Motto
Opdracht
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis. Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
This book is dedicated to my parents, Arlene and Ben, who taught me that helping those less fortunate than us was more important than amassing wealth, and to my grandparents Leon and Flora, who gave me comfort and strength when I needed it.
Eerste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis. Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
In New York City, 1998, crime was down, but not out, as I was to learn the night before my thirty-eighth birthday.
Citaten
Laatste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis. Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Ontwarringsbericht
Uitgevers redacteuren
Auteur van flaptekst/aanprijzing
Oorspronkelijke taal
Gangbare DDC/MDS
Canonieke LCC

Verwijzingen naar dit werk in externe bronnen.

Wikipedia in het Engels

Geen

On January 21, 1998, federal prosecutor Stanley Alpert was kidnapped off the streets of Manhattan by a carful of thugs looking to use his ATM card, but when they learned his bank balance, the plan changed. They took him, blindfolded, to a Brooklyn apartment. But the later it got, the more the plan changed, as his captors held guns to his head, threatened his family, engaged him in discussions of gangsta philosophy, or sought his legal advice. All the while, Alpert, still blindfolded, played on their attitudes and fears, tried to figure out where their mood swings would take them next, and memorized every detail he could in the event he ever managed to get out of there alive. Meanwhile, his friends and law enforcement colleagues launched a major investigation. It, too, would take many twists and turns before it was done--and some of them would be strange indeed.--From publisher description.

Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden.

Boekbeschrijving
Haiku samenvatting

Actuele discussies

Geen

Populaire omslagen

Snelkoppelingen

Waardering

Gemiddelde: (3.7)
0.5 1
1
1.5
2 4
2.5
3 10
3.5 5
4 12
4.5 2
5 10

Ben jij dit?

Word een LibraryThing Auteur.

 

Over | Contact | LibraryThing.com | Privacy/Voorwaarden | Help/Veelgestelde vragen | Blog | Winkel | APIs | TinyCat | Nagelaten Bibliotheken | Vroege Recensenten | Algemene kennis | 204,821,171 boeken! | Bovenbalk: Altijd zichtbaar