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Web of the City
"Get it straight right these aren't kids playing games of war. They mean business. They are junior-grade killers and public enemies one through five thousand..."
In Rusty Santoro's neighborhood, the kids carry knives, chains, bricks. Broken glass. And when they fight, they fight dirty, leaving the streets littered with the bodies of the injured and the dead. Rusty wants out - but you can't just walk away from a New York street gang. And his decision may leave his family to pay a terrible price.
First published more than half a century ago and inspired by the author's real-life experience going undercover inside a street gang, Web of the City was Harlan Ellison's first novel and marked the long-form debut of one of the most electrifying, unforgettable, and controversial voices of 20th century letters.
Appearing here for the first time together with three thematically related short stories Ellison wrote for the pulp magazines of the 1950s, Web of the City offers both a snapshot of a lost era and a portrait of violence and grief as timely as today's most brutal headlines.
In Rusty Santoro's neighborhood, the kids carry knives, chains, bricks. Broken glass. And when they fight, they fight dirty, leaving the streets littered with the bodies of the injured and the dead. Rusty wants out - but you can't just walk away from a New York street gang. And his decision may leave his family to pay a terrible price.
First published more than half a century ago and inspired by the author's real-life experience going undercover inside a street gang, Web of the City was Harlan Ellison's first novel and marked the long-form debut of one of the most electrifying, unforgettable, and controversial voices of 20th century letters.
Appearing here for the first time together with three thematically related short stories Ellison wrote for the pulp magazines of the 1950s, Web of the City offers both a snapshot of a lost era and a portrait of violence and grief as timely as today's most brutal headlines.
284 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
About the author
Harlan Ellison
1,009 books2,490 followersHarlan Jay Ellison was a prolific American writer of short stories, novellas, teleplays, essays, and criticism.
His literary and television work has received many awards. He wrote for the original series of both The Outer Limits and Star Trek as well as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; edited the multiple-award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions; and served as creative consultant/writer to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5.
Several of his short fiction pieces have been made into movies, such as the classic "The Boy and His Dog".
[email protected]
His literary and television work has received many awards. He wrote for the original series of both The Outer Limits and Star Trek as well as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; edited the multiple-award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions; and served as creative consultant/writer to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5.
Several of his short fiction pieces have been made into movies, such as the classic "The Boy and His Dog".
[email protected]
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
January 30, 2023
Ellison's first novel. I found the story and dialogue somewhat cliché and uninspired, but the writing has glimmers of the verve, grit and shocking raw energy that would propel his career.
April 24, 2023
Before he was the behemoth rock star of the literary world (having published, at the time of his death in 2018, almost 2,000 short stories, novels, screenplays, and TV scripts), before he became the scathing newspaper columnist who managed to piss off people like former Vice President Spiro Agnew on a regular basis, before he became one of the preeminent science fiction writers of the New Wave movement in the 1960s, Harlan Ellison was just a short, angry Jewish kid from the streets of Cleveland, Ohio.
It’s appropriate that the first time I ever met Mr. Ellison was in Cleveland. He had long since moved to and settled in Los Angeles, California. I lived in (and still do) a small Cleveland suburb on the west side called Bay Village. Our claims to fame are the Sam Sheppard murder case and the Amy Mihaljevic kidnapping/murder case---both still unsolved mysteries.
Ellison was speaking at a comic book convention in the Cleveland Convention Center (a building that is no longer extant as it was demolished to make way for a shiny new multi-million dollar convention center that is currently not being used). It was the first time I ever saw him speak.
Ever have one of those epiphany moments in life, the kind where you realize that your life before this moment was just kind of stagnant and the life afterward was going to be pretty great? No? I highly recommend it.
Ellison was an eye-opener for me, a profanity-laced, hilarious, super-intelligent, Jewish, irreverent, life-altering eye-opener. Because let me tell you another thing about Bay Village, OH: it is often called “The Bubble” due to the fact that it is somewhat affluent, extremely white, ultra-conservative, and blissful in its provincial ignorance. I was a product of this cute little burg.
Everything Ellison said was a punch in the gut and a knock on the brainpan. In a good way. When I finally got to say two words to him after standing in line to get a book signed, I was enamored. I can’t for the life of me remember what I said to him, if I said anything at all, I was so verklempt. What I do remember is a guy who could have easily told me to move the fuck along there’s people waiting behind you in a way that cemented for me the fact that he was part of the Elite and I was a peon, but he didn’t do that. He actually initiated a conversation, a friendly one, and I saw the man behind the angry, hyper-critical, cynical facade that he wore in public. I saw the compassionate, sweet man that he probably only showed to good friends, loved ones, and shy sheltered suburban kids who clearly idolized him.
I have been an Ellison devotee ever since, and I was greatly saddened by his death in 2018, but I’ll be honest, I haven’t read (or re-read) much of his stuff in the past many years. Shame on me.
In 2013, Hard Case Crime re-released Ellison’s “Web of the City”, his first published novel from 1958. A funny thing about this book: I have been (unsuccessfully) searching for this book ever since meeting him at that comic book convention. I have scoured nearly every used book store and library book sale that I come across looking for this one book. I came close a couple years ago when I found nearly-mint condition Ace paperback copies of “Love Ain’t Nothing But Sex Misspelled” and “The Deadly Streets”. One just doesn’t come across treasures like this, let alone at a library book sale.
“Web of the City”, however, remained elusive. Then, Hard Case Crime went and re-released it, in a cool trade paperback version with a nifty nostalgic 50s-era painted cover (their trademark).
You ever have an obsession, a quest for something that is always out of one’s reach, and then, one day, you find that magical thing you have spent more than half your life looking for, and it’s a big letdown?
Me neither.
I loved “Web of the City”. Okay, so it’s not great literature. It’s not the Holy Grail. It was a dime-store paperback Ellison wrote (according to his preface) on a cheap typewriter sitting on the shitter during his basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia. It’s the story of a greaser named Rusty Santoro who wants badly to leave his gang, the Cougars, and get the hell out of Brooklyn, where everything seems like one big urine-drenched alleyway. Unfortunately, the Cougars are like the Mafia: once you’re in, you’re in for life, and the only way out is at the shiny end of a switchblade.
It may help to know that this book was originally published under the title “Rumble”. It is so stinking cliche-ridden and so damned melodramatic in almost every scene, but it’s also fucking awesome, not the least of which is because it was written by Ellison. Granted, a barely-out-of-his-teen-years Ellison, who was barely surviving Army Ranger basic training at the time (he jokingly calls himself “the most-often-demoted PFC in the history of the United States Army"), but Ellison nonetheless.
I loved this book, because---like its author---behind the violent, pessimistic, angry facade of the novel lies a compassionate heart.
It’s appropriate that the first time I ever met Mr. Ellison was in Cleveland. He had long since moved to and settled in Los Angeles, California. I lived in (and still do) a small Cleveland suburb on the west side called Bay Village. Our claims to fame are the Sam Sheppard murder case and the Amy Mihaljevic kidnapping/murder case---both still unsolved mysteries.
Ellison was speaking at a comic book convention in the Cleveland Convention Center (a building that is no longer extant as it was demolished to make way for a shiny new multi-million dollar convention center that is currently not being used). It was the first time I ever saw him speak.
Ever have one of those epiphany moments in life, the kind where you realize that your life before this moment was just kind of stagnant and the life afterward was going to be pretty great? No? I highly recommend it.
Ellison was an eye-opener for me, a profanity-laced, hilarious, super-intelligent, Jewish, irreverent, life-altering eye-opener. Because let me tell you another thing about Bay Village, OH: it is often called “The Bubble” due to the fact that it is somewhat affluent, extremely white, ultra-conservative, and blissful in its provincial ignorance. I was a product of this cute little burg.
Everything Ellison said was a punch in the gut and a knock on the brainpan. In a good way. When I finally got to say two words to him after standing in line to get a book signed, I was enamored. I can’t for the life of me remember what I said to him, if I said anything at all, I was so verklempt. What I do remember is a guy who could have easily told me to move the fuck along there’s people waiting behind you in a way that cemented for me the fact that he was part of the Elite and I was a peon, but he didn’t do that. He actually initiated a conversation, a friendly one, and I saw the man behind the angry, hyper-critical, cynical facade that he wore in public. I saw the compassionate, sweet man that he probably only showed to good friends, loved ones, and shy sheltered suburban kids who clearly idolized him.
I have been an Ellison devotee ever since, and I was greatly saddened by his death in 2018, but I’ll be honest, I haven’t read (or re-read) much of his stuff in the past many years. Shame on me.
In 2013, Hard Case Crime re-released Ellison’s “Web of the City”, his first published novel from 1958. A funny thing about this book: I have been (unsuccessfully) searching for this book ever since meeting him at that comic book convention. I have scoured nearly every used book store and library book sale that I come across looking for this one book. I came close a couple years ago when I found nearly-mint condition Ace paperback copies of “Love Ain’t Nothing But Sex Misspelled” and “The Deadly Streets”. One just doesn’t come across treasures like this, let alone at a library book sale.
“Web of the City”, however, remained elusive. Then, Hard Case Crime went and re-released it, in a cool trade paperback version with a nifty nostalgic 50s-era painted cover (their trademark).
You ever have an obsession, a quest for something that is always out of one’s reach, and then, one day, you find that magical thing you have spent more than half your life looking for, and it’s a big letdown?
Me neither.
I loved “Web of the City”. Okay, so it’s not great literature. It’s not the Holy Grail. It was a dime-store paperback Ellison wrote (according to his preface) on a cheap typewriter sitting on the shitter during his basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia. It’s the story of a greaser named Rusty Santoro who wants badly to leave his gang, the Cougars, and get the hell out of Brooklyn, where everything seems like one big urine-drenched alleyway. Unfortunately, the Cougars are like the Mafia: once you’re in, you’re in for life, and the only way out is at the shiny end of a switchblade.
It may help to know that this book was originally published under the title “Rumble”. It is so stinking cliche-ridden and so damned melodramatic in almost every scene, but it’s also fucking awesome, not the least of which is because it was written by Ellison. Granted, a barely-out-of-his-teen-years Ellison, who was barely surviving Army Ranger basic training at the time (he jokingly calls himself “the most-often-demoted PFC in the history of the United States Army"), but Ellison nonetheless.
I loved this book, because---like its author---behind the violent, pessimistic, angry facade of the novel lies a compassionate heart.
January 12, 2020
Ellison candidly tells the reader in his prologue that this was his very first novel and that it is a little rough around the edges. He doesn't proclaim it to be his magnum opus. He researched this while running with a gang in Brooklyn and wrote it at night during basic training, sitting with his typewriter on a board on the latrine while the other guys in his unit tried to sleep.
It is the story of the gangs in New York in the fifties. They hang out at the malt shops, go to dances, and date the debs or drags. It is not West Side Story, however, and bears more in common with Vin Packer's The Young and The Violent and Don Elliot's Gang Girl than some Broadway musical. It is easy, quick reading and well-paced, but it is violent to an unexpected extreme. There is no doubt that the Cougars and their rivals are using real knives and inflicting real damage. They are not simply playacting, but they will do their rivals great bodily harm. The girls too are just as tough and are swinging poles with glass shards on the ends.
This is well worth reading to get a flavor of the delinquent youth writing that was popular in the late fifties and early sixties. It bears little resemblance to Ellison's later work as a science fiction master, but the astute reader can see even in this early tale that Ellison can spin a story.
Good stuff. Also included is No Way Out" which was the original short story that became Web of the City and two other shorts, No Game For Children and Stand Still And Die. No Way Out is the same Rusty story. No Game For Children was okay, but I found Stand Still And Die to be a worthwhile read.
It is the story of the gangs in New York in the fifties. They hang out at the malt shops, go to dances, and date the debs or drags. It is not West Side Story, however, and bears more in common with Vin Packer's The Young and The Violent and Don Elliot's Gang Girl than some Broadway musical. It is easy, quick reading and well-paced, but it is violent to an unexpected extreme. There is no doubt that the Cougars and their rivals are using real knives and inflicting real damage. They are not simply playacting, but they will do their rivals great bodily harm. The girls too are just as tough and are swinging poles with glass shards on the ends.
This is well worth reading to get a flavor of the delinquent youth writing that was popular in the late fifties and early sixties. It bears little resemblance to Ellison's later work as a science fiction master, but the astute reader can see even in this early tale that Ellison can spin a story.
Good stuff. Also included is No Way Out" which was the original short story that became Web of the City and two other shorts, No Game For Children and Stand Still And Die. No Way Out is the same Rusty story. No Game For Children was okay, but I found Stand Still And Die to be a worthwhile read.
February 4, 2020
This is Harlan Ellison’s first novel and, as he says in the introduction, it’s more than a little rough around the edges. The dialogue is cheesy but the plot has some very satisfying twists and turns and there’s plenty of action. While this definitely isn’t up there with Ellison’s best work, I still enjoyed it quite a bit and it’s definitely worth a read for Ellison fans.
December 2, 2022
Harlan Ellison's first novel, and what a novel it is. Pulpy without getting silly or cartoony with a mystery that doesn't get convoluted but still stays interesting.
February 2, 2020
Mid-20th Century North American Crime Readathon
You know a debut novel is going to be either really good or really bad if the author apologizes up front for the rough edges. But Ellison's introduction has a great story that probably didn't happen: before Hemingway wrote "The Sun Also Rises", he'd written another book, his first, and on a cruise he tossed the manuscript into the sea on a theory that no one should read an author's first book. Good story! Bad theory.
HOOK = 3 stars: Sadly, Ellison opens with a weather report, the first "NO" in most writer's handbook. However, it only takes a few pages to realize the mess in which Rusty Santoro lives.
PACE = 4: If you read, say, the first ten pages, you'll probably read the rest in one sitting.
PLOT = 3: I had NO IDEA about 1950s high school gangs. Ellison actually joined one before writing this book, and the violence, the way some kids saw the world, is really surprising. If you're thinking of "The Pink Ladies" from "Grease", you're on the wrong track. Rusty quits a gang. They won't let him go. Ugly, ugly things happen. Painful to read at times. The plot, overall, seemed a bit over-the-top to me.
CAST = 3: This is so far out of my realm of experience it reads like fantasy of the wildest imagination. Surely Ellison didn't really run into these kids. Right? These folks are nicely portrayed though, even Mom at home crying her eyes out, and for good reason. Still, these high school kids felt older, just like they did in the aforementioned film, "Grease". Again, an over-the-top element.
ATMOSPHERE = 4: Bowling alleys, street alleys, garbage dumps in which "fight to the death" is the rule (I sorta flashed to "Mad Max Thunderdome".) Mom cooking and crying in the kitchen. And little sis pretending she understands it all. Pot and Horse is everywhere...and big kicks include lots of blood. Stunningly written fight scenes.
SUMMARY: 3.4. This debut absolutely rocks....but a bit too far into the realm of unbelievability. On the back cover, Isaac Asimov writes of Ellison "One of the best writers in the world." I've read a number of syfy shorts by Ellison and enjoyed them, and to me this novel is sorta syfyish, but still enjoyable.
You know a debut novel is going to be either really good or really bad if the author apologizes up front for the rough edges. But Ellison's introduction has a great story that probably didn't happen: before Hemingway wrote "The Sun Also Rises", he'd written another book, his first, and on a cruise he tossed the manuscript into the sea on a theory that no one should read an author's first book. Good story! Bad theory.
HOOK = 3 stars: Sadly, Ellison opens with a weather report, the first "NO" in most writer's handbook. However, it only takes a few pages to realize the mess in which Rusty Santoro lives.
PACE = 4: If you read, say, the first ten pages, you'll probably read the rest in one sitting.
PLOT = 3: I had NO IDEA about 1950s high school gangs. Ellison actually joined one before writing this book, and the violence, the way some kids saw the world, is really surprising. If you're thinking of "The Pink Ladies" from "Grease", you're on the wrong track. Rusty quits a gang. They won't let him go. Ugly, ugly things happen. Painful to read at times. The plot, overall, seemed a bit over-the-top to me.
CAST = 3: This is so far out of my realm of experience it reads like fantasy of the wildest imagination. Surely Ellison didn't really run into these kids. Right? These folks are nicely portrayed though, even Mom at home crying her eyes out, and for good reason. Still, these high school kids felt older, just like they did in the aforementioned film, "Grease". Again, an over-the-top element.
ATMOSPHERE = 4: Bowling alleys, street alleys, garbage dumps in which "fight to the death" is the rule (I sorta flashed to "Mad Max Thunderdome".) Mom cooking and crying in the kitchen. And little sis pretending she understands it all. Pot and Horse is everywhere...and big kicks include lots of blood. Stunningly written fight scenes.
SUMMARY: 3.4. This debut absolutely rocks....but a bit too far into the realm of unbelievability. On the back cover, Isaac Asimov writes of Ellison "One of the best writers in the world." I've read a number of syfy shorts by Ellison and enjoyed them, and to me this novel is sorta syfyish, but still enjoyable.
February 1, 2016
A coming of age story bullet riddled by adolescent gang life and marred by personal tragedy. Rusty wants out of the gang he led for a number of years only to be on the end of bloody and brutal resistance. If that wasn't enough a close family member of his is murdered forging the divide between friends and enemies making each as indistinguishable from the other. I wish Harlan Ellison wrote more crime novels. WEB OF THE CITY was a violent, fast paced and, at times, jaw dropping depiction of adolescent gang life that holds up remarkably well.
September 12, 2015
I didn't love this, but I did like it better than the other Ellison book I read. Most of the time I didn't care for the story, but the chapters detailing Rusty's grief were really well done.
If you're interested in reading about violent street gangs and juvenile delinquents in the fifties (and really, why wouldn't you be?), I highly recommend Teen-age Mafia instead.
If you're interested in reading about violent street gangs and juvenile delinquents in the fifties (and really, why wouldn't you be?), I highly recommend Teen-age Mafia instead.
September 26, 2013
WEB OF THE CITY ist Harlan Ellisons erster Roman und rückblickend auf seine späteren Bücher eher als Jugendsünde zu verbuchen. Ellison selbst war, bevor er das Buch schrieb, einige Monate in einer Jugendgang in Brooklyn und hat seine dort gemachten Beobachtungen während der darauffolgenden Militärzeit (nachts auf der Latrine, wie er selbst behauptet) aufgeschrieben.
Das Buch ist im Stile der Pulps geschrieben und lässt kein allzu großes literarisches Engagement erkennen. Die Figuren sind klischeehaft und holzschnittartig beschrieben, der Inhalt trieft vor juvenilem Pathos.
Rusty, der Held des Romans, der in den 50er Jahren in der Bronx angesiedelt ist, möchte aus einer kriminellen Jugendgang, den Cougars, aussteigen. Wie schwierig sich dieses gestaltet, ist aus zeitgenössischen Filmen bekannt und das Motiv ist bis heute beliebt, wenn sich auch Lokalkolorit und Moden geändert haben. Ellisson beschreibt das Gangleben sicherlich recht authentisch, allerdings ohne nennenswerten literarischen Gestaltungswillen.
Auch wenn es sich um einen recht harten Krimi handelt, habe ich als heutiger Leser immer wieder Bilder aus der „West Side Story“ vor Augen gehabt. Das Buch ist einfach in die Jahre gekommen und hat im Gegensatz zu manch anderem darunter arg gelitten.
Die Ausgabe in der Hard Case Crime-Reihe ist gleichwohl zu loben. Das Cover von Glen Orbik ist stilecht und für Pulp-Fans schon kaufentscheidend. Außerdem hat Titan Books dem Roman ein kurzes aber lesenswertes Vorwort des Autors vorangestellt und im Anhang noch drei Geschichten draufgegeben, die Harlan Ellison aus dem Material zu WEB OF THE CITY extrahiert und in verschiedenen Zeitschriften veröffentlicht hat.
Das Buch ist im Stile der Pulps geschrieben und lässt kein allzu großes literarisches Engagement erkennen. Die Figuren sind klischeehaft und holzschnittartig beschrieben, der Inhalt trieft vor juvenilem Pathos.
Rusty, der Held des Romans, der in den 50er Jahren in der Bronx angesiedelt ist, möchte aus einer kriminellen Jugendgang, den Cougars, aussteigen. Wie schwierig sich dieses gestaltet, ist aus zeitgenössischen Filmen bekannt und das Motiv ist bis heute beliebt, wenn sich auch Lokalkolorit und Moden geändert haben. Ellisson beschreibt das Gangleben sicherlich recht authentisch, allerdings ohne nennenswerten literarischen Gestaltungswillen.
Auch wenn es sich um einen recht harten Krimi handelt, habe ich als heutiger Leser immer wieder Bilder aus der „West Side Story“ vor Augen gehabt. Das Buch ist einfach in die Jahre gekommen und hat im Gegensatz zu manch anderem darunter arg gelitten.
Die Ausgabe in der Hard Case Crime-Reihe ist gleichwohl zu loben. Das Cover von Glen Orbik ist stilecht und für Pulp-Fans schon kaufentscheidend. Außerdem hat Titan Books dem Roman ein kurzes aber lesenswertes Vorwort des Autors vorangestellt und im Anhang noch drei Geschichten draufgegeben, die Harlan Ellison aus dem Material zu WEB OF THE CITY extrahiert und in verschiedenen Zeitschriften veröffentlicht hat.
April 16, 2013
Read this a long, long, long time ago. I have it packed a way along with many other books from when stone carvings and papyrus were the popular formats.
Harlan Ellison has always been a distinctive and attention-getting voice in any genre, medium, and non-fiction. His personal story is both brilliant and difficult for the more mundane to comprehend. Isaac Asimov used to complain (in writing) that Ellison had a stack of Hugos that were taller than Harlan himself. (Could well be true!)
This is a novel that came out of his true-life experiences as a reporter in a gang in NYC. Long before anyone perverted the use of "embedded", Ellison was exactly that. He went undercover in a way that only reporters and police do and put his life in jeopardy doing so.
Early Ellison is both graphic and disturbing. Wait: come to think of it, ALL Ellison is disturbing. There's no Speculative Fiction here but his writings are not so limited nor should your reading be so.
Harlan Ellison has always been a distinctive and attention-getting voice in any genre, medium, and non-fiction. His personal story is both brilliant and difficult for the more mundane to comprehend. Isaac Asimov used to complain (in writing) that Ellison had a stack of Hugos that were taller than Harlan himself. (Could well be true!)
This is a novel that came out of his true-life experiences as a reporter in a gang in NYC. Long before anyone perverted the use of "embedded", Ellison was exactly that. He went undercover in a way that only reporters and police do and put his life in jeopardy doing so.
Early Ellison is both graphic and disturbing. Wait: come to think of it, ALL Ellison is disturbing. There's no Speculative Fiction here but his writings are not so limited nor should your reading be so.
October 22, 2013
Early Ellison works including a novella-of-sorts - will bring back memories of greasers, the 50's and West Side Story without the Sondheim lyrics. Instead of the Jets and the Sharks, there's the Cougars and the Cherokees. The local-hang-soda-shop is run by Pops and the cops are the bad guys everyone is against. Grit is Ellison's forte and while the language of the time doesn't hold water anymore, his ability to capture the essence of it still makes for writing evocative of the time period and worth studying, if not enjoying.
November 13, 2015
Gritty first novel by Harlan Ellison, originally entitled Rumble! Some aspects of this novel would have seemed shocking to a late 1950s readership. True, it was surely a bit sensationalized, but, besides being entertaining, it had the secondary effect of calling attention to the problem of juvenile delinquency.
March 8, 2021
I read the Hard Case Crime publication of this novel (not the one whose image is in this review) which included the short stories "No Way Out", "No Game For Children", and "Stand Still And Die!"
Web of the City was originally published in 1958, and is Ellison's first published novel, follows the tale of a seventeen-year-old who drops out of a gang and finds himself targeted by its members. Things get worse when a rumble with another fight ends in a personal tragedy, leading to revenge. Yes, it hits just about every cliche one can think of, but I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting. I really enjoyed protagonist Rusty and I thought Ellison did a solid job with the character. However, other characters are fairly rote, but they do serve the story as Rusty seeks vengeance.
"No Way Out" (1957) repackages part of Web of the City into a short story. The ending is changed significantly and is a neat insight into a writer using another work.
"No Game For Children" (1959) blew my socks off. It's a quick tale of feud between an educated man and his neighbor's son who is in a gang. The hooligan is cliche, but the ending is dynamite.
"Stand Still And Die!" (1956) has a cabbie become involved with a gang of teens after he tries to prevent a robbery. The lengths this cabbie takes are over the top, but are fun to read. Not as believable as "No Game For Children", but a definite highlight of this publication.
Web of the City was originally published in 1958, and is Ellison's first published novel, follows the tale of a seventeen-year-old who drops out of a gang and finds himself targeted by its members. Things get worse when a rumble with another fight ends in a personal tragedy, leading to revenge. Yes, it hits just about every cliche one can think of, but I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting. I really enjoyed protagonist Rusty and I thought Ellison did a solid job with the character. However, other characters are fairly rote, but they do serve the story as Rusty seeks vengeance.
"No Way Out" (1957) repackages part of Web of the City into a short story. The ending is changed significantly and is a neat insight into a writer using another work.
"No Game For Children" (1959) blew my socks off. It's a quick tale of feud between an educated man and his neighbor's son who is in a gang. The hooligan is cliche, but the ending is dynamite.
"Stand Still And Die!" (1956) has a cabbie become involved with a gang of teens after he tries to prevent a robbery. The lengths this cabbie takes are over the top, but are fun to read. Not as believable as "No Game For Children", but a definite highlight of this publication.
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January 12, 2023I quit about halfway through when I realized that I was bored to tears and didn't anticipate anything improving. Honestly, I just felt like I'd heard the story before: 1950s teen gangs, pointless drug abuse and fighting and death, angst and tragedy and blah blah blah. I kept having visions of West Side Story crossed with The Outsiders and Catcher in the Rye. This was my first Ellison book; maybe I should try out his science fiction before forming an opinion on his writing in general. But this was definitely not for me.
November 28, 2019
While there is clearly some style to this youth gang pulp story, the trajectory isn't terribly interesting and neither are its characters. If I was a more disciplined reader, I would have cruised through it in a week and thought very little of it but instead I allowed it to become a slog and so am more irritated. Still, kind of neat to read Harlan's first work and the darkness he was going to unleash is visible in this first outing.
September 16, 2013
What a treat: Science Fiction/Speculative Fiction author Harlan Ellison’s first novel, first published in 1958. Ellison spent time in his teens with a Brooklyn gang, and this is a novelization of his experiences. Ellison is known for his short stories and novellas, so a full 202 page book is really something unique from the Ellison shelf. I always had a problem with Ellison never working on big novels, I always wished he would write one big novel to serve as the cornerstone of his work, but this novel, (along with a few other novels from early in his career, before he went into science fiction) will have to suffice. He’s still alive, of course, but I don’t think he’s working on any longer works, not do I think he’s gotten any stored away to be published posthumously.
Anyway, this is a gang novel re-published by the Hard Case Crime series with a new pulp cover. It’s very pulpy and vivid. There are definite signs of Ellison’s great use of language, but even without that, it’s a very good novel - An impressive first effort, anybody would admit. Rusty Santoro wants out of the gang life, but it keeps… pulling him back in! He sees through the pettiness and pointlessness of violence and grimy 1950s Lower East Side, but he’s stuck there. There is no way out.
As far as pulp gang novels, this has it all: teenage rebellion, hoodlums and floozies, a knife fight between gang leaders at the garbage dump, an all-out brawl between gangs in the middle of the lanes of a bowling alley, jailhouse scenes, surly standoffs with cops, domestic drama, malt shops and nervous waiters, cats fighting in back alleys at the beginning of a chapter, the Cougars versus the Cherokees, tough guys shaking down oily weasels for information ("L-Like I don't know a thing. I just work here. I ain't inna Cherks..."). An unrelated short story at the end even featured a drag race. This is classic pulp 50s mayhem.
A big theme of this novel is innocence. Innocence in the face of overwhelming evil and squalor and degradation. Despite the violence, the novel has a heart. Rusty has a love for family and respect for life, and a yearning to live a safe, decent life. The short stories ("Stand Still and Die!" and "No Game for Children") also included at the end of the book (two of which were first printed in “Guilty Detective Story Magazine”(!) in 1956) were also very entertaining.
Anyway, this is a gang novel re-published by the Hard Case Crime series with a new pulp cover. It’s very pulpy and vivid. There are definite signs of Ellison’s great use of language, but even without that, it’s a very good novel - An impressive first effort, anybody would admit. Rusty Santoro wants out of the gang life, but it keeps… pulling him back in! He sees through the pettiness and pointlessness of violence and grimy 1950s Lower East Side, but he’s stuck there. There is no way out.
As far as pulp gang novels, this has it all: teenage rebellion, hoodlums and floozies, a knife fight between gang leaders at the garbage dump, an all-out brawl between gangs in the middle of the lanes of a bowling alley, jailhouse scenes, surly standoffs with cops, domestic drama, malt shops and nervous waiters, cats fighting in back alleys at the beginning of a chapter, the Cougars versus the Cherokees, tough guys shaking down oily weasels for information ("L-Like I don't know a thing. I just work here. I ain't inna Cherks..."). An unrelated short story at the end even featured a drag race. This is classic pulp 50s mayhem.
A big theme of this novel is innocence. Innocence in the face of overwhelming evil and squalor and degradation. Despite the violence, the novel has a heart. Rusty has a love for family and respect for life, and a yearning to live a safe, decent life. The short stories ("Stand Still and Die!" and "No Game for Children") also included at the end of the book (two of which were first printed in “Guilty Detective Story Magazine”(!) in 1956) were also very entertaining.
April 28, 2013
But listen boys and girls
You need not be blue
And life is what you make of it
It all depends on you”
- Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers
”They said all teenagers scare the living shit out of me
They could care less as long as someone’ll bleed
So darken your clothes or strike a violent pose
Maybe they’ll leave you alone, but not me.”
- My Chemical Romance
Rusty Santoro, ex-president of the Cougars, is having it rough. Real rough.
His shop teacher has been helping him break free of his gang. He is one strike from prison. His sister has joined the Cougars as a female auxiliary member. He is friendless. His father is a drunk and his mother desperately trying to keep it together. Of course all of this is nothing when compared to the fact that the new president of the Cougars wants him gutted.
Web of the City, originally published in 1958, outlives its slightly dated version of New York delivering one of the most frightening depictions of post-war teenage life ever recorded. Of course it should. First, it is written by Harlan Ellison; A man who pulls no punches and for whom literacy mercy doesn’t exist. Second, it is culled from the ten weeks he spent as ’Cheech’ Beldone in New York’s Barons. The prose is gritty, remorseless, and yanks the stints from the heart of darkness.
For those whose knowledge of 1950’s youth culture is Happy Days, Web of the City will rip your eyelids open and force you to see why and how teenagers were America’s biggest fear in the years following World War II. But there is also an honest feeling of frustration and angst as we watch Santoro fight to stay on the right side of law. Like watching someone dig on the beach, every time Santoro makes headway the walls cave in trapping him with no way out.
Hard Case has done an amazing job repackaging Web of the City with three additional tales of violence and dread. These alone are worth Ellisonphiles adding another copy to their collection as the men’s magazines they came from are either impossible to find or secured by collectors in steel strongboxes.
You need not be blue
And life is what you make of it
It all depends on you”
- Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers
”They said all teenagers scare the living shit out of me
They could care less as long as someone’ll bleed
So darken your clothes or strike a violent pose
Maybe they’ll leave you alone, but not me.”
- My Chemical Romance
Rusty Santoro, ex-president of the Cougars, is having it rough. Real rough.
His shop teacher has been helping him break free of his gang. He is one strike from prison. His sister has joined the Cougars as a female auxiliary member. He is friendless. His father is a drunk and his mother desperately trying to keep it together. Of course all of this is nothing when compared to the fact that the new president of the Cougars wants him gutted.
Web of the City, originally published in 1958, outlives its slightly dated version of New York delivering one of the most frightening depictions of post-war teenage life ever recorded. Of course it should. First, it is written by Harlan Ellison; A man who pulls no punches and for whom literacy mercy doesn’t exist. Second, it is culled from the ten weeks he spent as ’Cheech’ Beldone in New York’s Barons. The prose is gritty, remorseless, and yanks the stints from the heart of darkness.
For those whose knowledge of 1950’s youth culture is Happy Days, Web of the City will rip your eyelids open and force you to see why and how teenagers were America’s biggest fear in the years following World War II. But there is also an honest feeling of frustration and angst as we watch Santoro fight to stay on the right side of law. Like watching someone dig on the beach, every time Santoro makes headway the walls cave in trapping him with no way out.
Hard Case has done an amazing job repackaging Web of the City with three additional tales of violence and dread. These alone are worth Ellisonphiles adding another copy to their collection as the men’s magazines they came from are either impossible to find or secured by collectors in steel strongboxes.
August 26, 2015
It's a tough thing to give Harlan Ellison two stars. I can hear him mocking me across time and space, and I have no doubt that his takedown of me is spectacular. I did enjoy Web of the City, it's just that I only enjoyed it as a novelty, a time capsule, a bit of trivia to add to my stock of Ellison lore. On its own merits, it's a grimmer than usual bit of juvenile delinquent exploitation little better than dozens of others in the sub-sub-genre, of course it is certainly no worse.
Harlan Ellison spent a year or so undercover in a NY greaser gang as research for a bit of journalism on the juvenile gang menace that was the hot topic of the moment in the late 50s. I don't believe the journalistic piece was ever published, but Harlan turned his research into this novel, originally published as Rumble, and a handful of short stories also included in this volume. It's good to see a Puerto Rican protagonist, but the other characters and most of the situations are pretty much stock for a JD pulp. If Ellison adds anything to the JD pulp it is the knowledge that the more serious crimes that the street gangs are accused of inevitably have the backing of some more complicated form of organized crime, and of course Harlan provides a greater sense of just how rough these gangs can be.
Rusty Santoro had a good run as the president of the Cougars street gang, but an understanding shop teacher convinced him that ganglife was a dead end. Now Rusty wants out, and the gang doesn't approve. Worse, Rusty's little sister has been getting in deeper with the distaff side of the gang and shows no signs of slowing down. Can Rusty save his sister or himself from his past?
Web of the City is a good ride. We get the drugs, the sex, the switchblade duel, and the rumble. The thing moves and no one is going to get bored. Sadly, the adventure is only a rollercoaster, the train never leaves the tracks and the destination is in sight the entire way.
Harlan Ellison spent a year or so undercover in a NY greaser gang as research for a bit of journalism on the juvenile gang menace that was the hot topic of the moment in the late 50s. I don't believe the journalistic piece was ever published, but Harlan turned his research into this novel, originally published as Rumble, and a handful of short stories also included in this volume. It's good to see a Puerto Rican protagonist, but the other characters and most of the situations are pretty much stock for a JD pulp. If Ellison adds anything to the JD pulp it is the knowledge that the more serious crimes that the street gangs are accused of inevitably have the backing of some more complicated form of organized crime, and of course Harlan provides a greater sense of just how rough these gangs can be.
Rusty Santoro had a good run as the president of the Cougars street gang, but an understanding shop teacher convinced him that ganglife was a dead end. Now Rusty wants out, and the gang doesn't approve. Worse, Rusty's little sister has been getting in deeper with the distaff side of the gang and shows no signs of slowing down. Can Rusty save his sister or himself from his past?
Web of the City is a good ride. We get the drugs, the sex, the switchblade duel, and the rumble. The thing moves and no one is going to get bored. Sadly, the adventure is only a rollercoaster, the train never leaves the tracks and the destination is in sight the entire way.
June 28, 2014
I am a big fan of the Hard Case Crime imprint (having read 47 of their books) and Harlan Ellison (having read 11 of his books), so I was very excited last year when HCC announced they were going to reprint his long out-of-print first novel Web of the City.
Harlan rather famously infiltrated a real-life Brooklyn street gang at the age of 21 to do research for several short stories and this novel. The result was perhaps some of the most authentic examples of juvenile delinquent pulp fiction ever written. (This was a short-lived sub-genre of the pulps, intended to excite younger readers and shock adults with lurid depictions of teenage violence.)
In addition to this novel, Ellison's street gang short stories were collected in The Deadly Streets (1958), Children of the Streets (1961), Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation (1961). He also published a nonfiction autobiographical account of this time in his life, Memos from Purgatory (1961).
This book deserves recognition for jumpstarting the career of a writer who would later go on to revolutionize the field of science fiction, but the truth is it's not very good on its own merit. Ellison has always had a verbose, bombastic, and sometimes almost lyrical quality to his voice. It works great in high concept stories like "Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman" and "I Have Mouth & I Must Scream", but it fits neither the tone nor pacing of a suspense novel. The detective/mystery elements of the plot were handled amateurishly. While Ellison may have nailed the social aspects of 1950's street gangs, he clearly did not understand drug culture--the effects of narcotics, the economics of the trade, etc.
I would recommend this book only to hardcore Ellison fans who want to see how his career started.
Harlan rather famously infiltrated a real-life Brooklyn street gang at the age of 21 to do research for several short stories and this novel. The result was perhaps some of the most authentic examples of juvenile delinquent pulp fiction ever written. (This was a short-lived sub-genre of the pulps, intended to excite younger readers and shock adults with lurid depictions of teenage violence.)
In addition to this novel, Ellison's street gang short stories were collected in The Deadly Streets (1958), Children of the Streets (1961), Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation (1961). He also published a nonfiction autobiographical account of this time in his life, Memos from Purgatory (1961).
This book deserves recognition for jumpstarting the career of a writer who would later go on to revolutionize the field of science fiction, but the truth is it's not very good on its own merit. Ellison has always had a verbose, bombastic, and sometimes almost lyrical quality to his voice. It works great in high concept stories like "Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman" and "I Have Mouth & I Must Scream", but it fits neither the tone nor pacing of a suspense novel. The detective/mystery elements of the plot were handled amateurishly. While Ellison may have nailed the social aspects of 1950's street gangs, he clearly did not understand drug culture--the effects of narcotics, the economics of the trade, etc.
I would recommend this book only to hardcore Ellison fans who want to see how his career started.
Shelved as 'unfinished-reads'
April 18, 2013Before Harlan Ellison was an award-winning science fiction writer, he made some attempts at crime fiction. Titan Books has released the first novel he ever wrote, Web of the City, for its first printing in decades. As a historical document of the type of crime fiction that was popular in the 1950s United States, it is a great relic of a time long, long gone. As a work of fiction, it's definitely a pulpy piece of work that feels extremely dated and doesn't show much of any hints of what Ellison would become.
The book is pretty much a story of gang violence in New York - Rusty is in a gang and wants out, and you simply don't get out of a gang that easily. It's apparently based on real events in Ellison's life, which is a redeeming part of the story, but the overall plot is pretty simple and straightforward. Reading it, I just felt like I could get a better version of this by watching Rebel Without a Cause or something similar, given the setting and characters.
I shouldn't 100% condemn this. Titan's been releasing a lot of this old true crime under a discount banner, and we're all better off for it. I just can't see someone who doesn't already have an interest (or is looking to try something very different) reaching for this.
The book is pretty much a story of gang violence in New York - Rusty is in a gang and wants out, and you simply don't get out of a gang that easily. It's apparently based on real events in Ellison's life, which is a redeeming part of the story, but the overall plot is pretty simple and straightforward. Reading it, I just felt like I could get a better version of this by watching Rebel Without a Cause or something similar, given the setting and characters.
I shouldn't 100% condemn this. Titan's been releasing a lot of this old true crime under a discount banner, and we're all better off for it. I just can't see someone who doesn't already have an interest (or is looking to try something very different) reaching for this.
June 20, 2013
Web of the City is Harlan Ellison's first novel. Ellison is, of course, a Science Fiction Grand Master. This book, originally published in 1958 is not science fiction at all. It's a story of a teenager and his involvement in the Cougar gang in the city. Rusty is trying to leave the Cougars. The only problem is, nobody leaves the Cougars. There are drastic consequences when he tries, and the "Web of the City" draws him in more and more as the story progresses.
One of the Hard Case Crime series, I did enjoy the book. It kept me interested to the very end, but I wouldn't have read it if it hadn't had Ellison's name on it. There are three short stories of similar subject matter at the end, one of which may have been the one that evolved into the novel. At first I thought "No Way Out" was just a reiteration of part of the novel, but it took a sudden turn at the end. "No Game for Children" was very a entertaining of what happens when you mess with someone more resourceful than you. "Stand Still and Die" was a good story about a relentless cab driver, determined to find out who was trying to kill him and why.
Not a bad first novel. Nothing like Dangerous Visions, though.
One of the Hard Case Crime series, I did enjoy the book. It kept me interested to the very end, but I wouldn't have read it if it hadn't had Ellison's name on it. There are three short stories of similar subject matter at the end, one of which may have been the one that evolved into the novel. At first I thought "No Way Out" was just a reiteration of part of the novel, but it took a sudden turn at the end. "No Game for Children" was very a entertaining of what happens when you mess with someone more resourceful than you. "Stand Still and Die" was a good story about a relentless cab driver, determined to find out who was trying to kill him and why.
Not a bad first novel. Nothing like Dangerous Visions, though.
April 3, 2015
This book is tough man, "tough as banana peels"! "Web of the City" is the main story, taking up 203 of the 284 pages. There are also 3 short stories. "Web" is a gritty story, focused on a kid trying to get out of gang life. Really authentic sounding and lots of street language from that time period. The first short story is basically a piece of "Web" with a different ending. The second short story has a husband battling his neighbor's teenage boy. And the third short story features a tough ol' cab driver up against a gang. All the tales are definitely worth reading, though I skimmed the first short story, as it was pretty repetitive. Good writing throughout, and a good introduction to boot!
April 22, 2015
I loved it. It gets huge insight to what makes Harlan the person he is. He was very young when he wrote this and it used to be named something else I'm just glad I came across it because Harlan has always been such an enigma as a person, an unbelievably sarcastic comic & a writer. I used to wonder how anyone could put up with him this makes me see that he overcame so much to become one of the greats in SF. Harlan's infamous adventures; from getting thrown out of the Disney offices for his irreverent comments on The Mouse, as he calls Micky, to his rowdy adventures fighting in elevators over his cheeky comments & all of the TV series he's contributed his peculiar genius to, he is one of the most colorful science fiction authors who ever lived. Gotta love 'im.
August 24, 2012
Surprisingly lurid and violent, this book surprised me. I expected something relatively tame, considering the subject matter. In my mind, gang dramas from the fifties were mostly about being cool and hot rods. Of course, I understand that real life was not like Happy Days and Marlin Brando films. But this book goes a couple of steps further than I expected. There is blood, graphic violence, random sex, rape, and cocaine. This was Ellison's first novel, so it reads extremely heavy-handed and dramatic. He is aware of his shortcomings and allowed this to lapse out of print for years. But despite its flaws, this is good because there aren't any of books I have read quite like it.
May 14, 2013
Although I have not finished reading the "extra" material (short story basis for the novel plus two other stories), I'm going to mark this complete for now. As a huge fan of Harlan Ellison, it was exciting to read his first novel.
This was an enjoyable but dark and gritty story of a teen trying to escape his gang ties, and his plans to get out go off the rails when a murder shakes him to his foundations. Kind of like a cross between West Side Story (without the romance) and Kids (without most of the parties). Felt very believable, and had a satisfying conclusion.
This was an enjoyable but dark and gritty story of a teen trying to escape his gang ties, and his plans to get out go off the rails when a murder shakes him to his foundations. Kind of like a cross between West Side Story (without the romance) and Kids (without most of the parties). Felt very believable, and had a satisfying conclusion.
February 7, 2014
Harlan Ellison's first novel, and not bad. About gang members in Brooklyn in the '50s, written in '58, full of great slang, if you're into that sort of thing. My favorite new term: "Rough as bananas." First half is much punchier. In the latter half, it all gets a bit repetitive as our teenage gangster hero, Rusty, searches for the killer of his kid sister, who turns out to be not, dramatically speaking, who it should have been.
If you like your pulp extra pulpy, trashy, and lurid, this is the book for you.
If you like your pulp extra pulpy, trashy, and lurid, this is the book for you.
August 11, 2014
Reissue of Ellison's first published novel, about a high school kid trying to quit gang life and go straight. There's a bit of mystery thrown in as well, as he tries to solve a murder. I think it holds up fairly well. Some of the lingo is overdone, but Rusty's struggles to escape the web are compelling. If you only know Ellison for his SF, this makes for an interesting addition to his oeuvre.
Includes three short stories that are all decent pulp crime (one is a chapter from the novel but with a different ending).
Includes three short stories that are all decent pulp crime (one is a chapter from the novel but with a different ending).
November 19, 2016
I liked this book, though I found I had a difficult time reading it. Usually when I read a novel, I'll sit down and read 50 to 75 pages at a time, but with this book I would only read about 10 before I wanted to do something else. I was interested in what was happening, but i guess it wasn't to the point where I could really get into the novel.
The book itself is an interesting revenge story. There's also some great stuff about how easy it is to slip back into old habits, and how there are certain events that shape us and our future no matter how we try otherwise.
The book itself is an interesting revenge story. There's also some great stuff about how easy it is to slip back into old habits, and how there are certain events that shape us and our future no matter how we try otherwise.
August 12, 2023
Audiobook.
This was actually a reread, or a 1st time listen, since I read it, with my eyes, the first time!
WTF?
It's early Ellison during his crime/gang writing days, just before Gentleman Junkie days, showing his great ear for dialogue.
-
Narrated with the deep voice of the damn near omnipresent Stefan Rudnicki!
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If you haven't read Harlan Ellison, you haven't read.
This was actually a reread, or a 1st time listen, since I read it, with my eyes, the first time!
WTF?
It's early Ellison during his crime/gang writing days, just before Gentleman Junkie days, showing his great ear for dialogue.
-
Narrated with the deep voice of the damn near omnipresent Stefan Rudnicki!
-
If you haven't read Harlan Ellison, you haven't read.
November 12, 2013
The introduction to this book says it all. This was Harlan Ellison's first novel, and it is sort of juvenile and silly. The plot is sort of lumbering and takes way longer than it needs to to get where it's going. Slightly entertaining at times, but not very well written.
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