Both terrible & glorious, this headlong rush through the past century of vice-ridden New York rides on the shoulders of a large cast of characters who become less compelling as the present (1977) approaches: Lucky Santangelo seems wooden & schizophrenic after the rich, complicated portraits of her gangster father Gino and the star-crossed former prostitute Carrie Berkley. Still, I read the whole thing, and it was a MILLION pages, so there was some *je ne sais quoi* going on...