The Job: True Tales from the Life of a New York City Cop

I've been lucky enough to know some cops and firemen over the years, and always loved hanging out with them. They are each a treasure trove of tales, and you never know where the story is going to go, from heartbreaking to laugh out loud funny. These guys see the worst, and best in their fellow man on a daily basis, and it seems that the human race is capable of anything and everything, and whatever they do, a cop is usually around to witness it.

Steve Osborne was a cop for over two decades with the NYPD, and luckily, he wrote down a few of his stories. And as he states a few times in the "The Job", when he first started out he was told he had "front row seats to the greatest show on Earth", and thanks to this collection we get a small peak into that show.

"The Job" is simply a series of short stories, and flipping through the pages, you almost feel as though your sitting down and listening to Osborne tell these tales. He may not be a professional writer, but I really like his conversational style. The only thing that's missing is a couple glasses of beer and you could be in a bar listening to a vet cop tell these tales. Some of them will get you chuckling at the stupidity of the criminals he talks about, and Osborne often makes himself the butt of the jokes as well. You will also find yourself choking up a little with several of the stories found here.

This is a great collection of stories, and one that will make you appreciate the men and women behind the badge. At the tale end of his story "Growing Pains", Osborne writes:

"Cops call it "the job", but police work is more than that. It's more than just going toe to toe with some bad guy and hauling him off to jail. Anybody with a strong body can do that. It's being in people's lives during times of crisis, and knowing what to say and what to do."

I think that sums it up best.

I have always been fascinated with the world of cops, the ones who operate in a city like New York, Los Angeles, etc., and also must admit right here and now, I have always appreciated their presence among us. Now a days it seems that a growing feeling of resentment against the police has escalated to very dangerous levels, but when one really thinks about it, the lives of these public servants that patrolled certain areas, have always been in some kind of hazard, maybe not each moment of their duties but surely sooner or later something takes place in their shifts that make national news almost immediately. To say that we would be better off without the police department to protect and serve, I hate to think the kind of world we would be forced to live in, for there are some fiercely dangerous people with the sole intention is the propagation of violence, chaos, fear, and I am sure it would force everyone to be in the possession of a weapon just to defend our own small demarcations we call our homes and place of business. I actually like to see law enforcement patrolling, intervening, neutralizing all kind of menaces that abound specially in metropolis, not to say that small towns do not have their share of bad elements.
Enter The Job: True Tales from the Life of a New York City Cop, by the very able and surprisingly enjoyable, Mr. Steve Osborne, or is it Officer Osborne? Either way, this book is composed of several stories of his long, and I am sure, distinguished career as a cop. I will not describe the nature of the stories, for it is not my intention to ruin it for anyone that reads this great book. I was truly laughing at loud at times, other times not so much as the author describes his world over the years. Not one of the short stories that make the whole of the book, is a waste of time by being boring, or not worth reading. The narrator's pace is always brisk, and the cases seem so real, which leads to suggest that there must be written by the heart, and lucky for the readers that early on his idea of writing a book about his life in the beat (sort of speak), he did not became discouraged with this effort, for it seems that Mr. Osborne has the gift of gap, and after enjoying this book my feelings of gratitude for what these officers do to prevent crime, and to act when it happens with no hesitations. One really learns to appreciate them, take out a few bad apples which exist in any organization, but most of the police are people as deserving as anyone else, if not more. Fun book, fast paced, juicy stories, tidbits of wisdom and good humor, and it occurred to me that the life of this police officer makes for the kind of book that Joseph Wambaugh use to write, in that the characters that crowd the pages, are all interesting. This cop can write, that is for sure. 4.5 Stars!

I came across this book quite by accident and talk about serendipitous good fortune! The wife had C-Span's Book TV on the tube. They were broadcasting from a Methodist church in Savannah as part of the city's annual book festival. When Steve Osborne stepped to the pulpit, er podium, I wasn't sure what to expect, and I was blown away. He's the real deal -- from his Noo Yawk accent to his beat cop intensity -- but you can't judge a book by its cover or an author by his. Osborne is engaging, articulate, and funny as hell. The man speaks from the heart and, as you might expect, he has seen more than his fair share of serious s***, but here's the deal. You would think that constantly seeing people at their worst and in the worst of situations would suck your soul right out of your body, but Osborne writes with a humanity and empathy that is compelling and moving. To be our "best selves" on our "worst days" is a high bar to which many of us aspire, and a standard that Steve Osborne has cleared many times. The book is a fun read. It's like having a cop giving you the skinny over a couple of beers in a bar. I'd love to tell you it's the next best thing to being there, but that's not really true. Being able to vicariously experience some of the stuff that Osborne so skillfully describes is, in my estimation, actually preferable to being there. Osborne strikes me as an example worthy of emulation among those who wear the badge as well as the rest of us in terms of how we treat people. Borne out of his stories, Osborne shows us how to make a difference if we only have the willingness to look for the opportunities around us every day, and the courage to act on what we see.

I enjoyed these unvarnished stories of the author's 20 years as a NYC cop. The book is my book club's May 2015 selection and turns out to be timely as the current news is filled with demonstrations/hatred and mistrust against police. Osborne's accounts of fighting bad guys to try and keep good people safe make it clear that we owe police officers respect and eternal gratitude. Some poor grammar makes it into the first-person narrative which at first distracted me...but soon I was engrossed and found myself appreciating that editorial choice, liking that the author's voice and style were not tinkered with too much by editors.

Though I rarely recommend an audio version of a book, to hear the author Steve Osborne tell his tales in his own gritty, tough as nails, Bronx voice creates something quite special. In audio format, the book creates more of a one man stage play ambience that someone reading the text from the page would not be able to reproduce. One gains a searing, saddening, and sometimes amusing new perspective, understanding, and empathy for what it is like to work the streets of New York, or any number of cities across our nation with the understanding that the city he represents is a story told over and over in other burrows and towns as well.

It's a tale well told and a narrative we all should embrace as part of what it is like to live with the thugs, the pimps, the thieves, the robbers, as well as the heroes who are comprised of police officers and the few citizens who step out of the shadows to lend a helping hand.

I'm a long-time Law & Order junkie, so The Job was right up my alley. A collection of short pieces depicting life on the job from the perspective of a New York City police officer, The Job is by turns funny, touching, weird, and scary. We all think we know what cops go through in the course of their days, but this book really makes you think hard about what it's really like to deal with death and crime on a regular basis. I particularly enjoyed the stories "Mug Shot", "Growing Pains" and "Big Day".

While the style is not literary and the stories are liberally sprinkled with profanities, The Job is a very entertaining mix of the personal and the professional. Author Osborne started writing down his tales shortly after retiring and then got a spot on a storytelling show called The Moth. All of the stories feel like you're sitting in the audience listening to him, or as one reviewer noted, like you're sitting next to him in a bar. The down-to-earth style makes the book more appealing than it would be if it had been "told to" a professional writer, IMO. The only downside to the writing is that it sometimes gets a little repetitive, but I can't really hold that against him.

If you're interested in real police stories or considering police work as a profession, I think you'll enjoy this book.

Take it from someone who has tried it. You can write the story of your career and think it is so interesting it will sell like "Gone With the Wind." But it's never as interesting to others as it is to you. Even Steve Osborne, who had the job that may have been portrayed on screen more than any other, NYC cop, has this problem.
But I give him credit. He didn't take his job in order to write abut it. He didn't feel the need to get an MFA to do it. Evidently he is good at telling his stories in person. It doesn't come across in print. Thank goodness his editors didn't try to give his prose a literary tone, but they've gone too far in the opposite direction. His tales are full of repetitions, cop cliches (collars, one unders, perps, ground balls) and man in the street language,(mixing of tenses, gratuitous sprinkling of the f-word) that it seems artificial. The stories are stretched out to make you expect a closing twist that never comes. Some habits are just tiresome: tedious explanations, ("when you are a cop...") and using the phrase "He's Italian" as though that's all the description you need.
He says that real police work is nowhere near as glamorous as portrayed on TV and in movies, then goes on to prove it.
He sounds like the kind of guy you would want to have as a police officer, but not as a writer. He probably spent too much time on all that paperwork, which he mentions too often.

I'm am retired from the NYPD and worked from 83 to 03 the same as mr Osborne I only read NYPD books and this BOOK IS THE BEST I HAVE READ

I lived in New York for a while. I had dreamed of making it to the big time, New York, New York.

After a while, I would look down from a flight out of La Guardia and ask myself how any sane person who couldn’t afford to insulate themselves could live there. I’ve seen roaches scurrying across the walls of luxury penthouses and the rats are the ones who really control the city. I stil think every bright ambitious youngster should live there for a while – and then get out to the Real America.

Steve Osborne is a former New York City police officer who spent 20 years on the force before retiring in 2003.

To our good fortune, he is also a storyteller, a very fine storyteller.

Some of his stories could move you to tears, such as his time with the mother of rotten, mean teenager who got himself killed. His telling of his last moment’s with his father brought me to the point of wanting to stop reading. Being old myself, stories about the dying are not my cup of tea right now.

But there’s more than death in these pages, though death is never a stranger here. The recounting begin with earliest days on the force thro9ugh the tragicomedy of his last day.

Good stuff. Eminently readable. And, overall, a strong reminder of why I wouldn’t want to live in New York – or, for that matter, any major American city.

Jerry

I liked Steve's book a lot. I am hoping he reads my review because I would really like to contact him. If you read this, Steve please send me an email at [email protected]. I am a retired Boston cop and we share a brotherhodd that only cops appreciate. The general public largely does not understand what a police officer is constantly exposed to. .Especially in the Big Apple. The author tells it like it is and I can relate. Just about every cops who actively does the job has a plethora of exciting, interesting stories. This book is well woth the read. I congratulate the author for taking the time to write and publish an entertaining book. Congratualtions. For the readers, trust me you'll enjoy it.