512 ROAD TO PERDITION
Kojima’s important manga , Lone Wolf and Cub , the epic story of a shogun’s enforcer,
wrongly accused and widowed, who is forced to travel the road of vengeance with
his toddler son in tow. Road to Perdition off ers a distinctly American version of this
father/son story.
Set in prohibition-era Rock Island, Illinois, the novel tells the tale of Michael
O’Sullivan, devout family man, ex-soldier, and Irish crime boss John Looney’s chief
lieutenant. Th e story is seen from the point of view of O’Sullivan’s son, Michael Jr.,
who narrates his childhood from a vantage point decades later in order to set the
record straight, years after pulp writers and historians alike have established
O’Sullivan’s notoriety as the “Angel of Death.” Th e story begins when young Michael
stows away in his father’s backseat and witnesses Connor Looney, the crime boss’s
slightly psychopathic son, turn a routine shakedown into a cold-blooded murder.
Additionally, he witnesses his father’s loyalty and effi cient, unfl appable skills with a
Th ompson submachine gun.
Because the Looneys suspect that Michael or O’Sullivan might betray Connor
and the family’s interests, the elder Looney orders a hit on his faithful servant, while
Connor murders O’Sullivan’s wife and younger son, leaving O’Sullivan and Michael
on the lam, forced to defend themselves from Looney’s long reach. Correctly fearful of
O’Sullivan’s vengeance and skills, Looney sends Connor into hiding under Al Capone’s
protection, and O’Sullivan launches an off ensive against the revenue streams of both
the Looney and Capone families, with the intent of making Connor’s protection a
Tom Hanks as Michael O’Sullivan and Tyler Hoechlin as Michael Sullivan Jr. in the 2002 film
Road to Perdition, directed by Sam Mendes. Dreamworks/Photofest
