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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
What a quick listen, the story Goodfellas is based off it, played out like a movie, so many details that are missed in the movie! Makes me want to become a mafiosa minus the killing and stealing
I now understand why they call it mob mentality.
adventurous
dark
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
Some would say The Godfather is the king of all mafia books. I would say that Crain rightly belongs to Wiseguys. Not just because this is a true crime masterpiece And the Godfather is a novel. Nicholas Pillegi has a unique ability to place the reader in a specific timeframe so completely that the reader feels as though they are right there with the characters who lived this.
Am absolute masterpiece that spawned the greatest mafia of movie And perhaps the best movie of all time in Goodfellas.
Am absolute masterpiece that spawned the greatest mafia of movie And perhaps the best movie of all time in Goodfellas.
adventurous
informative
fast-paced
Makes total sense to me why Pileggi also wrote the screenplay to Goodfellas. It is practically word for word from this book, which is mainly a testament to Henry and Karen Hill and their abilities to tell their own stories, but Pileggi's structuring of it is also absolutely outstanding.
Could not believe how many moments from the film were directly pulled from this like ok wow it all actually happened! A really quick and engaging read, anyone even remotely interested in the mafia should pick it up.
Could not believe how many moments from the film were directly pulled from this like ok wow it all actually happened! A really quick and engaging read, anyone even remotely interested in the mafia should pick it up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Murder
Minor: Racial slurs
Goodfellas was already one of my all-time favorite books, and this book, upon it was based, makes me enjoy it that much more. Details are filled in and clarified, and context is given to the entire movie. It stands on its own as a book as well, thanks to Pileggi letting Henry and Karen Hill (and a few others) speak their piece, adding comment when necessary. Recommended for those interested in learning more about the Air France/Lufthansa heists, a specific time and in place in mafia history, or who want a good true crime story in general.
I liked this book a lot. it took me very little time to read it. My only cons would be the writing style drastically changing in the middle and that the ending was very rushed feeling.
How in the world is it that someone who loves Goodfellas as much as I do (I have lost count of how many times I've watched it!) has not read Wise Guy before? Once I started listening, I could not stop. The narrator even sounds a bit like Ray Liotta, who played Henry Hill in GF. Simply excellent storytelling.
I’d read this again because I live the movie. I even learned new stuff!
I liked it - I was surprised how much from Goodfellas came from the book, but there was a lot that wasn’t in the movie too.
It's difficult to regard this book as a separate entity from the film Goodfellas, so for the purposes of this review, I won't even bother, I'll directly compare the two. The setting, styling, and dialogue of the film is obviously lifted right from the book. It's a freewheeling, fast-paced ride through the kind of existence that most of us would only recognise through the cartoon-ish sylised violence of mobster films. The films don't feel real, and neither does this book. The concept of unreliable narrator doesn't even come close, when it comes to a drug-dealing, mafia thug and con-man, who is ratting out former associates to save his own neck.
The characters then. In the film, they're largely caricatures, quickly drawn slapdash hooks to hang a stereotype on. In the book, you're not really getting anymore understanding. Ok, Paulie comes across as being more important to the mob, and rather more sympathetic to Henry's ordeal, but I don't feel I've really got under the skin of the guy more than I did through Paul Sorvino's excellent portrayal. Neither so with Jimmy 'the Gent' Burke. Indeed, the film seems to have developed the character of Tommy DeSimone (Joe Pesci's remarkable turn) much more to the fore, to make up for the lack of strong characters in the book; he's only really a footnote here. And no, his "Funny how?" diatribe isn't present here.
So if you're really looking to understand what it would feel like to live everyday in this kind of underworld lifestyle, put the reader in the shoes of a protagonist on the streets, then you're in the wrong place. But if you're looking for something that's as much fun as the film, with a bit more detail and a feeling a little less cartoony, there's nothing wrong with this.
The characters then. In the film, they're largely caricatures, quickly drawn slapdash hooks to hang a stereotype on. In the book, you're not really getting anymore understanding. Ok, Paulie comes across as being more important to the mob, and rather more sympathetic to Henry's ordeal, but I don't feel I've really got under the skin of the guy more than I did through Paul Sorvino's excellent portrayal. Neither so with Jimmy 'the Gent' Burke. Indeed, the film seems to have developed the character of Tommy DeSimone (Joe Pesci's remarkable turn) much more to the fore, to make up for the lack of strong characters in the book; he's only really a footnote here. And no, his "Funny how?" diatribe isn't present here.
So if you're really looking to understand what it would feel like to live everyday in this kind of underworld lifestyle, put the reader in the shoes of a protagonist on the streets, then you're in the wrong place. But if you're looking for something that's as much fun as the film, with a bit more detail and a feeling a little less cartoony, there's nothing wrong with this.