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jakewritesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
I just finished rewatching The Godfather in honor of its 50th anniversary and I decided to tackle this one because the agents applied the movie title as a sobriquet for Paul Castellano, the mob boss of the Gambino crime family who is perhaps most famous as being the guy in John Gotti’s way that got killed in front of a Manhattan steakhouse.
There’s an abundance of information out there now that shows that mobsters are not the nobless oblige Robin Hood thief-types portrayed by Marlon Brando and Al Pacino. Most of them are lower class humps who had few options in life and decided to take the path of violence. This was not the common understanding of the mob in New York City in the 80s. Castellano was the biggest boss of the biggest family and yet, he was somewhat regarded as “the Howard Hughes of the mob”, living out of the limelight in his massive Staten Island manor. The mystery only added to the mythos but once you look behind the closed door, you see what was at the end of The Irishman: a broken, sad old man.
The book recounts the FBI’s surveillance of Castellano and some of his cohorts. A lot of the information was covered in other spaces but it’s still a compelling look at how the agents hunted down and developed relationships with the don and others. I didn’t care for the grousing about how hard it is to attain search warrants and affidavits, especially since we’ve seen the FBI play fast and loose with the rules amongst people without high profiles and fancy lawyers, but I enjoyed this one almost in spite of myself. It’s eminently readable and gives a portrayal of a sad man at the head of a futile empire that glitters like gold but which is really just gilded trash.
There’s an abundance of information out there now that shows that mobsters are not the nobless oblige Robin Hood thief-types portrayed by Marlon Brando and Al Pacino. Most of them are lower class humps who had few options in life and decided to take the path of violence. This was not the common understanding of the mob in New York City in the 80s. Castellano was the biggest boss of the biggest family and yet, he was somewhat regarded as “the Howard Hughes of the mob”, living out of the limelight in his massive Staten Island manor. The mystery only added to the mythos but once you look behind the closed door, you see what was at the end of The Irishman: a broken, sad old man.
The book recounts the FBI’s surveillance of Castellano and some of his cohorts. A lot of the information was covered in other spaces but it’s still a compelling look at how the agents hunted down and developed relationships with the don and others. I didn’t care for the grousing about how hard it is to attain search warrants and affidavits, especially since we’ve seen the FBI play fast and loose with the rules amongst people without high profiles and fancy lawyers, but I enjoyed this one almost in spite of myself. It’s eminently readable and gives a portrayal of a sad man at the head of a futile empire that glitters like gold but which is really just gilded trash.
xxstefaniereadsxx's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Paul Castellano was one of the most well known Mafia bosses of all time. This book went into great detail about the FBI trying to make a case against him, and about his subsequent death. I thought this book was really quite good, and I learned a lot about Paul.
asteroidbuckle's review against another edition
4.0
This book was excellent! It was written by two former FBI agents whose job was to study Paul Castellano's evey move in order to bring him to justice.
At times poignant, at times funny, this book recounts the efforts to gain intelligence on a man who rarely left his house and held court (as it was later discovered) in the dining room next to his kitchen.
Paul Castellano was the most powerful crime boss at the time, boss of the Gambino family. But he was also human and suffered from the same things that ailed "lesser" people - diabetes, impotence, insecurity, indigestion. He was a man who earned his millions by stealing them, yet desperately wanted to be seen as a legitmate business man. He was also being used by his own mistress, who began as his maid and ended up (for a short time) usurping his wife as woman of the house.
O'Brien and Kurins, the authors and former agents, came to grudgingly respect Castellano despite the fact that he was "the bad guy." What he did was illegal and immoral, but he did it with surprising grace and and stuck to his beliefs with an admirable tenacity, even as his enemies (both inside and outside the family) were closing in.
This was a terrific read and I found it very compelling.
At times poignant, at times funny, this book recounts the efforts to gain intelligence on a man who rarely left his house and held court (as it was later discovered) in the dining room next to his kitchen.
Paul Castellano was the most powerful crime boss at the time, boss of the Gambino family. But he was also human and suffered from the same things that ailed "lesser" people - diabetes, impotence, insecurity, indigestion. He was a man who earned his millions by stealing them, yet desperately wanted to be seen as a legitmate business man. He was also being used by his own mistress, who began as his maid and ended up (for a short time) usurping his wife as woman of the house.
O'Brien and Kurins, the authors and former agents, came to grudgingly respect Castellano despite the fact that he was "the bad guy." What he did was illegal and immoral, but he did it with surprising grace and and stuck to his beliefs with an admirable tenacity, even as his enemies (both inside and outside the family) were closing in.
This was a terrific read and I found it very compelling.
bookswithjoe's review against another edition
4.0
A fantastic look at the investigation that all but crippled the Gambino Family and the Italian-American Mafia in general.
You'll come to know Paul Castellano the man more than anything else. The American public will always have a fascination with the Mafia and when you read this, you'll see that mob guys are extremely flawed human beings. They're extremely relatable yet seemingly god-like in their exploits.
Mobsters think they're beating the system by not being "working stiffs" but you'll see they deal with the same work-related issues anyone does only with the stakes raised much higher. Your boss in accounting isn't gonna have you shot outside your house, yet everyone can relate to disliking their boss, or being a boss with unruly employees.
The book is an easy and fun read, and if you're an amateur mob historian like me, it's a mandatory part of your mob literature.
The one thing that bugged me while I was reading this is that the agents who tell the story seemed to be enamored with the mob, as anyone would be, but they almost seemed to view themselves as being allowed to "rub elbows" so to speak, and they lament the end of this when Paul is arrested and finally put on trial. I felt like they used Paul so to speak and I didn't feel right about it.
I do however think it's interesting to see the metamorphosis of the relationship between Paul and the agents over the course of about 5 years.
Surprising that this was never made into a movie (that I know of)
You'll come to know Paul Castellano the man more than anything else. The American public will always have a fascination with the Mafia and when you read this, you'll see that mob guys are extremely flawed human beings. They're extremely relatable yet seemingly god-like in their exploits.
Mobsters think they're beating the system by not being "working stiffs" but you'll see they deal with the same work-related issues anyone does only with the stakes raised much higher. Your boss in accounting isn't gonna have you shot outside your house, yet everyone can relate to disliking their boss, or being a boss with unruly employees.
The book is an easy and fun read, and if you're an amateur mob historian like me, it's a mandatory part of your mob literature.
The one thing that bugged me while I was reading this is that the agents who tell the story seemed to be enamored with the mob, as anyone would be, but they almost seemed to view themselves as being allowed to "rub elbows" so to speak, and they lament the end of this when Paul is arrested and finally put on trial. I felt like they used Paul so to speak and I didn't feel right about it.
I do however think it's interesting to see the metamorphosis of the relationship between Paul and the agents over the course of about 5 years.
Surprising that this was never made into a movie (that I know of)
jeanetterenee's review against another edition
3.0
Fascinating subject matter, although the writing drags quite a bit at times. Still worth the read, just for the inside story on what these people were really like.
voraciousreader's review
4.0
Something so simple as a recording device can lead to a really interesting book. 'The Sopranos' this wasn't [although I'm sure I heard Tony Soprano in my head at more than one point - rest in peace James Galdofini], but a book about the time before the 'Teflon Don', 'Wiseguy' and 'The Sopranos' - a simpler time, but the book doesn't glorify the business either. A really good book that I would recommend.
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