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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
dark
tense
fast-paced
slow-paced
I enjoyed this book; hard to follow at times, but truly engrossing and hard to put down. Truth is definitely stranger than fiction when it comes to the mafia life and this book portrays it like a Godfather movie------hard to believe this really happened but it goes to show you how little you really know about the world and how things really are/were.
3.5
nothing but scheming, double crossing & lying. it seems everyone in this story was a hypocrite and a lot of them were very petty. for as much as they all pretended to be a tight knit family they were all such snakes!
that being said i loved it lmao. the only part that didn’t catch me was the johnny keys situation. i ended up skimming through that. my main issue with this book was all of the names to keep up with! i started losing track after the fifth guy named frank. i feel like some of the smaller players could’ve been left out. of course, the best part of the whole thing is gravano’s retelling of events. i could really appreciate his no nonsense attitude about everything. he wasn’t loud & flashy and was relatively honest (as honest as any mob guy could be). i completely understood why he became an informant. he was also pretty funny, especially the story about his younger days working with the women at the beauty school. the boring parts were the construction bits.
it’s a good read if you’re really into the mafia.
nothing but scheming, double crossing & lying. it seems everyone in this story was a hypocrite and a lot of them were very petty. for as much as they all pretended to be a tight knit family they were all such snakes!
that being said i loved it lmao. the only part that didn’t catch me was the johnny keys situation. i ended up skimming through that. my main issue with this book was all of the names to keep up with! i started losing track after the fifth guy named frank. i feel like some of the smaller players could’ve been left out. of course, the best part of the whole thing is gravano’s retelling of events. i could really appreciate his no nonsense attitude about everything. he wasn’t loud & flashy and was relatively honest (as honest as any mob guy could be). i completely understood why he became an informant. he was also pretty funny, especially the story about his younger days working with the women at the beauty school. the boring parts were the construction bits.
it’s a good read if you’re really into the mafia.
I bought this in an airport, OK? I didn't have anything else to read. What would you have done, smarty-pants? Fine, I admit it, I loved it.
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Story is too long for what I want right now. And I already read it many years ago.
Man, the story about the family having to eat pasta with ricotta every night before Sammy made it big damn near broke my heart. Unfortunately, it was also the most memorable thing about this book.
I know it's already been posted 100 times (at least) in the other reviews - if you like the Goodfellas, you'll also like this book. It's just people's opinions, but I have to completely agree.
The story doesn't include everything Sammy did, every hit he carried out, or every mobster he rubbed elbows with. This is a story of how he got into the Mafia, how he survived and flourished in a cut-throat environment, and ultimate why he felt that turning government witness what the right thing to do.
Throughout the book, Sammy never apologizes for getting in the Mafia. He accepts his decision from the very beginning. He makes it clear that there are two ways out of the mob life: dying in jail or getting taken out by another mobster. He accepted that fate from the beginning. He even lauds mobsters who "die like a man" - those that don't plea or beg their way out of jail or the inevitable contract on their heads.
The author does a great job illustrating how the mob core values changed over the decades 1970, 1980, and 1990. Sammy saw the "old school" mobsters as men of honor and more level-headed. You don't kill a man for petty reasons, and you definitely don't hurt women or children. If a problem can be solved with talking, then resort to that first. Towards the end of his mob career, Sammy sees a new breed of "celebrity gangster" coming into power. He sees mob leaders flaunt their Mafia ties and build public "Robin Hood" personas. Instead of hiding in the shadows, the new mobsters wear the latest fashions, eat at the popular restaurants, and throw lavish public parties. Sammy sees the old Mafia leaders as being aligned with "our thing", but the new leaders as being concerned only with "me, me, me". If you're not looking out for the best interests of the family, then you're only thinking of yourself. You can never trust a person like that.
The story doesn't include everything Sammy did, every hit he carried out, or every mobster he rubbed elbows with. This is a story of how he got into the Mafia, how he survived and flourished in a cut-throat environment, and ultimate why he felt that turning government witness what the right thing to do.
Throughout the book, Sammy never apologizes for getting in the Mafia. He accepts his decision from the very beginning. He makes it clear that there are two ways out of the mob life: dying in jail or getting taken out by another mobster. He accepted that fate from the beginning. He even lauds mobsters who "die like a man" - those that don't plea or beg their way out of jail or the inevitable contract on their heads.
The author does a great job illustrating how the mob core values changed over the decades 1970, 1980, and 1990. Sammy saw the "old school" mobsters as men of honor and more level-headed. You don't kill a man for petty reasons, and you definitely don't hurt women or children. If a problem can be solved with talking, then resort to that first. Towards the end of his mob career, Sammy sees a new breed of "celebrity gangster" coming into power. He sees mob leaders flaunt their Mafia ties and build public "Robin Hood" personas. Instead of hiding in the shadows, the new mobsters wear the latest fashions, eat at the popular restaurants, and throw lavish public parties. Sammy sees the old Mafia leaders as being aligned with "our thing", but the new leaders as being concerned only with "me, me, me". If you're not looking out for the best interests of the family, then you're only thinking of yourself. You can never trust a person like that.