Underboss

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Summary: La Cosa Nostra Junkies This is Your Book!!
Review: Salvatore Gravano clears his name in this true-crime thriller. The Bull exposes the Notorious Gotti in a light that brings the real world crashing through the facade of La Cosa Nostra. Labeled a "rat" Gravano goes on the offensive detailing his account of one of the Mafia's biggest double-crosses. If John Gotti goes looking for Sammy Gravano he'd better pack a lunch! An excellent read for anyone attracted to the repulsive!

Rating:
Summary: Of all the Cosa Nostra books this is by far the best.
Review: This book makes you feel you are there every step of the way.The thought of Sammy the bull living this life is unbelievable. This is better than all of the fantasy books dealing with the mob, and it is true. A must read for all people interested in the mafia.

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Summary: underboss rules
Review: Great book, recommend for anyone remotely interested in the mafia. Tells a great story about Sammy's life in the mafia.Anyone interested in chatting about this book can email me, i will respond.

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Summary: An interesting chronicle of a sordid and wasted life,
Review: If Peter Maas didn't step in so frequently to wrest the pen away from, Sammy "the Dull",we would have been left with a compendium of hoarse recollections and playground prose. Sammy seems to enjoy launching salvo after salvo of half-witted sentences, littered with double negatives and dangling modifiers. However, Maas does intervene frequently enough to prevent Sammy from derailling the story, and gives him sufficient guidance to tell his tale. It is his "tale", that is compelling enough indeed, to see the reader through until the end.

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Summary: Disappointing - lots of previously published material
Review: Anyone who has already read "Gotti - Rise and Fall" by Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain really has no need to get this book. There are few new revelations in "Underboss," and the "Gotti" book is a more exciting read. Capeci and Mustain's "Gotti" book, to name just one instance, offers a far better account of the intricate investigation and scheming that went into bringing down the mob and the betrayals within the "borgatas." "Underboss" author Peter Maas took the easy route - he sat down with a tape recorder and let Mr. Gravano rant, combined these quotes with extensive borrowings from "Gotti Rise and Fall," gave it a catchy title, and sent it off to a publisher. If readers are interested in Sammy the Bull's self-serving apologia for his sudden "conversion" from sinister mobster to neon yellow canary, then this book might appeal. Mr. Gravano is a text-book example of a tough guy who exists for years and years on his reputation and willingness to use sucker-punch violence, a reputation well-earned but never tested; after all, who challenges the mob? Another "Underworld" disappointment is the account of the dramatic shooting of "Big Paul" Castellano. There's no additional "inside" revelations about this incredible event in mob history. If you've read "Gotti - Rise and Fall," you know all the interesting details of this story. In the end, for all of his hard-guy talk, Mr. Gravano realizes that he might have to pay a penalty for his crimes. Rather than go to prison, he breaks his Cosa Nostra oath of omerta (silence) - cleverly rationalizing this sell-out by blaming his entire predicament on John Gotti. John Gotti is no angel; however, he might just as easily have sold out Sammy the Bull and walked - but he didn't. Mr. Gravano's account of his cooperation with authorities to put Gotti away and save his own skin gets just a few pages at the end of the book. These obviously are not Sammy's proudest moments, since the bulk of his unworthy book is a screed of boastfulness about sucker-punch violence and theft - which were the genuine reasons he was facing life in prison. The question Sammy the Bull never addresses - let alones answers - is: If John Gotti was such an evil man, what the heck was Sammy doing associating with him? And when they get arrested, the fact that Gotti was such a bad man entitles Sammy to redeem his own violent past by selling out? In an epilogue, Sammy the Bull Gravano now strolls the streets of America, claiming that he's a "man" because he's not making any special efforts to hide from his former associates. This reads as the weakest section among an entirely weak effort by Peter Maas - Gravano's final attempt to justify his actions and act the tough guy; nonetheless still in hiding! Sammy the Bull scarcely did an honest day's work in his life. It's fitting that his co-writer followed this course in telling his story. If you haven't read "Gotti Rise and Fall" and have no desire to, go ahead and read "Underworld.". Otherwise, if you can read just one, read "Gotti Rise and Fall."

Rating:
Summary: Overdone, with little depth
Review: Peter Maas makes little attempt to alter the dialogue and manner of speech of Sammy Gravano. In that sense, the book is good because you really feel like Mr. Gravano is telling the story. However, after about 200 pages of "So me and Frankie went over to Vinnie's, and Fat Tony was there with Louie, and they were talking about Carmine, and then in walks Bobby DiB and Benny, and they told us about Joey, so we had to tell Paul, and blah blah blah, yada yada yada....", I was a bit worn out (and confused). John Gotti gets very little presence until the latter third of the book, and the whole story of Mr. Gravano testifying against Mr. Gotti is told in just a few pages at the very end. So the reader is left with a chronological, detailed description of Mr. Gravano's life in Cosa Nostra. Some of these details are interesting, but the whole thing takes too long and the culmination of Mr. Gravano's career is glossed over in the end. Perhaps you could say the book was too well-done and burned itself out.

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Summary: SAMMY THE RAT
Review: Underboss is a great book for people interested in knowing more about the cosa nostra. Sammy tells about is childhood days involvement in crime to when he first became connected in the Columbo crime family. And how he brought down his close friend and boss John Gotti in the Gambino family. You learn the their rules and family structure as well. I think is Sammy the Bull was a real man he would serve his time in prison because when he became a member in la cosa nostra he swore to play by the rules, the most important is you don't rat. Sammy does also lie about most things to make himself look good, like when he gave his reason for becoming a rat. I also recommend: Mafia Dynasty by: John H. Davis and Donnie Brasco by: Joe D. Pistone.

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Summary: WOW, SCARY!!!!
Review: It is an absolutley scary life we live, when people can hold so little regard for a persons life....the book kept my attention, but it bothered me. Do we believe sammy? After reading this book you would think so, as his was the only side presented. You can almost feel bad for sammy at the end, but he chose his life. An earlier review said it best, "we used to like the mafia, now we are scared of it." It can be debated forever if sammy was a rat or should have done what he did, but no matter, the book is informative, interesting and at least appears to present a realistic view of the mafia.

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Summary: The living death of Sammy Gravano.
Review: The book was brilliantly written, from flowing tales of charisma, as well as to the point of the heart piercing cries. My rating of this book stands it's ground firmly for you have committed the ultimate sin. The crime of publicity. This, which you should've taken into consideration, is that La Cosa Nostra is a secretly organized society and fame is not one of the primary objectives of these families of peace and prosperity. If you only had witnessed and felt the pain and death that the Sicilian and Italian families overcame throughout these years maybe, just maybe you wouldn't have publisized them like untamable animals. However, my beliefs have no effect apon my clear judgement stating that the author did an exceptional job revolutionizing peoples thoughts and fears about a fantasy organization that isn't even suppost to exist. As far as Mr. Gravano is concerned, he broke a wondrous tradition of honor, loyalty and respect for not only his friends and family, but he sold his shadowless soul to an agent, while spitting on his family's heritage. For his punishment, living everyday knowing that possibly if anyone ever caught up with him, what would transpire. In conclusion he'd be unidentifiable. That might include his immediate family as well. He should've vanished in a cloud of smoke forever, when his suspicions of Don Gotti got too extreme. There is so much corruption in the law and so dearly a lack of patriotism for a mans job, that effectively Mr. Gravano's Top Secret location could reveal itself for the right price. Even speaking on the contrary if he had no computer file and no written documentation on his specified living arrangement: Believe, that their are ways to accomodate to make a man speak truth when fear of death confronts itself. So the at once underboss of the underworld has now conspired a date with not the Mafioso but with eternal damnation. I wish no harm apon the man or his family. As it is, that's all he has left. 1

Rating:
Summary: Goodfella VS. Rat
Review: This book is great. I read it in 2 sessions because once you get going it's so tough to put it down. Sammy has told a great story of his life from being a no good drop-out to becoming the underboss of the most powerful of the five New York families, the Gambino's. It's a compelling story, at times humorous, where he portrays himself as a saint as far as the Cosa Nostra rules go. He did everything by the book and he was one of the few who still believed in the traditional laws within the organization. He makes himself seem better than the rest of the guys who enjoyed the limelight and broke the code of secrecy (i.e. John Gotti), yet he is no better because he broke the law of silence. All sins are equal. If he really wanted to do the right thing for the family he would have whacked John Gotti and straightend the thing up before it blew in their face, but maybe he was so detached and doing his own thing that he didn't really care for the good of the whole family. An allaround Goodfella if you believe his words, a big Rat if you don't. It's your call.