Rating: 
Summary: Thorough and readable
Review: Great read! It is obvious the author has a strong command of the charachters and also a good touch at the typewriter.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read if You Are from RI
Review: I don't think the overall subject of the book will be surprising to anyone from Providence, or elsewhere in RI for that fact, but some of the stories and details in the book will shock you! I lived 1/2 my life in Providence and the other 1/2 in or near Miami. As bad as the banana republic of Miami has demonstrated it can be (Elian!), it cannot compare to the corruption found in Providence and throughout Rhode Island politics. I could not put the book down for 3 days.The only reason I knocked off 1 star on my rating is that the writing quality could have been a bit better. The author rambles in some sections and then seems to repeat himself from time-to-time. The same is noted in some other reviews, so I don't think it was my reading. Nevertheless, it is a minor issue and the book is well worth reading and owning, particularly if you ever lived in Rhode Island. Just remember, it isn't fiction like the Godfather - it really happened.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read if You Are from RI
Review: I don't think the overall subject of the book will be surprising to anyone from Providence, or elsewhere in RI for that fact, but some of the stories and details in the book will shock you! I lived 1/2 my life in Providence and the other 1/2 in or near Miami. As bad as the banana republic of Miami has demonstrated it can be (Elian!), it cannot compare to the corruption found in Providence and throughout Rhode Island politics. I could not put the book down for 3 days. The only reason I knocked off 1 star on my rating is that the writing quality could have been a bit better. The author rambles in some sections and then seems to repeat himself from time-to-time. The same is noted in some other reviews, so I don't think it was my reading. Nevertheless, it is a minor issue and the book is well worth reading and owning, particularly if you ever lived in Rhode Island. Just remember, it isn't fiction like the Godfather - it really happened.
Rating:
Summary: Buddy, We Hardly Knew You....
Review: Mayor Cianci was probably right when he predicted that this book "would have the lightening, but not the thunder." Belo employee Stanton does a good job of showing the two sides of Buddy Cianci. The various stories were fascinating but would be more credible if Stanton identified people by name rather than generic title. For instance Stanton recalls a fight the mayor had with a state senator at a restaurant. Which state senator was it? Or there was the meeting in the mayor's office where he describes several councilpersons. Who were they? What were their names? This was true throughout the book with unnamed aides, legislators, councilpersons and many others. As far as fact checking, there were at least three instances where a school, a street and a neighborhood were misidentified. (Those who read the Providence Journal on a regular basis are used to such errors.) Nevertheless, Stanton did a great job of outlining Providence politics over the last 30 years and the evolvement of Buddy Cianci from political neophyte to the "Prince of Providence." Even without the thunder, there was enough lightening to make this a great case study of Machiavellian practices in present day America.
Rating:
Summary: Buddy, We Hardly Knew You....
Review: Mayor Cianci was probably right when he predicted that this book "would have the lightening, but not the thunder." Belo employee Stanton does a good job of showing the two sides of Buddy Cianci. The various stories were fascinating but would be more credible if Stanton identified people by name rather than generic title. For instance Stanton recalls a fight the mayor had with a state senator at a restaurant. Which state senator was it? Or there was the meeting in the mayor's office where he describes several councilpersons. Who were they? What were their names? This was true throughout the book with unnamed aides, legislators, councilpersons and many others. As far as fact checking, there were at least three instances where a school, a street and a neighborhood were misidentified. (Those who read the Providence Journal on a regular basis are used to such errors.) Nevertheless, Stanton did a great job of outlining Providence politics over the last 30 years and the evolvement of Buddy Cianci from political neophyte to the "Prince of Providence." Even without the thunder, there was enough lightening to make this a great case study of Machiavellian practices in present day America.
Rating: 
Summary: The Two Faces of Buddy Cianci,Mayor of Providence
Review: Pulitzer prize winner for investigative reporting at The Providence Journal, Miker Stanton, has written a brilliant novel. The novel centers around, Buddy Cianci,former mob prosecutor, grandson of immigrants and six term Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, and the FBI agent, Dennis Aiken, who took the surprised mayor down. This is a story of crime, mob crime, city crime, and political crime. Buddy Cianci grew up a Catholic, son of a doctor in Providence. He is a man with much charm. He married, divorced and was arrested for torturing the man he said was having an affair with his wife. He resigned his mayoral position in 1984 because of this crime and was re-elected in 1991. The citizens of Providence have a love/hate relationship with their ex-mayor. He brought life back to the city that was dying from industrial mills gone dry, to an artistical city loved by the elite. But he also brought to light the mob crime popularized by the Sopranos soap opera. Many of his political cronies were charged were corruption, and in the end so was Buddy. Of the many charges against him, he was found guilty of only one, racketerring conspiracy. He was sentenced to 5 years and 4 days in Federal prison. The Prince of Providence has been in prison for two years. He was assigned to kitchen duty, and was unable to bring his toupee or cigarettes into prison with him. This is not the end of the Cianci story. Nicole Cianci, the child who was ignored at best, has borne two children and was in rehab for drug addiction. The ex-mayor still has hopes of returning to the city he loves in some offical capacity. This is a novel of a man who thought he owned his city and found that although he is well -loved for his good deeds -it was the bad deeds that came undone. The writing is superb and the story is one to remember. prisrob
Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: Since I consider Providence to be my adopted home town, I couldn't wait to read Mike Stantons new book. During my seven years in RI, I watched as Providence moved from a dingy city to one of the stand out places on the East Coast and I believe it really had alot to do with Cianci. Unfortunately, the book details the seedy underbelly of what went on while the transformation of Providence took place. Stanton shows the the good, bad, and sometimes hilarious character that is Buddy Cianci. I even found some of the stories just laugh out loud funny and if you are not reading it you wouldn't believe it. Pick up this book today.
Rating: 
Summary: The beloved Prince
Review: The author has accurately focused on one aspect of the cesspool that is political Rhode Island. Sure, there is corruption elsewhere: New York, Louisiana, Massachusetts...but the city-state of Providence and its limelight-hogging former mayor exemplify the saying that "people get the government they deserve," and is more accessible and fun to read about.
The author concentrates on Vincent "Buddy" Cianci and his coterie of Providence lowlifes. He barely mentions that the whole state is for sale, not just Providence. He gives a linear biography of the Mayor, then gets lost in details about the lower-level goings on that fed the mayor's purse and extravagant life style.
The book reads to me like a collection of chapters that may have been published elsewhere singly, then knitted together, but with the seams showing. He repeats information in separate chapters. He re-explains. He writes paragraphs with no point. He seems wistful that, with Buddy in the jug, the "Providence Renaissance" will lose its heart and falter.
He could have won some applause from me if he had told more of the part the Providence Journal plays in providing what little integrity exists in Rhode Island. That old-line Yankee WASP paper (at least until recently) is responsible for every exposure of corruption and drive for clean government in the state.
In spite of his authorly flaws, his information is bang on, and he sticks with it relentlessly until the poignant Runyanesque end, when he makes us sorry to see this alleged sociopath go off to receive his slap on the wrist in a Federal prison.
I'd still recommend the book. It's worth wading through.
Rating:
Summary: Buddy Cianci... what a character. A good Book.
Review: The book is accurate and well researched. Buddy loved Providence. Buddy was a loveable scoundrel. The author doesn't take sides with the issue, but tells the story of corruption, graft, payoffs, bribery, and the like. That's the way things work in Providence. There is almost no other way of doing business in Rhode Island, and it's been that way for as long as anybody can remember. Many believe that Abe Lincoln himself would have been dragged down the same way if he had lived in Providence long enough.
The book doesn't give too much credit for the many things Mayor Cianci did for the City, and its residents. Buddy just got caught up in it all, and this book tells why, and how. An absolute must read for anybody who has anything to do with the political spectrum, or Rhode Island.
Rating:
Summary: Long Winded Account
Review: The colorful Buddy Cianci enjoyed a long and sordid career as the Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island. And now, as Cianci is still settling into his cell at the federal detention center at Ft. Dix, New Jersey, having been convicted of corruption, author Mike Stanton has written a long and sordid account of Cianci's life and career. The Cianci story is so compelling that is could sell itself. How does a man go from being an ambitious young prosecutor trying to lock up mob figures to putting wiseguys on the payroll during his tenure as Mayor? That's the question Stanton tries to answer, and would have done so more effectively had he not become so distracted along the way. As Stanton demonstrates, Cianci is a tragic figure; a man with unique political skills and leadership ability whose dark side ultimately ruined him. Cianci was a charming rougue who knew how to manipulate his supporters and foil his enemies in the same manner as another disgraced big city Mayor: Marion Barry. Ultimately Buddy Cianci was all about Buddy Cianci, and that was what finally did him in. Stanton obviously loves politics as much as Cianci did. His book is loaded with anecdotes and stories of the Providence and Rhode Island political landscape. Far too many, in fact, for quite a number are either superflous or merely rumor. Stanton repeats rumors that Cianci was hooked on cociane, for example, but never provides any proof. The book runs to nearly 400 pages of narrative, but could have easily been chopped down by about a third. Accounts of Cianci's appearances on the Imus in the Morning radio show, for example, are worth mentioning once, but not four or five times. Overall, "The Prince of Providence" is a fascinating but overly long retelling of the sordid saga of a fallen politician.
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