Rating: 
Summary: Why Sinatra Matters is a fine book.
Review: Pete Hamill is a fine reporter who knew Frank Sinatra as a friend. Sinatra was an enigmatic, charismatic and complex singer of the American soul. Perhaps no singer in 20th century America popular song could get inside a lyric and make it his own like the great "ole blue eyes."
Hamill's opening chapter in which we sit beside Sinatra and his cronies in a Brooklyn bar in 1970 is like something out of Hemingway in its description of a man, era and city.
Hamill points out that it was Sinatra in music, Laguardia in politics and Joe Dimaggio in sports who raised the immigrant Italian ethnic group to greatness in insular, xenophobic America of the 1940s.
Sinatrta could be obnoxious and cruel but he could also be
generous and kind,
This book reminds me of the Penguin Lives series as it is a good starting place for anyone who wants to learn more about Sinatra, his women, his era and most importantly his music. The music will live forever in the American soul.
Sinatra did it his way and Hamill does a fine job of writing in this interesting little book. A good read to take on vacation or a long flight. I recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful read--like an old song
Review: Pete Hamill, beyond a doubt, is an excellent writer. He does a wonderful job here. The book is part bio, part history of immigrants in America, and part memoir. It works on all levels. Hamill treats Frank with the respect he deserves. The book is not a gossipy memoir--Kitty Kelly fans should look elsewhere. Instead, he makes the important arguement that Sinatra gave voice to first, a generation, and then an entire country. His artisty is what matters. The myth of the man is fun and gets most the attention, but that is besides the point for Hamill. And he is right. We all talk about the "Sinatra in a hat" (as Hamill dubs him) and the Rat Pack--but the music endures. It is, argues Hamill, what matters in the Wee Small Hours of the Morning. It is what will stand the test of time and give voice to a thousand broken dreams, hearts, and help us--like Frank after the Fall--get back up and start all over again. Thanks, Pete Hamill for getting it right.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read--like an old song
Review: Pete Hamill, beyond a doubt, is an excellent writer. He does a wonderful job here. The book is part bio, part history of immigrants in America, and part memoir. It works on all levels. Hamill treats Frank with the respect he deserves. The book is not a gossipy memoir--Kitty Kelly fans should look elsewhere. Instead, he makes the important arguement that Sinatra gave voice to first, a generation, and then an entire country. His artisty is what matters. The myth of the man is fun and gets most the attention, but that is besides the point for Hamill. And he is right. We all talk about the "Sinatra in a hat" (as Hamill dubs him) and the Rat Pack--but the music endures. It is, argues Hamill, what matters in the Wee Small Hours of the Morning. It is what will stand the test of time and give voice to a thousand broken dreams, hearts, and help us--like Frank after the Fall--get back up and start all over again. Thanks, Pete Hamill for getting it right.
Rating:
Summary: Read the book, then listen to the music, or vice versa.
Review: Seems to me that this small book contains the very essence of the man that was Sinatra. The author has honored his memory by presenting the facts as he witnessed them; all the while he subtly encourages us to listen to the music more. Arrivederci, Frank, and Grazie, Mr. Hamill.
Rating: 
Summary: super story
Review: Ted Rushton wrote the review I would have liked to of this fascinating book. Read it if you're interested in Sinatra, pop culture, Italian-Americans, making it in a tough but cool world, and good writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Good title, weak book
Review: The book seems more like a place for the author to put some thoughts and experiences that he had more than a meaningful observation as to why Sinatra mattered in the bigger scheme of things. "The Way You wear Your Hat" is infinitely more useful if you want to understand the essence of being Sinatra...and why he mattered.
Rating:
Summary: Sinatra's Story is a Blow to the "Diversity" Movement
Review: This book can be viewed in two ways:1) As a straightforward biography of Sinatra 2) As a chronicle of the history of discrimination against Italian Americans, and the myths and half-truths that have been advanced in the name of "Diversity." Pete Hamill does a great job of telling the story of Italian Americans though the triumphs and tragedies of Frank Sinatra's life. Sinatra was a great supporter of civil rights for minorities, primarily because he had felt the sting of discrimination as an Italian American. Hamill explains that Sinatra always identified with the underdog. But Sinatra's life also stands for the principle that while one shouldn't kick someone when they're down, you should still defend yourself from being kicked. This book is a great read, and provides further evidence that the premise for the "diversity" movement and affirmative action is a deceptive sham. Hamill documents the lynching of Italians in New Orleans and the epithets hurled at them even from the likes of American "heroes" such as Teddy Roosevelt. It's outrageous that some oppressed groups (Jews, Italians, Irish, eastern European "whites," , etc.) were redefined as oppressors during the American Civil Rights Movement. Perhaps this book will help hasten then end of affirmative action.
Rating:
Summary: A consciousness-raiser
Review: This was a lovely little book, and far more complex than I would have thought. I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on the Italian experience earlier in American's history, and how Frank was so much a product of that. It actually changed some of my (negative) thoughts about a man whose music I adore.
Rating: 
Summary: "Why Sinatra Matters" doesn't matter
Review: What Pete Hamill wrote in 180 pages could have condensed into about 10 pages. I got this book hoping to find out more about why Frank Sinatra matters. Rather than give the reader definite examples and then elaborate on them, Mr. Hamill gives a shallow biography that could be read in a number of other biographies. What, for example, does his mother's political connections have to do with why Sinatra matters? Neither do the accounts of his adolescent years nor his association with the mob have anything really to do about why he matters. The only thing that really matters about Frank Sinatra, which the author could have said in one chapter (one chapter being the entire book) is that he knew how to deliver a song, be it a ballad, up-tempo or Latin. He was the Master when it came to breath control and pronunciation and singing on key. And he wasn't a bad actor either. To put it in a nutshell, Sinatra matters because of his music.....nothing else. He will be remembered for for the hundreds (or is it thousands) of songs he sang and recorded and for being a showman. In 50 years, they will still be playing his songs as we have enjoyed hearing them for the past 60 years.
Rating:
Summary: It's marvelous, Baby
Review: When Frankie died, I felt I had lost an uncle. Not the uncle you hear from when misfortune occurs or fortunes are won. No, the kind of uncle who is there like a guardian angel, guiding and protecting you. For me, Frank Sinatra was my American Uncle, symbolizing the rich, great country I always heard about and envisioned through his music. I remember first hearing him while being tossed toward the ceiling by my real uncle, on a wet, stormy day in Australia. I had never heard a voice like that before, and after I slammed into the ceiling, and the family stood around waiting for me to cry, I simply sat, dazed, still listening to this new magnetic voice. I didn't know it at the time, but I was listening to America. Hamill's book returned me to that never-fogotten afternoon. For Hamill, in his elegant spot-on prose, doesn't just write about Frank, he writes about a country which changed the world. When he states that Crosby was America's Husband, while Sinatra was America's Lover, he hits it right on the head. Hamill writes what I've always wanted to say, about Frank, his times, and the world which Ol Blue Eyes helped to change. From its cover art to its last sentence, this is one elegant piece of work. I'd never read any of Hamill's work before, but now I have a new treasure to uncover, if any of his other offerings come close to this. As Frank would say, "It's marvelous, baby."
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