Wiseguy

Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: Wiseguy is probobly the most interesting book I have ever read. I normally don't read a lot, but when I opened this book I could never close it. After seeing the movie Goodfellas about 20 times in one month I knew I had to just get the book that started it all. I'm a very big mafia movie fan. But nothing ever compares to this book, Wiseguy.

Rating:
Summary: gripping and oh so banal
Review: THis is a great book about the underworld, a kind of parallel universe where men still act like shoot-em-up cowboys for their own gain. What is surprising about it is how mundane it seemed to them: you kill a guy and then have some more pasta. It is truly frightening in that way.

It was fun also to compare it with Scorcese's great film of the same title, which is faithfully mirrored. The one thing I did not like about the book is the way it was written, like a dialogue of gossipy long-islanders reminising about their childhoods.

REcommended.

Rating:
Summary: A Scary/Funny Look Behind The Scenes Of Organized Crime.
Review: Henry Hill was immersed in Mob life since the age of 11. Starting out as an errand boy for Mobster Paul Vario, and working his way up to top-level soldier, Author Nicholas Pileggi helps Hill tell his story, and what a story it is! Everybody knows the big things the Mafia does, but Hill clues the reader in on an amazing fact: No crime is too small for these guys. At one point, they buy skinny Christmas trees, have Henry drill holes in them, stuff dead branches into the holes, and sell them to people. The trees look good for a day or two, then fall apart. They are truly crooked in EVERY aspect of their lives.

The bottom starts to fall out of Henry's "Good Life" when his crew pulls off the Six-Million Dollar Lufthansa heist, the biggest cash robbery in U.S. History. Mastermind Jimmy Burke, Henry's best friend/partner-in-crime becomes greedy and paranoid, and starts "Whacking out" everyone who knows ANYTHING about the heist. When Henry is picked up on a drug charge (Boss Paul Vario had strictly forbidden Narcotic trafficking), Hill finds himself in the Mob's bad graces, and since he knows Jimmy pulled the Lufthansa heist, he may just end up Jimmy's next victim....and along comes the F.B.I. with an offer Henry literally can't refuse.....

Wiseguy was made into an amazing movie by Director Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas), and I was surprised to find that the book is even more engrossing than the movie it inspired. I literally hated to put the book down. The day-to-day business of the Mob is utterly engrossing, and Hill piles the details on so thick, you actually feel like you know him, and Pileggi does a great job of reporting what happened, but never glamorizing Hill, or making us forget who he is, or what he did.

An amazing book. Just amazing.

Rating:
Summary: He still loves the life.
Review: Wise guy what a book. The story of Henry hill his life in the Mob. All what he knows and did. The friends he had the ones he lost. How he got out and lives on. Just had to read it over and over again. What really went on in his life. It feels like that you are inside his mind.

Rating:
Summary: Wise Guy
Review: Mr.Nicholas Pileggi tells a great true to life story of a connected guy.Who at one time had it all and then saw it all go away.After truning on people he'd known for years.He made some good scores in his day.But was also on the inside of one of the biggest hiest in history.

Rating:
Summary: Save time: simply watch the movie
Review: I liked "Wise Guy", but I saw the movie "Goodfellas" before reading this book. While I have nothing bad to say about the book, I actually found the movie just as good in detailing the life and times of Henry Hill. So you can spend either a couple of hours watching Scorsese and De Niro at their best, or possibly longer reading this book. The choice is yours!

Rating:
Summary: True Portrayal of Professional Crime
Review: Goodfellas is one of my all-time favorite movies, but the book, Wiseguy, is 3 times as better. It gives first hand accounts of actual events and what the mind set was for Henry Hill, Jimmy Burke, Paul Vario, and others. What I loved about it, is while reading the book it almost tells a fantasy story, but it almost strikes a little fear in you when you can actually find info on the Lufthansa heist or Jimmy Burke's obituarry. The fear comes from that most of our society lives via day by day rules versus these guys had a completely different way of living, which to the average citizen is totally unacceptable. I definetly give this book two thumbs, all the way up!!

Rating:
Summary: This book is a must read.....
Review: this is an excellent book. dont be fooled by the paperback disguise. i really dont even enjoy reading and i mustve read this book in and out at least four times. it is the most gut wrenching book i have ever opened. it is truly a classic. Henry hill is the most interesting individual i have ever learned about. as a matter of fact, this book deserves six stars !!!!!

Rating:
Summary: A storytelling masterpiece - crime or otherwise.
Review: The most compelling first hand narrative on organised crime ever written, or likely to be. Henry Hill had two great advantages as storyteller - freedom to more or less spill the beans (unlike key contributors to 'Casino') and, as Pileggi notes, an unusual ability to stand back from his own experiences and describe them objectively, "to see the scenery along the way" as Pileggi puts it. This combination results in a breathless ride through the nearly 30 years of Henry's career as a Lucchese associate in Queens (being half Irish he could never be 'made', but a winning personality and excellent earning capacity gave him an unusually privy position). Pileggi's unobtrusive marshalling of his subject is exemplary. To read this in concert with 'Goodfellas' is to understand what an amazingly succesful and sympathetic adaptation Scorcese and Pileggi achieved in that film. A great read.

Rating:
Summary: The ultimate mobster read
Review: Like most others i had already seen the movie "Goodfellas", so i expected quite high things from this books, and i wasnt dissapointed.Although Henry Hill was not a made man in the Lucchese family, he was very close to some top guys including capo Paul Vario who eventually some say rose to underboss in the family,and at one point in the book even mentions meeting with Thomas Lucchese himself,so he did seem to have an good inside knowledge.You had to love Jimmy Burke in the book (de niro's character in the film)i thought they must have exaggerated him in the film but it looks like they didnt.The book takes you on a rollercoaster ride through 20 years of scams, murders and robberies, culminating in the now infamous Lufthansa airline theft from JFK airport,which in the end ripped apart this colouful and charasmatic crew and tuned Hill into an informant, (mind they always have some excuse dont they?)Any mob buffs out there who havnt read it, read it. For me its the best out of the lot.