 "An Engrossing Book About a Despicable Mobster" | 2008-07-12 |
| - Reviewed By xenocrates-x |
Among true mobster stories, this book rates well for its nonstop depiction of events and exceptional character development. Henry Hill's narration provides considerable depth into the personalities of his cohorts allowing the reader to grasp the motives and mindsets of true gangsters as they pull of heist after heist. To give further credence to this book, my wife, who despises the very existence of the mob, also found this book enthralling, even in disgust.
Wise Guy details the life of Henry Hill from a young impressionable boy stumbling into crime to his life as a full fledge mobster. Henry's relationship with some made men in the Italian Mafia add intrigue; however it is his close friendship with fellow gangsters Tommy and Jimmy that prove to be the most fascinating as their personalities create a whirlwind of interest.
Henry eventually brings his own life to a halt due to his drug use and trafficking, and ends up entering the witness protection program by ratting out his friends and associates. This story has so many interesting twists and turns one wonders if Henry was not also guilty of embellishing his own life story to add further romance to the idea of the life of a wise guy. Whether one fully accepts every aspect of the book or views it as merely guided view on an otherwise despicable life, one has the luxury of finding out within a fully engrossing book.
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 "this really happens" | 2008-06-27 |
| - Reviewed By User: AXAINAOVOD0MC |
| good fellas was based on this book and this book was really based on a rat there is no good guys only foolish not so good not so attached to humanity type guys. the outline of the book and the movie stayed the same just like with casino |
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| "MOVIE STRIAGHT FROM BOOK" | 2008-01-14 |
| - Reviewed By User: A333UVT4I5S8BW |
| If you've seen the movie, then you've read the book. And that's a testiment to the movie producers because this book is awesome. |
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| "Awesome" | 2007-07-23 |
| - Reviewed By krajewski |
| GREAT book. It's great to read about Henry Hill, of whom the movie Goodfellas was made. A must for any fan of Goodfellas! |
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 "Filling out the GoodFellas story" | 2007-07-02 |
| - Reviewed By y2jk |
If you've seen the movie GOODFELLAS and remain curious about the book...then definitely check out Nicholas Pileggi's "Wiseguy."
This is the whole story of "Henry Hill," the lower level mobster who could never be made (he was not a full-blood Italian) but was such a great earner that he made his own place in the Mob.
I'm a huge fan of GOODFELLAS and it's great to see how Scorsese & Company bring the book to life. You'll often run across lines of dialogue straight from the narrative that ended up in the movie. And the book is fascinating and chilling reminder that this stuff really happened.
But the book also fills in the story that the movie could only touch on. Henry's military service was completely left out of the film but is discussed here, a funny chapter about how he applied his mob money-making methods while serving his country. The book also discusses their biggest heist in detail, something not shown in the film (Henry hears of the heist while taking a shower and we never see or hear about how they pulled it off). Pileggi does a great job of weaving in New York and Mafia history as Henry tell his story.
All in all, "Wiseguy" is definitely a book for anyone interested in the Mafia, a lean, fast-moving biography that sheds much more light on the GOODFELLAS phenomenon. |
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| "Good Quick Read" | 2007-04-16 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1TTYKPIEJYCF5 |
| If you like the movie this fills in some of the spots! Interestingly, the movie is a little more entertaining but this wasnt bad for some light reading. |
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| "An engrossing account of a Mafia Soldier" | 2007-03-12 |
| - Reviewed By zon_fiar |
It is amazing reading the book after having seen Goodfellas several times. The book itself reads like the script, with so much of it exactly as it appeared in the book. On the flip side there is a lot that happened in the book that the movie didn't cover, as well as there being a ton more detail than the movie, which is to be expected.
It is almost shocking enough to doubt its validity, but then we see the investigations and police reports and so on and there is no way he made it up. Hill may have embellished a little, but for the most part this is a very well documented and supported account of a mafia soldier.
You should definitely read this book whether you have seen the movie or not. They are both great in and of themselves but they add a lot to one another in completing the picture. I would say to read The Valachi Papers first as this give insight into how the Cosa Nostra came about and how it lead into where Henry Hill joined it. A definite recommend.
5 stars. |
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| "Mob Mentality" | 2007-02-09 |
| - Reviewed By slokes@optonline.net |
Henry Hill was an enterprising young man. Before the age of 16, he was already making more money than his father by torching cars, selling junk Christmas trees, and serving drinks to the most dangerous men in Brooklyn. While his peers struggled through college, he made thousands of dollars a week the easy way, committing assorted crimes under the benevolent eye of the Lucchese crime family.
"For Henry and his wiseguy friends the world was golden," Nicholas Pileggi writes in this, his 1985 account of Hill's life. "They lived in an environment awash in crime, and those who did not partake were simply viewed as prey."
Most people who know this story do so primarily from the classic film Martin Scorsese made from it, "Goodfellas." While "Wise Guy" doesn't capture the same glitzy ambience, it more than compensates with a strong narrative drive that keeps you reading as Hill's career in crime takes him in and out of prison and to one of the most spectacular thefts in American history, the $6 million Lufthansa heist at Kennedy Airport in 1978. As the money grows around Henry, so does the body count, until he is persuaded to turn state's evidence in order to save his own skin.
Pileggi's most impressive feat in his book is making you feel like you are along for the ride, immersed as you are in Henry's world. Cigarette cartons aren't stolen, they're "boosted." Guys aren't killed, they're "whacked," with two behind the ear. Drugs are "whacked," too, in a different way, as in giving a package of heroin "a whack with quinine."
Life has a totally twisted meaning in Henry's world. Crime is seen as a form of manliness, both by Henry and his not-so-innocent wife Karen, who says watching her husband pistol-whip a guy outside her home neighborhood was a total turn-on. Hill's own neighborhood was a breeding ground for crime: "Brownsville-East New York was the kind of neighborhood that cheered successful mobsters the way West Point cheered victorious generals."
As with the movie, I am suspicious of the way Hill is depicted here, as a non-lethal guy who happened to be befriended by homicidal maniacs. The book passes over one critical element of Hill's story: Karen's active complicity as a messenger and lover of Lucchese family capo Paul Vario. What else did this weasel sneak past Pileggi?
No matter; the result is a terrific book, not spoiled a bit if you happened to see "Goodfellas" first. In fact, as others have pointed out in their reviews, the book is better read after seeing the movie, as it slows the story down and makes you feel the magnitude of what Hill and his cronies were up to. If it's not 100% on the level, it may be as close as you can get to that life without getting yourself capped. |
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| "If you have already seen the movie...." | 2006-12-27 |
| - Reviewed By jtltke1372 |
| ...you may be wondering if you should read the book as well. The answer is yes. There is a lot of fascinating stuff in the book that is not covered in the movie or explained in much greater detail. |
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| "A good, quick read." | 2005-09-07 |
| - Reviewed By greg@treyarch.com |
| If you liked the movie Goodfellas, then this is a must-read. |
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