| Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family (G K Hall Large Print Book Series) |  | Author: Nicholas Pileggi
Publisher: G. K. Hall & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy Used: $6.61
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Avg. Customer Rating:  106 reviews
Sales Rank: 1083704
Format: Large Print
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 331
ISBN: 0816142068
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.150924
EAN: 9780816142064
ASIN: 0816142068
Publication Date: June 1987
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Ex-library book with usual stickers and markings. Typical library reading and shelf wear. Has a SALVAGE stamp inside or on page edges. Has bumped corners and worn edges.
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Product Description
"At the age of twelve my ambition was to become a gangster. To be a wiseguy. Being a wiseguy was better than being President of the United States. To be a wiseguy was to own the world." -- Henry Hill Wiseguy is Nicholas Pileggi's remarkable bestseller, the most intimate account ever printed of life inside the deadly high-stakes world of what some people call the Mafia. Wiseguy is Henry Hill's story, in fascinating, brutal detail, the never-before-revealed day-to-day life of a working mobster -- his violence, his wild spending sprees, his wife, his mistresses, his code of honor. Henry Hill knows where a lot of bodies are buried, and he turned Federal witness to save his own life. The mob is still hunting him for what he reveals in Wiseguy: hundreds of crimes including arson, extortion, hijacking, and the $6 million Lufthansa heist, the biggest successful cash robbery in U.S. history, which led to ten murders. A firsthand account of the secret world of the mob, Wiseguy is more compelling than any novel.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 101 more reviews...
 An Engrossing Book About a Despicable Mobster July 12, 2008
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.
 this really happens June 27, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
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
MOVIE STRIAGHT FROM BOOK January 14, 2008
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.
Awesome July 23, 2007
GREAT book. It's great to read about Henry Hill, of whom the movie Goodfellas was made. A must for any fan of Goodfellas!
 Filling out the GoodFellas story July 2, 2007
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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