Wiseguy

Product Information

Needless to say, Henry and his pals are amoral scumbags, and Hill is a sociopath whose justification for his crimes is that his needs outweigh everyone else's, and he dismisses anyone who is hardworking, honest or trusting as weak and just asking to be ripped off. It wasn’t that Henry was a boss. And it had nothing to do with his lofty rank within a crime family or the easy viciousness with which hoods from Henry’s world are identified. Henry, in fact, was neither of high rank nor particularly vicious; he wasn’t even tough as far as the cops could determine. What distinguished Henry from most of the other wiseguys who were under surveillance was the fact that he seemed to have total access to all levels of the mob world.” GoodFellas' is an amazing tale, and a wonderful evocation of a bygone era but is one of those rare occasions where the film is all you really need. The book was interesting and very informative. I found it very helpful and saw a lot of areas that I could learn from other guys in. Warners’ first original feature of the Warner Bros. Discovery era is here … and it’s a period mobster drama fronted by two Hollywood veterans.

Each chapter discusses how to learn the topic from other guys, often with the author relating personal stories. That is followed by a Lessons Learned section that discusses how to apply that topic to your own life, and the chapter ends with questions to consider. With a mixture of self-deprecating humor and personal stories, Evans leads the reader through the life lessons he has learned from 16 diverse men. The author attributes much of the decline in mentoring to the rapid growth of fatherless homes and absentee dads over the last 50 years. This was a wonderful read in so many ways. It’s the only time in my reading experience where I’ve read and thoroughly enjoyed the book after seeing the movie, and believe me, I’ve seen the movie countless times. Scorsese- the greatest filmmaker of all time- masterfully brought it to life on screen (as only Scorsese could). It doesn’t matter if you’ve seen GoodFellas, you will enjoy the book nonetheless and that is A RARITY. I always recommend reading the book first or the movie will mar the reading experience. For all the books I’ve read where I saw the movie first I always end up hating the book. Every. Single. Time. Except this one.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 The purpose of this book is not to help the reader understand the author’s intention or life story. Neither is it to gather something “to learn” from the title. Rather, the purpose is singular: to re-instill in the male reader the need to journey through life with other men and to seek counsel from other men. The need to learn how to learn from other men. The realization that not having a father figure in one’s youth does not remove a father figure in one’s adulthood. The acceptance that not having a dad does not mean not having a father, because there are other men that can help fill that need. These goals, these purposes, are of great benefit to the male reader, and this book is best for any male that struggled with having a father figure or need to learn how to be one themselves. I bet that counts most of us in. The author writes convincingly and in an easy prose to read along, so what’s the harm in spending one’s afternoon seeing what the full book as to say? Part of me wishes that I had read this book, which directly inspired Goodfellas, without having seen or even having any knowledge of the movie. There’s so much about Goodfellas that seems outrageous and over-the-top and made up, so it was almost weird to learn that Henry Hill was a real person, and that everything he describes in his memoir actually happened. Having seen the movie created this weird mental disconnect where even though I knew I was reading a memoir, it still felt kind of like a novel. (It also doesn’t help that the narration in Goodfellas is practically lifted word-for-word from the text of Hill’s memoir, to the point where I hope he got a screenwriter’s credit for the movie) The Boston College point shaving scheme, for example. It's barely alluded to in Goodfellas (just once, by a low level con man named Morris, right before Tommy, Joe Pesci's famously terrifying character, drives a shiv repeatedly into his brain stem). Wiseguy, with more room to roam, delves into the nitty gritty. If, like me, you're fascinated by such details, then the book is an indispensable companion of the film.

The idea of this book is that we men tend to try to do everything ourselves and have the idea that it is unmanly to seek advice or help from other guys. The author covers such things as how to correct gently, always be asking, exercise tangible grace, and many others covered in the 17 chapters. So, if like me, you’ve seen the film multiple times, is it worth reading the book? Probably not. It’s good but the overwhelming sense of familiarity makes it all feel very recognisable. That said, if you really love the film then you will inevitably still get quite a lot out of reading the book including quite a lot of interesting detail about what the authorities did leading up to Henry Hill's arrest, and the aftermath of his entry into the Federal Witness Program.Directed by Scorsese from a screenplay by himself and Eric Roth, Killers of the Flower Moon boasts a seriously star-studded cast led by Emmy nominee and the star of Breaking Bad, Jesse Plemons as lawman, Tom White, with DiCaprio due to play Ernest Burkhart alongside De Niro as his uncle, the American cattleman and convicted murderer William Hale. My husband said: For me, this book needs to be my next devotional. Since Kent Evans bases these virtues of manhood on Biblical principles, I see a practical guide on how I can change myself to be a better man on the inside. Other books on being a better man focused on the outside (shine your shoes, get a tailored shirt) but any scoundrel can shine shoes and wear a suit. I’ve been wanting a guide that shows boys how to be men and men to be brothers and not adversaries. This will be required reading for myself and can’t be totally absorbed through one pass. It’ll be hard but it will be worth it. Nicholas Pileggi admitted somewhere that the screenplay for Goodfellas, co-written with Martin Scorsese, improved on his book: it's more succinct, more impactful. He was right. Alongside Wise Guys, Robert De Niro has several other intriguing projects currently in the pipeline. The actor will next reunite with both director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio for the Western crime epic, Killers of the Flower Moon. Based on the non-fiction book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon will explore the real-life murders which took place in the Osage Nation in the 1920s after oil was discovered on tribal land. The incident sparked a major FBI investigation directed by a 29-year-old J. Edgar Hoover and former Texas Ranger Tom White. The book “Wiseguy” is about Henry Hill a member of the Lucchese crime family.The book itself tells a different perspective of the “Mob”. Its seen through the eyes of Nicholas Pileggi the author but told to by Hill himself . It displays an interesting outlook,Mob movies books characters have fascinated the world for so long and its the belief that their is another world more exhilarating and exciting fast paced and the common person is just looking to escape the real world into a book or another life.