Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia - Joseph Pistone

The title tells you pretty much everything you need to know. Donnie Brasco is a firsthand account of Pistone’s six year-long stint undercover in the New York mob. Though first launched as a six-month project to take down a fencing operation, Pistone’s assignment changed unexpectedly when, in an effort to ingratiate himself enough to get evidence, he became a trusted figure with the Bonnano crime family. Ultimately he stayed undercover for six years, and by the time he was extracted he had nearly become a made man, a crownign achievement for an FBI officer.

One of the more surprising things to me aobut the book was learning that undercover work in the 70s was pretty much a new field, at least for the FBI. The organization had only started planting people a few years before, and much of the protocol was yet to be established. The upshot of this was that Pistone was constantly at risk, not just of discovery by the mob, but also of legal ramifications, since there were no clear lines as to what sort of behavioral was acceptable in order t oestablish his role.

Pistone tells the story in a plain, conversational way, making no effort to amp up the drama or embellish. The writing isn’t flashy, which works well. It almost seems like it could have been a recorded interview rather than a written book. Possibly it was. The story ends abruptyl, and though the last few pages provide some follow up, it doesn’t satisfy as a climax—however, since it’s a real story, I appreciate that it felt honest and unfabricated. There was no big reveal, no final tense conversation between him and Lefty. He was simply extracted one day, and that was the end of it.

Overall, it was an interesting story and an easy read. Not something to pursue for the language or style, but worth knowing.

I Heard You Paint Houses - Charles Brandt

I had I Heard You Pain Houses on hold from the library for a long time, so when I finally got it, I wasn’t sure how interested I’d be in the subject matter. A lot of times I’ll request a hold but my interest will drift away to other things by the time it arrives. But this book grabbed me immediately. Part of its appeal was certainly the writing, which is crisp and evocative without being ornate, but the biggest draw is its subject: Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, mob fixer and killer of Jimmy Hoffa.

Sheeran has led what is inarguably an interesting life. Born poor to an abusive father who would pit in against older boys in fights for money, Sheeran’s upbringing was the very definnition fo hardscrabble. He joined the army and saw over 400 days of combat in Italy, a fact that Brandt notes is remarkably above average for an enlisted soldier, and may have worn away the guardrails that keep most people from engaging in the peculiar profession he found later in life.

Once he left the army, he bounced around on the fringes until finding himself in the orbit of organized crime, particularly that of kingpin Russell Bufalino. Russell becomes a surrogate father figure for Sheeran, protecting him during his missteps and cultivating in him a loyal and fearsome soldier. Frank’s admiration for Bufalino is matched only by his love for Jimmy Hoffa, president of the Teamster’s Union, which makes their final bloody moments together particularly tragic.

Much fo the book is told in first person, as Frank recounts his remarkable life in the form of an extended confession. Brandt intersperses additional detail throughout. The format is fluid and effective. At first I thought it might feel choppy, but Brandt knows when context is helpful and when Frank can tell it best.

Some of Frank’s accounts stretch the boundaries of credibility, and he has was Brandt himself admits a Forrest Gump-like tendency to find himself pulled into pivotal events. To hear Frank tell it, he drove a truckload of supplies to the Cuban expats who undertook the Bay of Pigs invasion, and delivered the rifle that ultimately wound up in Lee Harvey Oswald’s hands on November 22, 1963. I found some of this a little hard to swallow, and I dont’ doubt that frnak has coloured things to paint himself in the best possible light, but Brandt is a seasoned interrogator, and backs up some of the loftier claims with meticulous research and independent verification. The result is a fascinating book about the fascinating life of a complex and deeply flawed man. Worth reading.