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Donnie Brasco  By  cover art

Donnie Brasco

By: Joseph D. Pistone
Narrated by: Joseph D. Pistone
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Publisher's summary

Posing as a jewel thief Donnie Brasco, FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone worked undercover for six years to infiltrate the flamboyant and deadly community of Mafia wise guys, captains, and bosses. Now his eyewitness account brings to pulsing life the code of honor, loyalties, treacheries, and dirty dealings of unforgettable characters.
©1987 Joseph D. Pistone with Richard Woodley (P)2009 Audio Holdings, LLC

Critic reviews

"So entertaining you have to remind yourself it's deadly serious." ( Boston Globe)
"Compelling and gripping....Raw, hard-hitting non-fiction at its best....A revealing investigative work." ( Toronto Star)

What listeners say about Donnie Brasco

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Straight from the horses mouth...

This is an awesome audio book, period. Rarely do you get a chance to hear this kind of stuff from someone who was actually 'in' the mafia... You will hear some things that are not in the movie. One final point about this is that Joe Pistone (author and narrator), is easy to listen to. Johnny Depp came scarily close to imitating his voice in the film, its easy to imagine its actually him narrating this at times. You will not be disappointed!

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Audiobook

This is a great audiobook, my only complaint is that it's abridged, I would have much had a longer unabridged version. However, even abridged this is great as it's read by Pistone who does a good job but the thing that puts it over the top are the actual recordings that are weaved into the production. It's rare that any publisher puts any effort into non-fiction audiobooks so they deserve credit when they pull it off.

The book goes hand in hand with the movie and also points out how the movie plays loose with the facts. Growing up in the Tampa Bay area and seeing the movie, I had no idea that half of this book took place only a few minutes from where I grew up. I had no idea that all those bingo halls that were all over the place, normally in abandoned supermarkets were mob run. I only bring it up since in the movie everything outside of NY takes place in or around Miami, which isn't actually true most of the time.

Other things that make this great is when they're talking about flying to Florida to get a few hundred dollars -- it takes away from the whole glamorous angle of things when you realize the lower level guys are taking $39 flights to pick-up $250 at a time.

Anyways it's a great book, if you enjoyed the movie you'll enjoy the book.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Awesome story / Bad reading

The story was awesome. I watched the movie a dozen times or more also. I thought this would be great being narrated by the legend himself, but no so much. I wanted this to be like he was telling the story not reading. His reading of the story was not good at all. The story itself is worth getting this.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Disappointed

There is an incredible story here but it is not delivered. The book is rather short, leaving you with all sorts of unanswered questions. I've since seen interviews with Joe Pistone where he tells really interesting stories that aren't even included in the book. This was a wonderful opportunity to describe how the mafia operates but it really doesn't deliver. And finally, Joe Pistone's reading is like listening to a 10-year old deliver his book report to the class.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not as good as it could have been

What did you like best about Donnie Brasco? What did you like least?

I love the Donnie Brasco movie and I've been wanting to read this memoir for quite some time. I wish he had hired a writer to help him with this memoir because this story has so much potential to be incredible. But it's just a memoir from a guy who isn't a writer in any way trying to communicate this incredible thing that happened. And then they let him narrate it. He's not a performer. It takes a lot of talent to perform audio books. It's not just something you do, much like writing a book takes skill.

But I will say this, I Really appreciated and enjoyed the real life audio clips between the characters in the story.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Better than the film

Man this story is great! Makes sense that they made a movie out of it.
Joe Pistone is the author and narrator, the problem is he can’t read…

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Story Telling; narration can be forgiven

Ok let me first start off by getting the obvious out of the way. Joe Pistone is not a professional voice actor. So yes, the narration is a little wooden - but i wouldn’t want anyone else to narrate it.

You’ve got the man who LIVED this incredible, dangerous, selfless story, to narrate it. That’s amazing. Hearing his voice back and forth between the narration and the wire taps is amazing. The whole story and listen was amazing.

So yes, after a few minutes of listening you might be a little turned off by the narration, but just keep listening. This is one heck of a story.

Aces Mr. Pistone.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Terrible reader

This is a great story but the reading is awful. I had to stop listening after awhile

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting reporter style narrative

This was not a great literary work, but was strangely engaging. It’s narrated by the author in a stiffly read, factual tone. He recounts conversations and incidents from his time working undercover in the mafia. I enjoyed it.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Worst reader

I like the story having seen the movie it’s pretty spot on …the narrator is a little complicated.

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1 person found this helpful