Wiseguy

By: Nicholas Pileggi

Narrated by: Nicholas Pileggi

Nicholas Pileggi’s vivid, unvarnished, journalistic chronicle of the life of Henry Hill—the working-class Brooklyn kid who knew from age twelve that “to be a wiseguy was to own the world,” who grew up to live the highs and lows of the mafia gangster’s life—has been hailed as “the best book ever written on organized crime” (Cosmopolitan).

This is the true-crime bestseller that was the basis for Martin Scorsese’s film masterpiece GoodFellas, which brought to life the violence, the excess, the families, the wives and girlfriends, the drugs, the payoffs, the paybacks, the jail time, and the Feds…with Henry Hill’s crackling narration drawn straight out of Wiseguy and overseeing all the unforgettable action. “Nonstop...absolutely engrossing” (The New York Times Book Review).

Read it and experience the secret life inside the mob—from one who’s lived it.

Too choppy

I think I might have liked this book in its unabridged form, however, as an abridged book it is too choppy. Having only the movie to compare it to-a lot of important elements were left out, such as the murder of Billy Bats, burying the body and eventually the murder of Tommy. All in all the book didn't feel so much abridged as gutted.

One good thing the book did was to whet my appetite for the full version.

If you’ve seen the movie not much new here

There are a few details that the movie producers changed from the book but not enough to buy the book. If you’ve seen the movie you have the story.

Good read even after I'd seen the movie 25 yrs ago

I'd read a bad review and was skeptical about the book. Having listened, it gave more detail and seemed more accurate than the movie was, although it's still my #1 gangster movie!

Goodfellas

If you like Goodfellas, the movie you will love this tells you more in depth what really happened?

Half the story left out!!

The abridged version was worse than no version at all. So much was left out the story is incomprehensible.