The Way of the Wiseguy: True Stories from the FBI's Most Famous Undercover Agent [With CD]

by Joseph D. Pistone and Joe Pistone

Book Overview

Now in paperback, here's the first nonfiction work from Joe Pistone since his New York Times #1 bestseller and hit movie, Donnie Brasco. Perhaps no man alive knows the lifestyle of wiseguys better... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0762418397
• ISBN13: 9780762418398
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Running Press Book Publishers
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Pretty Good

I liked the book. It gives you some really good inside info, such as How wiseguys get respect, How wiseguys take out a contract and Who can be apart of the Mafia. Mr. Pistone explains that you have to be a "White male of Italian descent" in order to be in the Mafia." DUH!!!

Great writer

No one can write about the "Wiseguys" like Joe Pistone. We love his books.

Experience + Insight

This book is a concise and easy read that pulls you in with its brutally honest look at this fascinating sect of society. The audio CD, which contains a real FBI surveillance tape of Lefty Rugerro discussing murder and other business, is fascinating and chilling. I'd say that alone is worth the purchase.

BADA-BINGO!!

Forget The Sopranos. Ignore Scorcese. Chuck your copy of The Godfather DVDs into the Hudson and let it sleep with the fishes. This is the real deal from a guy who was in tight -- close enough to smell what filthy rats mafia guys really are. It's about time somebody cut through all the Goodfellas/Code of Honor nonsense and showed these not-so-wiseguys for what they really are: ignorant brutes who'd put one in the back of their best friend's head for no reason at all. Thanks, Joe. You did a great service to society by putting dozens of these scumbags away. Now, you've set the record straight about what they're really all about in "The Way of the Wiseguy."

Brasco does it again

This book was an excellent read. Told in Joe Pistone?s authentic voice, it provides an alternative viewpoint to Hollywood?s glamorized version of the mafia?a viewpoint that we don?t see often enough. I particularly enjoyed the format. The book is interspersed with some shorter chapters and some longer ones, each consisting of anecdotes that teach lessons about the wiseguy?s lifestyle. So whether you?ve got an hour to sit down and read it, or whether you?ve only got 10 minutes here and there, you can pick up The Way of the Wiseguy at any point and be entertained and enlightened.Informative, funny, and poignant all at once, Pistone brought me closer to being inside the mafia than I'll ever be. And convinced me that I don't ever want to get any closer.