Donnie Brasco
by Joseph D. Pistone

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Book Reviews of Donnie Brasco

Book Review: The Veritable Truth About The Mafia
Summary: 5 Stars

I am certain that Joe Pistone never came close to fathoming how far he would infiltrate the Mafia when he began his undercover operation. It was as if he set out to climb a mountain just to get to the first summit, then realized he could get to the next and the next and so on. Before he knew it, he had won the confidence of those who considered him to be their peer and ultimately put most of them in the slammer. Had he remained undercover for another year he would have been the first FBI Agent in history to become a "made" member of the Mafia. Imagine what a psychological blow that would have been to the mob!

What Pistone does is give a more in-depth view of the mindset involved with the Mafia. He gives an eyewitness description that shows individual members of the Mafia in their most graphic human forms from the volatile Tony Mirra to the loudmouth Lefty. He even showed a side of Sonny Black that nobody would have otherwise seen. Although I have very little sympathy for Black for "getting whacked," Pistone did show that Black at least had a heart to contrast the notches on his gun.

I also recommend that you not take the movie seriously. While the movie is interesting, I estimated it to be about 85 percent fiction. Pistone's description of his wife showed a very strong woman who would not have stayed with a man who hit her the way he was alleged to have done in the movie. Pistone was also never present when a hit went down, an associate named Nick did not get whacked, Santo Trafficante and Sonny Black were not present on the ABSCAM boat and there were numerous other liberties taken in the movie that left me very disappointed.

It actually surprised me when a standard-length movie allegedly based on the book was made. "Donnie Brasco" was better suited to be a made-for-TV mini-series. The mini-series would have provided a better opportunity to reveal the truth. The movie version that we got instead must have left Pistone himself nauseated.

Summary of Donnie Brasco

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