Customer Reviews

The Mad Ones: Crazy Joe Gallo and the Revolution at the Edge of the Underworld

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Growing up in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn at the same time as Crazy Joey - as we then knew him, I had a passing familiarity with Joey and his 'family'. He was a cheap violent punk, always trying to impress people with his 'badness'. He was perceived as a low life wannabe, neither smart enough nor connected enough to be a real player. The author accurately relays the time lines of Joey's life and the names of the people around him at the time but he falls far short of telling us what made Joey tick, what drove him. The book is a chronology but not a biography. Even then, the chronology bounces back and forth in time with no clear pattern and without a linking of events to Joey's personality. It's a broad brush overview with no subtleties or flavor.

I've heard Folson talk about this book on at least 3 different occasions and it sounded incredible. But it's kind of like when they show you the great trailers of a bad movie. There was so much potential. Great characters: Joe himself, his intersection with the 60's Greenwich Village scene is just touched on. That's a book in itself. Why not spend some time on Dylan's 11 minute song on Gallo? Joey's time in jail was grazed upon. The whole Columbo rallies and murder were major news in NYC and it was just passed by. At the end the Umberto's climax was handled as an afterthought. I grew up in that area, hung out across the street from Umberto's and believe me it was a big thing for a long time. I guess I came away from this book not really knowing anybody in the book, not finding what they did real interesting and very very disappointed. I feel bad because I loved hearing the author describe it and I know writing a book is hard. I am taking the author's recommendation to read Chief by Albert Seedman and just the introduction is better already than the Mad Ones. Sorry Tom.

...don't waste your money on this one. I was sucked in by Tom Folsom's appearance on Jon Stewart and then a few "helpful" reviews that droned on about what a great story the Gallo brothers were. ...and that's true... However, Tom Folsom completely blows the telling of this story with cryptic sentences, erratic scene changes, minimal research and just plain blathering nonsense. I had to put the book down, turn on my laptop, and write this review - something I've never done with any other book.

This book isn't just a waste of money, but a waste of time. Thankfully there are many other books that focus on this milieu and era. But unfortunately one of the great stories during this time was completely botched.

The title comes from the Jack Kerouac quote: "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn." And that's exactly how Joey Gallo lived his life.

The Mad Ones is the story of Joey and his brothers--Larry and Albert "Kid Blast" Gallo--a family of young gangsters whose revolution against New York City's Cosa Nostra in the 1960s was fueled by Joey Gallo's immersion into the hip Greenwich Village Beat scene. Bob Dylan (who wrote "Joey" about him), Bobby Kennedy, Pete Hamill, Gay Talese, Jimmy Breslin, Mario Puzo, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Orbach--an incredible roster of people spun through Joey Gallo's life before he was gunned down in Little Italy in '72. Gay Talese points out that "He almost became one of the beautiful people."

The Mad Ones delves into territory unexpected in a "mob book." Much of the story deals with Joey's having explored the artistic and cultural worlds of the turbulent sixties.

Sure, it's a lot like "Goodfellas" and "Mean Streets," but in spirit it also shares a lot with Godard's French classic "Band of Outsiders," and the Gallo boys more closley resemble Depression-era gangsters like Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger than they do Don Corleone.

The Mad Ones also captures a grittier era of New York City (specifically downtown and in Brooklyn) that is long, long gone.

Terrific story all around.

Author Tom Folsom has let Joey Gallo go to his head. The result is an odd, self-indulgent stylistic exercise, comparably authentic to Dick Van Dyke's cockney accent in Mary Poppins but less entertaining. On many pages, his efforts to convey the beat/mobster milieu work to grind the narrative to a jarring halt, with his overwrought prose sucking all of the oxygen out of the room, leaving nothing for his subject. It's an ineffective gimmick and Folsom lacks the literary chops to pull it off. He's the square in the first row of a club in the Village -- snapping his fingers but way off beat daddy-o.

On the other hand, the dust jacket is brilliant.

Mad Ones is more like a creative writing exercise than a book. The style is so forced and all the information, I mean all, is taken directly from other books or articles on Joey Gallo. There is no new reporting or interviews at all. Though you might not realize it after reading Mad Ones, the story of Joey Gallo is truly an all-time mob classic. The guy and his brothers and that whole crew from Red Hook were nuts. And the idea of connecting the Gallos, who basically were taking on the organized crime establishment, to the counter culture movement in NYC at the time is a great one. But that forced Kerouac style makes it impossible to follow the story of Joey Gallo and the author doesn't even take a stab at relaying what was going on counter culture-wise in NYC at the time.
Anyone who's interested in the real Gallo story should pick up Joey by Donald Goddard, The Killing of Joey Gallo by Harvey Aronson, The Luparelli Tapes by Paul Meskil or even The Sixth Family by Pete "The Greek" Diapoulous (Gallo's former bodyguard) and Steven Linakis.

I am from Brooklyn, NY Italian born and raised there. Have read many books about the mob. It amazes me that all this stuff was going on in the very streets I walked but sometimes was not very evident. This book is not about how many hits someone did and the details. It is about the "softer side of Joey Gallo". It reveals his family ties, his mother's love, his love of the arts. Joey Gallo could have become a very productive person if his life had not been cut short. He ingratiated himself to the Ohrbachs - Jerry and Marta...they loved him and were proud to include him in their trusted circle of friends. Like Bill Bonnanno (Honor Thy Father) you get a picture of his emotions, his quest for power but also I believe he wanted to have none of the Bad Guy label...he could have achieved greatness I believe. I came away with reading this book that I was sorry he is gone. Would have liked to see if he could have become given the opportunity. I have already recommended this book to all my friends and relatives from Brooklyn. Great book. If you are looking for blood and gorey details...this is not your usual Mob book.

GalfromBrooklyn
Ellicott City, Md

If you lived in the New York, New Jersey or Philly area in the early 70s then you certainly heard of 'Crazy Joe' Gallo because of Jimmy Breslin or Pete Hamill's articles and Gallo's penchant for publicity.
Not the worst of mobsters nor the best of celebrities Joey Gallo fell somewhere in between and for awhile, he managed to pull it off. Tom Folsom does a good job in finding the right feel for the time and place with his book and reveals a side to Gallo that is seldom seen- as the would be Beat poet with a curiosity for the intellectual. He delves into his criminal side as well- the mobbed up side, which was one of the primary reasons why Gallo got gunned down in Umberto's Clam House. Somebody was mad for what he was doing, what he had done or what he was thinking about doing. Unlike politics or those 'other crooks' on Wall Street, the Mafia is at least more honest about who they destroy and why.
An interesting book and one that fits nicely with Breslin's The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight.

I may read this book again if they translate it and publish it in english. It seems it was written for the people it was written about, few of whom (besides Joey) ever read a book, and most of whom are currently dead.

This certainly sounded like a cracking good story from the book jacket and publicity blurbs, but I found it difficult to read because of poor organization and exposition. Especially in the early chapters, I could not tell what was past (background) and what was the current story line. Eventually I gave up and did not finish. Really disappointing, given the fantastic material.