From Publishers Weekly
This memoir, rather than glamorizing Mafia figures, lays to rest the myths of the quintessential loving, cohesive and protective Italian-American family on the fringes of New York City organized crime. Manca grew up in a home presided over by a brutal grandfather--one of Lucky Luciano's boys--who beat him regularly while his parents sat by, not daring to interfere. In due course Manca became a police officer and within a few weeks began using his badge as a way to steal, cheat and extort, which he portrays as standard practice in the NYPD of 1954-1963. Dismissed from the force, he worked all sorts of scams as "half a wiseguy," allied with but not a member of the Cosa Nostra. Eventually he was imprisoned, then put in the Federal Witness Protection Program. Written with Cosgrove ( The Hemingway Papers ) the book, oddly, does little for Manca's image: he emerges as a self-indulgent, essentially amoral human being whose only expressed regret at age 60 is that his schemes have failed.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Manca, a wannabe wiseguy, needs a scam. Having spent his entire life running one con game after another, he now attempts one on the reading public. His life story, we are told, is in the "tradition" of Nicholas Pileggi's Wiseguy ( LJ 2/1/86), and supposedly is an exciting look at life on both sides of organized crime. Born into a family with close connections to the Mafia, Manca, for some unknown reason, becomes a New York policeman at a time when almost the entire force was corrupt. Until he was thrown off the force, Manca was a one-man crime wave. After leaving the force, Manca indulged in one scam after another, until he ultimately scammed the FBI. There is nothing new to be learned here, except, perhaps, to be wary of "easy money." Manca is just another hood with a monster ego. Not recommended.
- Sandra K. Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Sandra K. Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
