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

Joe Pistone (Author), Donnie Brasco (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 2004

Here's the first nonfiction work from author Joe Pistone since his New York Times #1 bestseller and hit movie, Donnie Brasco. Perhaps no man alive knows the inner workings and lifestyle of wiseguys better than Pistone does, having spent six years infiltrating the Mafia as an undercover FBI agent. Now, years later, Pistone reassesses what the underworld was really about. Occasionally poignant, always in shocking detail, The Way of the Wiseguy gives readers a first-hand look at the thinking, psychology, and customs that make wiseguys a unique breed. The book is divided into anecdotes that reveal key principles of wiseguy life, including "Don't Volunteer You Don't Know Something," "Be a Good Earner," "Look Like You Mean Business," "It's Your Best Friend Who Will Kill You," and much more. The stories-more than 80 of them-are spellbinding, and the insights into this lawless realm of badguys are often uncannily relevant to the workings of the legitimate world of big business and everyday social discourses. Includes CD with shocking undercover surveillance audio from the Donnie Brasco operation (with commentary by author Joe Pistone).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The romanticized view of the mob gets a reality check in this fascinating guide to the real Cosa Nostra from Pistone, who successfully infiltrated one of New York City's five families as an FBI undercover agent in the late 1970s and early 1980s. During his six years posing as Donnie Brasco, Pistone managed to gain the trust of countless mobsters and was almost formally made a member of the Mafia. That access led to numerous investigations and prosecutions resulting in more than 100 convictions, including those of the bosses who formed the mob's ruling body, the Commission. Pistone's first book, the bestselling Donnie Brasco (later filmed with Johnny Depp in the lead role), presented a detailed chronological narrative of his infiltration. This time, he has organized his experiences into short chapters describing what the gangsters he worked with were really like, with titles such as "A Typical Day in the Life of a Wiseguy" and "How Wiseguys Take over a Business." He makes abundantly clear that the codes of honor depicted in popular culture and self-serving Mafiosi memoirs are myths, as is the notion that the old-timers steered clear of drug-dealing for moral reasons. The book also contains an amazing extra-a CD of an actual FBI surveillance tape in which thugs talk about the idea of doing in Donnie Brasco.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The name Joseph Pistone might not ring any bells, but that's because, while he was pretending to be a jewel thief called Donnie Brasco, anyone who found out he was Pistone would probably have had him killed. A former FBI agent, Pistone spent six years as Brasco, penetrating deep into the notorious Bonnano crime family, and his investigation led to the conviction of more than 100 criminals. These events are dramatized in the film Donnie Brasco, but here Pistone goes behind the drama to get at the everyday details of life as a "wiseguy." Readers will learn how wiseguys prepare for a hit, how they treat their wives and girlfriends, why they don't make restaurant reservations, and what sort of table manners they have (not good ones). This down-and-dirty guide to a criminal subculture comes packaged with a CD that contains actual surveillance audio recorded during Pistone's investigation. Current interest in this subject, sparked by The Sopranos, guarantees this book a wide and enthusiastic readership. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Running Press; First Edition ~1st Printing edition (March 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762418397
• ISBN-13: 978-0762418398
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #686,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Fun, Informative Grammatical Abortion, January 14, 2005

By 

Walt Neff - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Way of the Wiseguy: True Stories from the FBI's Most Famous Undercover Agent (Hardcover)

There's really nothing to the book at all (I read it in two hours). Poor english, repetition of the same story multiple times, and no real flow to it at all.

However, if you're curious about mafia life, this is the book to let you know what is, and what isn't real. Pistone dispels several myths and ads a reasonable amount of relatively unknown info as well. Subject matter is fascinating, but he could have used a co author.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Another side of shameless, May 24, 2004

By 

N. P. Stathoulopoulos "nick9155" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Way of the Wiseguy: True Stories from the FBI's Most Famous Undercover Agent (Hardcover)

A quick look at this book and you can already tell what it is: another cash-in.

This is a slim 224 pages, with a lot of 'chapters' that consist of a single page, for instance. The book is a quick overview on, yes, the 'way of the wiseguy', a kind of 'guide' to wiseguys from the guy who was 'Donnie Brasco' to the mob. So we get bits about how wiseguys dress, what they do on an average day, whacking people out, eating out, scamming, scheming, etc, etc. The problem is that much of it is familiar. Matter of fact, anyone who's read a few books about the mob, watched your Godfathers and Goodfellas and Casinos and Sopranos, or grew up in New York, will already know most of the material in this book.

It's shameless, really. Okay, we had the book and film Donnie Brasco, both of which were fascinating. Next, the Brasco name was used to sell fictional mob stories. And now this. It's a funny thing, but while some mobsters become turncoats and sing songs for book deals, law enforcement officials are often more shameless as they roll out yet another Mafia book to a Sopranos-indoctrinated public.

I'm reminded of another Mob figure named Henry Hill, who is now a regular feature at your local bookstore as well. Aside from Wiseguy (and the excellent film Goodfellas) we have the Henry Hill cookbook, and Henry's own guide to 'the Mob's New York'. And, of course, in June 2004 Mr. Hill is coming out with another book, this one detailing his years on the run, in and out of Witness Protection.

Yes, the Mafia has provided us with yet another cottage publishing industry, and yes, there is an appetite out there for true crime. But this is definitely not one of the better offerings on the subject.

And ask yourself why it's appearing now, almost 25 years after Mr. Pistone's assignment with LCN ended. Yeah, I smell a dollar, too.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a fun read for the mob fascinated, August 9, 2004

By 

A. E Falbowski - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Way of the Wiseguy: True Stories from the FBI's Most Famous Undercover Agent (Hardcover)

I am quite interested in the world of organized crime (we must all have a bizare interest...) and found this book both informative and fun. I am not sure how up-to-date this information may be, so I wouldn't recommend taking it as a bible if you mean to join the Mafia, but it is fun as a reference book. Since the work is broken up into short, nonconsecutive chapters, it is little like Pistone's first novel, "Donnie Brasco" of which I am a fan. For a worth while and blunt- and I mean BLUNT (there is a great deal of swearing and coarse language)- account of wiseguy life, this is the best book I have found.