Who's Sorry Now: The True Story of a Stand-up Guy (Hardcover)

by Joe Pantoliano (Author) "There I was, sitting in the back of a New York City detective car in Hoboken, handcuffed and wondering how the hell I had gotten..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Grandpa Gus, New Jersey (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Sopranos actor Pantoliano, who plays the belligerent and misogynistic Ralph Cifaretto, enters the celebrity memoir arena with a jovial account of his 1950s and '60s youth in Hoboken and Fort Lee, N.J. In addition to his familiar Sopranos role, Pantoliano has appeared in over 60 movies, including Memento and The Fugitive, and will make his directorial debut with the upcoming Just Like Mona. But he saves his career for future volumes, instead concentrating here on his eccentric Italian-American family and the stormy relationship and "shared misery" of his parents, Mommy and Monk. Equal space goes to his relatives, girlfriends and childhood "pals in the projects," a gang of "piss-ant grade-schoolers" who broke into railroad cars to steal whatever they found. Young Joey's grades suffered, and by junior high, he lived in a "dyslexic bubble," but wound up righting himself by acting in school plays, eventually moving to regional theater and, finally, Hollywood. Chapters are headlined with street addresses ("310 Jackson Street," "159 Palisade Avenue"), noting each of the family's evictions or moves to yet another Garden State location. Readers meet colorful characters, including cousin "Patty-Boy," local dogcatcher Uncle Popeye and wise guy Florie, who moves in after exiting the Atlanta Penitentiary ("A New York mobster in the house had serious cachet for a twelve-year-old"). The once-dyslexic "Joey Pants" writes with energy, humor and honesty, and his passionate closing chapter, with Joey attempting to break away from his clinging, cursing Mommy to become a big-time actor, is the icing on the cake.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Although Joey Pants, as he calls himself in his hugely entertaining autobiography, will be instantly familiar to fans of the television series The Sopranos (he plays Ralph Cifaretto), the actor has been around for years, turning in wonderful performances in films such as Midnight Run and television fare such as NYPD Blue. Born and raised in Hoboken, New Jersey, the author came out of a working-class family. His parents were problem gamblers, and the family was periodically uprooted and moved to a new apartment after failing to pay their rent. He grew up among wise guys, and one of his closest relatives was assumed to be a killer. Pantoliano writes in a style that will be instantly familiar to his fans: tough, outspoken, but with a charming side, too. The author's somewhat convoluted route from street kid to actor is downright fascinating, and in one fell swoop, he proves to be as fine a writer as he is an actor. One warning, though: he peppers his prose with profanity and makes no apologies for it. It's entirely appropriate for the story he's telling (he came out of a time and place where cursing was a part of everyday speech), but it might offend some readers. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; First Printing edition (September 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525946772
• ISBN-13: 978-0525946779
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,218,592 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Take a walk thru Hoboken with "Joey Pants", October 3, 2002

By	D. Jones "jones28" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Let's face it...as much as we hate Ralphie Cifaretto...you gotta love Joe Pantoliano...what a great story...

In a world where most actors are caught up in their own self-importance, Joey is a down-to-earth "stand up guy."

The book made me wish I was Italian!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Right on the money..., November 12, 2004

By	Neopolitan Goddess "Neopolitan Goddess" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

I'm a little late weighing in here, I just bought the book earlier this year and just now got around to reading it. Anyway, as an Italian American with an extended family that "got off the boat" in Hoboken, NJ, and as someone who ran some of the same streets that Joey once did, I can totally identify with the way Joe Pantoliano grew up and with the cast of "characters" that comprised his family, friends and neighbors. The book was extremely entertaining and written in a way that had me laughing out loud more than once. It's admirable that Joey expresses no bitterness or self-pity -- I think this is partially because people of his generation, in that place and time, just accepted the fact that family was the way it was, you didn't sit around feeling sorry for yourself, you just dealt and made a life for yourself! Also, in spite of the dysfunctionality, there was love there for Joey and I guess he chose to focus on that, whether it's just a trait he's been blessed with or if a little therapy helped him get there, it's still admirable and wonderful that he is able to see that & rejoice in it. I can understand how someone not from this subculture would see his mother and some of the other people in the book as complete monsters or animals but remember their shortcomings didn't come from an intention to be cruel, it came from the difficulties they faced as largely uneducated immigrants or children of immigrants starting with nothing in a new land. They were people who were weak and maybe more corrupt than most but not totally evil. If they knew better they would do better, so to speak. It's also nice to see the real, un-glamorized version of what it means to be a wise guy -- no mansions, Mercedes or limos for these connected guys. All in all, I enjoyed the book and read it practically in one sitting, the way the plot flowed was a little bit uneven and the writing style was a bit weak in spots which is why I give it a four instead of a five. But the story itself and the way Joe's viewpoint really came through, make it a good read for anyone who is fan of his work.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Career, Amazing Person, October 7, 2002

By	Martin Chaddock (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My first introduction to Joe Pantoliano was in the classic film La Bamba in 1987 when he played the real life character of Bob Kean (Kuhn). My next introduction to Joe Pantoliano was the even more classic film of Midnight Run with Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin and here we are 15 years later and I see Mr. Pantoliano in just about every decent movie worth watching and to top it off we see him join the ONLY TV SHOW worth watching,(The Soprano's). The bottom line is Mr. Pantoliano is a well gifted man who comes from an amazing background and his story is well told with David Evanier who wrote Making the Wiseguys Weep (The Jimmy Rosselli Story). Thank you Mr. Pantoliano for your career, it is well worth following.