[.ca] A Goodfella's Guide to New York: Your Personal Tour ... (ISBN 0761515380)

Very disappointed, not recommended:
As a big fan of Wiseguy, Goodfellas, and Henry Hill, I was truly looking forward to this book. After I got it and read it, I must say I was terribly disappointed. It reads like someone who's trying to live up to the stereotype of a mobster as opposed to a real person who lived and breathed it. Mostly, it's a collection of old and tired mob cliches without anything new or insightful about Henry Hill or the New York mob. It reads like cardboard must taste. The second thing that really bugged me is the fact that the book is littered with what I'm guessing is mob surveillance photos yet no description is given of who the people are or what the context of the photo is. They don't seem to be connected with the text in any way. It's just baffling. If this book does have any value its that it does give street addresses to places mentioned in the book and the movie. So if you are in New York and just can't wait to see 'where they buried spider' or 'Tommy's mother's house' this book would make a good reference. Otherwise, don't waste your money.

Through a mobster's eyes:
I didn't expect much from this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. There's quite a bit of humor AND information, not just one or the other. I especially like the chapter on STAYING IN. When you read it and you'll understand why. There's plenty to do in New York city of course, but it's nice to veer off the beaten path.

Pathetic:
As the other reviewers point out, this is another shameless attempt by Henry Hill to profit from the hard work of others, namely Martin Scorsese, Ray Liotta, Robert DeNiro, and Joe Pesci. Any one with a minimal knowledge of organized crime could have written this book. Henry Hill makes the following insightful comments, "New York has four seasons and five crime families." "The worst trip to NYC is if you don't come back (alive)." "If you mispronounce Houston Street, you'll get whacked." Oh yes, Mr. Hill, the SoHo and Village residents will definitely kill when a tourist thrusts such a heinous indignity upon them. Complementing stories that aren't even up to New York Post standards are quite possibly the worst photographs I have ever seen. Photographs include the following: nightclubs at 10am with the shutters closed, an abandoned factor that could be anywhere in the US, a chain link fence at the end of a road, and surveillance shots of fatuously inflated lowlifes hanging around a junkyard. The unfortunate thing about this book is that it could be good. A serious book about the mob by one of its members could very possibly give insight to the rest of us. This is not that book. In Hill speak, other mobsters should have him 'whacked' for embarrassing them since readers may assume the average mob mind is as weak as his.

Not Much Here:
I did not buy this book but I managed to read a lot of it in a bookstore in about 15 minutes. If I can read it in 15 minutes that should tell you something. It is a short book! It is one of those big font short sucker or gimmick books with photos and tips on where so and so was killed or worked etc in and around New York City. The book is not much of a book. There are many other good and substantial books to read such as Gotti: Rise and Fall or Mafia Dynasty : The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family by John H. Davis. The latter also has a nice selection of photos. So unless you have money to burn, skip this book. Jack in Toronto

HENRY HILL LIKES TO TELL STORIES:
This book contains some interesting stuff but most of it is recycled from wiseguy and the wiseguy cookbook. In addition to being extremely fluffy some of the stuff he says is flat out wrong. He says that Vito Genovese somehow posthumously blew the door off of Frank Costellos crypt. Genovese died in 1969 and Costello died in 1973. Most crackheads can see the problem with this little tidbit. Save your money and read it at the store, it should only take about 15 minutes. By the way, I made the oven penitentiary sauce from his cookbook and it sucked.