Word: bonanno
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...novel The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight - said to be a takeoff on the chaotic exploits of Brooklyn's Gallo gang - was recently reincarnated as a movie. Gay Talese's Honor Thy Father, a detailed and understanding portrait of the son of Mafia Boss Joseph Bonanno, has been on the bestseller lists for four months, and recently brought a beefy $451,000 for paperback rights...
This was a life that Bill Bonanno was not suited for. Recording the resulting stress upon young Bonanno, Talese unifies his narrative with a most compelling theme-tradition and change in America. On the surface, Bill Bonanno is a homogenized American who went to the University of Arizona, studied business administration and belonged to the ROTC. But in his bones he is heir apparent to a kind of feudal power and respect that has its roots in Sicily. There is no indication that Bill ever seriously thought of doing anything else but go into his father's business. Such...
Classic Cynicism. Fortunately for the book, Gay Talese and Bill Bonanno look at the world in somewhat the same way, because it is Talese's use of fiction techniques to convey the charged moments in Bill Bonanno's life that gives Honor Thy Father its drive. Talese once wrote: "Whether men's ambitions are fulfilled in the arena of politics or banking or business or crime, it makes little difference; and the most brutal acts are easily justified in the name of necessity and honor...
...reputation as a prima donna at the New York Times, where he began as a copyboy in 1953 and left as a hot-shot feature writer twelve years later. His specialty was the out-of-the-way, the offbeat, the loser, the star that has fallen or faded. Bill Bonanno was a natural for Talese. But how does a journalist get close to the Mafia? Very slowly and very carefully. Research on the book took nearly seven years from the time in 1965 when Talese first introduced himself to Bonanno in a courtroom corridor. One of Talese's fears...
...experience has left Talese a little jumpy, which probably accounts for the way he stares at every car that passes his front porch. As for Bill Bonanno, says Talese, who recently visited him at the federal prison in San Pedro, Calif., "he never looked better. He has slimmed down, has plenty of time for reading, and appeared as relaxed as he probably has ever been...