Monday, March 28, 2016

Book Review: I Heard You Paint Houses

"I Heard You Paint Houses": Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran & Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa by Charles Brandt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This wasn't the easiest book to get through because the writing was rather choppy. The stories themselves were pretty compelling (heck, it discusses mafia style behavior, the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa and assassination plots of the President of the United States, so that stuff can't help but be compelling). Frank Sheeran was the right hand to Jimmy Hoffa and Russell Buffalino during their hey-day, with unlimited power and resources at his disposal, Sheeran got his hands dirty on many occasions and provides some insight into the mob and the teamsters.

The problem with this book was the writing itself. A very large portion of the text is reading long quotes, almost like interviews were just transcribed onto text. In the end, it wasn't a book I found easy to pick up, but at the same time wasn't easy to put down. I took my time reading it because it didn't draw me every day, but as a native of Northeastern Pennsylvania, it was interesting to read about what type of power ran wild in the area.

There's some rumor's that Scorsese is adapting this to another Mafioso-style movie with De Niro, Pacino and Pesci, and I think the text would lend itself perfectly to that style, but the read itself was lacking.

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