A review by marty_s
Honor Thy Father by Gay Talese

3.0

The story of Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno, son of crime-family boss Joseph Bonanno. Covers the stories of both father and son, but concentrates on Bill (who died in January at age 76). Great insight into mafia life in the early '60s. Learned a lot about things that were going on in New York City when I was a kid that I wasn't even aware of at the time. By necessity, you have to take things with a grain of salt, since the book was written with Bill Bonanno's cooperation -- for instance, his insistence that he knew nothing about a plot to kill crime bosses Thomas Lucchese and Carlo Gambino. But it's an interesting portrait -- I imagine a big influence on David Chase in creating Tony Soprano.