Mob Daughter: The Mafia, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, and Me!Author: Karen Gravano
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: February 14th 2012
From Goodreads:
Karen Gravano is the daughter of Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, once one of the mafia's most feared hit men. With nineteen confessed murders, the former Gambino Crime Family underboss-and John Gotti's right-hand man-is the highest ranking gangster ever to turn States's evidence and testify against members of his high-profile crime family.
But to Karen, Sammy Gravano was a sometimes elusive but always loving father figure. He was ever-present at the head of the dinner table. He made a living running a construction firm and several nightclubs. He stayed out late, and sometimes didn't come home at all. He hosted "secret" meetings at their house, and had countless whispered conversations with "business associates." By the age of twelve, Karen knew he was a gangster. And as she grew up, while her peers worried about clothes and schoolwork, she was coming face to face with crime and murder. Gravano was nineteen years old when her father turned his back on the mob and cooperated with the Feds. The fabric of her family was ripped apart, and they were instantly rejected by the communities they grew up in.
This is the story of a daughter's struggle to reconcile the image of her living father with that of a murdering Mafioso, and how, in healing the rift between the two, she was able to forge a new life.
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I never miss an episode of Mob Wives..never. I've always been fascinated with the mob, watching the movies and reading the books. Of course I had to read Mob Daughter!
I found some parts very interesting, but mostly I finished this book thinking this Karen Gravano is seriously on a head trip. She sure does a lot of boasting about it. Yeah, she doesn't come outright and say "my dad was a bad ass, and we are super cool" because well she would come off as a immature and childish, but it's exactly what she's implying. What's bad ass about the Mafia? Karen Gravano gives us a look into what life was like for her being the daughter of a gangster. I don't think that she held back, but I do think that she tried to rationalize things and the rationalizing was ridiculous. If someone was killed, well they were killed because they betrayed the code. As for the writing, it wasn't bad. Her life story flowed easily, there was no going back and forth randomly. Very easy to follow.
If you are a fan of Mob Wives then I would recommend this just because you get a better idea of who Karen Gravano is.
I've never watched that show, but I saw her on some show promoting this book and that is exactly the impression I got. It turned me away from being interested in reading this.
ReplyDeleteThe Mafia is definitely interesting, though I think the rationalizing would drive me crazy!
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