Donnie Brasco

February 1, 2007
Readers who don't know " Donnie Brasco," either the book or the movie, which detailed how young Pistone managed to float in the sewer of Mafia scum, won't get what " Unfinished Business" is all about. But those who remember " rasco" will be eager to know the rest of the story, 20 years after Pistone/Brasco recounted how he infiltrated the New York Mafia and how his testimony led to a series of investigations that emasculated the five New York families. The rationalization for this follow-up volume is that, now that the trials have come to fruition, Pistone can tell " more "about how he worked undercover and how he testified. There's a great deal of filler here (we don't really need to know about what a nice guy Johnny Depp was on the set of the movie " Donnie Brasco"), but there is also enough deep background about working undercover, enough truly hair-raising reminiscences of close calls, and enough reflection on how far an undercover agent submerges himself before losing a moral compass to make this worthwhile reading--providing you're a fan of the first " Donnie Brasco."(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)