Honor Thy Father
Encyclopedia
For the song by Dream Theater
, see Train of Thought (Dream Theater album)
Honor Thy Father was a 1971 book by Gay Talese
, about the travails of the Bonanno crime family
in the 1960s, especially Salvatore Bonanno
and his father Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonanno
.
to focus on magazine writing, such as 1966's "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold
" and longer projects, like his 1969 book The Kingdom and the Power
. During this period, however, Talese had begun to research a book about the Mafia
.
The research for the nonfiction novel began when Talese introduced himself to mafioso Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno
in a courthouse in 1965. That same year, Talese signed a $30,000 advance to write the book. For nearly seven years, Talese interviewed Bonanno and other members of the mafia extensively. Talese even traveled to Castellammare del Golfo
, Sicily
to research the ancestral origins of the subjects of his story. Talese feared, during the research, that the government would subpoena him to find out what he learned about the mafia, though this never came to pass. He also fretted that he would be mistaken for one of Bonanno's associates by his enemies.
is kidnapped from the streets of New York in 1964 and the Bonanno crime family is thrown into disarray for two years in a power struggle called the Banana War, culminating in an armed-ambush in Brooklyn in which Joe's son Bill Bonanno is nearly killed.
Though punctuated by life-threatening encounters, Talese also recounts how much of a mafioso's life is as tedious as any person's: days filled with television, overeating, time spent with family. Prominent mafiosi, like Vito Genovese
, Lucky Luciano
, Joseph Profaci, feature in Talese's account, but the story is focused on Bill Bonanno's thoughts about his life as mafioso. Talese notes the similarities of Bonanno's life to many ordinary Americans — homogenized from his ancestors culture, an alumnus of the University of Arizona
where he belonged to ROTC. But as son of Joe Bonanno, he was an heir to his father's empire, a source of great stress for him. The book's title was suggested by Bill's wife Rosalie as acid commentary on the deleterious effect of Joe Bonanno on her husband's life. The intensely introspective account that Talese extracted from Bill Bonanno prompted Time Magazine to label him "the golden retriever of personalized journalism". A review in The New York Times wrote that Talese "conveys the impression that being a mobster is much the same as being a sportsman, film star or any other kind of public 'personality.'"
Talese concludes with the controversial thesis that the Italian mafia was little different than gangs that came with previous waves of immigration, such as Irish gangs in the century before, or black and Latino-gangs that Talese saw as following. Talese attributed the rise of the gangs as a consequence of a majority that oppresses a minority group.
", still was regarded with caution and many suspected the technique of fabrication; a charge that Talese has always strongly denied. A reviewer in The New York Times wrote that Talese's "fiction-imposed-on-fact has the unfortunate effect of making the whole story seem unreal." Also writing in The Times, David Halberstam
criticized previous reviewers for failing to recognize that Talese's story was more real and had been criticized for not conforming to other reviewers' preconceived ideas about what the mafia should be like. In general, however, the book was critically acclaimed. The Washington Post
wrote:
Joe Bonanno disliked the book and refused to speak to his son Bill after the book came out. Joe reportedly spoke to Talese after publication of the book and said "my son was too sincere with you." Bill Bonanno was initially not happy with the book either, but after rereading the book he became more comfortable with it and asked Talese to inscribe copies for his children.
By November 1971 the book had sold nearly 200,000 and a second printing of 160,000 was ordered. Paperback rights were purchased for $450,000 by Fawcett World Library, a greater sum than Fawcett had paid for paperback rights to Mario Puzo
's The Godfather
.
Though Bill Bonanno was in prison when the book came out, he later co-operated in the production of a CBS miniseries, "Honor Thy Father", based on his role in the book and a Showtime miniseries, "Bonanno: A Godfather's Story" about his life. Before his death in January 2008, Bonanno also appeared in numerous news programs and documentary looks at the mafia.
Dream Theater
Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to further concentrate on the band that would...
, see Train of Thought (Dream Theater album)
Train of Thought (Dream Theater album)
-Chart performance:* Billboard 200: Train of Thought - #53* Billboard Top Internet Albums: Train of Thought - #53* UK Album Charts: Train of Thought - #146* Norwegian Album Charts: Train of Thought - #9-Personnel:* James LaBrie – lead vocals...
Honor Thy Father was a 1971 book by Gay Talese
Gay Talese
Gay Talese is an American author. He wrote for The New York Times in the early 1960s and helped to define literary journalism...
, about the travails of the Bonanno crime family
Bonanno crime family
The Bonanno crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia ....
in the 1960s, especially Salvatore Bonanno
Salvatore Bonanno
Salvatore Vincent "Bill" Bonanno was the son of Cosa Nostra boss Joseph Bonanno. Although his father never intended for him to be the underboss of the Bonanno crime family, his appointment to high positions in the syndicate precipitated a "mob war" which led to the Bonanno family's exile to Arizona...
and his father Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonanno
Joseph Bonanno
Joseph Charles Bonanno, Sr. was a Sicilian-born American mafioso who became the boss of the Bonanno crime family. He was nicknamed "Joe Bananas," a name he despised.-Early life:...
.
Background
In 1965, Gay Talese left his job as a reporter at The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
to focus on magazine writing, such as 1966's "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold
Frank Sinatra Has a Cold
"Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" is a profile of Frank Sinatra written by Gay Talese for the April 1966 issue of Esquire. The article is one of the most famous pieces of magazine journalism and is often considered not only the greatest profile ever written of Frank Sinatra but one of the greatest...
" and longer projects, like his 1969 book The Kingdom and the Power
The Kingdom and the Power
The Kingdom and the Power: Behind the Scenes at The New York Times: The Institution That Influences the World was a 1969 book by Gay Talese about the inner workings of The New York Times, the newspaper where Talese had worked for 12 years...
. During this period, however, Talese had begun to research a book about the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
.
The research for the nonfiction novel began when Talese introduced himself to mafioso Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno
Salvatore Bonanno
Salvatore Vincent "Bill" Bonanno was the son of Cosa Nostra boss Joseph Bonanno. Although his father never intended for him to be the underboss of the Bonanno crime family, his appointment to high positions in the syndicate precipitated a "mob war" which led to the Bonanno family's exile to Arizona...
in a courthouse in 1965. That same year, Talese signed a $30,000 advance to write the book. For nearly seven years, Talese interviewed Bonanno and other members of the mafia extensively. Talese even traveled to Castellammare del Golfo
Castellammare del Golfo
Castellammare del Golfo is a town and comune in the Trapani Province of Sicily. The name is roughly translated "Sea- Fortress of the Gulf", deriving from the medieval fortress in the harbor...
, Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
to research the ancestral origins of the subjects of his story. Talese feared, during the research, that the government would subpoena him to find out what he learned about the mafia, though this never came to pass. He also fretted that he would be mistaken for one of Bonanno's associates by his enemies.
Story
The book begins when Joseph "Joe Bananas" BonannoJoseph Bonanno
Joseph Charles Bonanno, Sr. was a Sicilian-born American mafioso who became the boss of the Bonanno crime family. He was nicknamed "Joe Bananas," a name he despised.-Early life:...
is kidnapped from the streets of New York in 1964 and the Bonanno crime family is thrown into disarray for two years in a power struggle called the Banana War, culminating in an armed-ambush in Brooklyn in which Joe's son Bill Bonanno is nearly killed.
Though punctuated by life-threatening encounters, Talese also recounts how much of a mafioso's life is as tedious as any person's: days filled with television, overeating, time spent with family. Prominent mafiosi, like Vito Genovese
Vito Genovese
Vito "Don Vito" Genovese was an Italian mafioso who rose to power in America during the Castellammarese War to later become leader of the Genovese crime family. Genovese served as mentor to future mob boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante...
, Lucky Luciano
Lucky Luciano
Charlie "Lucky" Luciano was an Italian mobster born in Sicily. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for splitting New York City into five different Mafia crime families and the establishment of the first commission...
, Joseph Profaci, feature in Talese's account, but the story is focused on Bill Bonanno's thoughts about his life as mafioso. Talese notes the similarities of Bonanno's life to many ordinary Americans — homogenized from his ancestors culture, an alumnus of the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
where he belonged to ROTC. But as son of Joe Bonanno, he was an heir to his father's empire, a source of great stress for him. The book's title was suggested by Bill's wife Rosalie as acid commentary on the deleterious effect of Joe Bonanno on her husband's life. The intensely introspective account that Talese extracted from Bill Bonanno prompted Time Magazine to label him "the golden retriever of personalized journalism". A review in The New York Times wrote that Talese "conveys the impression that being a mobster is much the same as being a sportsman, film star or any other kind of public 'personality.'"
Talese concludes with the controversial thesis that the Italian mafia was little different than gangs that came with previous waves of immigration, such as Irish gangs in the century before, or black and Latino-gangs that Talese saw as following. Talese attributed the rise of the gangs as a consequence of a majority that oppresses a minority group.
Reception
Following the success of Talese's previous novel The Kingdom and the Power, his book on the mafia was primed for success, and quickly became a bestseller. Talese's use of literary techniques that were traditionally the domain of fiction, known as "New journalismNew Journalism
New Journalism was a style of 1960s and 1970s news writing and journalism which used literary techniques deemed unconventional at the time. The term was codified with its current meaning by Tom Wolfe in a 1973 collection of journalism articles he published as The New Journalism, which included...
", still was regarded with caution and many suspected the technique of fabrication; a charge that Talese has always strongly denied. A reviewer in The New York Times wrote that Talese's "fiction-imposed-on-fact has the unfortunate effect of making the whole story seem unreal." Also writing in The Times, David Halberstam
David Halberstam
David Halberstam was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and historian, known for his early work on the Vietnam War, his work on politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, and his later sports journalism.-Early life and education:Halberstam...
criticized previous reviewers for failing to recognize that Talese's story was more real and had been criticized for not conforming to other reviewers' preconceived ideas about what the mafia should be like. In general, however, the book was critically acclaimed. The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
wrote:
After the principals are all gone, the book will remain, a family saga as important as any we've seen in this country. It is a book about fathers and sons, about trust and betrayal, about the old style and the new; it is, of course, a tragedy, because the genre of the family saga, real or imagined, always seems to turn out that way. But the book is also a stunning comment on American and the failure of its romantic promise.
Joe Bonanno disliked the book and refused to speak to his son Bill after the book came out. Joe reportedly spoke to Talese after publication of the book and said "my son was too sincere with you." Bill Bonanno was initially not happy with the book either, but after rereading the book he became more comfortable with it and asked Talese to inscribe copies for his children.
By November 1971 the book had sold nearly 200,000 and a second printing of 160,000 was ordered. Paperback rights were purchased for $450,000 by Fawcett World Library, a greater sum than Fawcett had paid for paperback rights to Mario Puzo
Mario Puzo
Mario Gianluigi Puzo was an American author and screenwriter, known for his novels about the Mafia, including The Godfather , which he later co-adapted into a film by Francis Ford Coppola...
's The Godfather
The Godfather (novel)
The Godfather is a crime novel written by Italian American author Mario Puzo, originally published in 1969 by G. P. Putnam's Sons. It details the story of a fictitious Sicilian Mafia family based in New York City and headed by Don Vito Corleone, who became synonymous with the Italian Mafia...
.
Though Bill Bonanno was in prison when the book came out, he later co-operated in the production of a CBS miniseries, "Honor Thy Father", based on his role in the book and a Showtime miniseries, "Bonanno: A Godfather's Story" about his life. Before his death in January 2008, Bonanno also appeared in numerous news programs and documentary looks at the mafia.