Some Kind of Wise Guy: Stories about Parents, Weddings, Modern Living, and Growing Up Italian

by Bill Ervolino

Book Overview

Stories about parents, weddings, modern living, and growing up Italian. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965473325
• ISBN13: 9780965473323
• Release Date: October 1997
• Publisher: Record Books (NJ)
• Length: 190 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Will put a smile on your face, and make you call your Mom...

My entire family enjoys reading Bill's columns, when we are together, someone will always read the newspaper aloud. The stories are so funny, and the same craziness that goes on in EVERYONE'S family. I purchased this book, used, as a gift for my Dad, but of course I had to read it FIRST. Hysterical (I actually read excerpts aloud to my Mom on the telephone) Thanks Bill, your outlook on life is SO appreciated!

Yippy - What a great book

This was a wonderful book. I could not put it down. What a page turner. Just ask my friend Natalie. She wanted to borowing so bad, and I would not part with it. I suggest buying it.

Become A Wiseguy

"Some Kind of Wiseguy" is about an Italian guy's life in the New York-New Jersey area. He grew up with sausage and peppers, overbearing parents, card games, and NOISE. Just like I did. I'm a third generation Italian American kid and I spent a lot of my childhood at my grandparents' house where I was taught Italian culture and how to brace yourself for a 10-type-of-fish Christmas Eve dinner feast. Zeppoles, homemade pizza, and salami bread are still eaten in my home today as well as my Mom's homemade meat gravy every Sunday afternoon. Bill touches upon all of these subjects as well as getting into the journalism field and how he decided to write all about his life. I made an autobiography myself about my life up until this point which I hope gets published one day. Ervolino remains my favorite modern writer. He is hilarious, insightful, and a very easy read. Check out his Sunday and Thursday columns in The Bergen Record of NJ. I also strongly reccommend "Wiseguy: My Life in a Mafia Family," by Nicholas Pileggi.

Love it! Love it! Love it!

I am an avid reader of Bill's newspaper columns, and have always found him to be very funny! This book DOES make you laugh out loud. I'm from an Italian-American family, and relate to a lot of the topics in the book directed at those of Italian heritage, however, the book is just so very funny, that I think ANYONE would find it very enjoyable!

Extremely funny.

First a disclaimer. The author is a distant cousin of mine who I have not seen in at least 8 years and have spoken to, only once (and briefly at that), in that period.The book is a collection of collumns Bill wrote for various newspapers, mostly his current paper, the Bergen (N.J.) Record. Bill takes everyday events and translates them with humor and fun. Especially funny are his pieces on Italian-American families and holidays. Although many of his stories will resonate most with Italian-Americans and residents of New York, New Jersey, and Long Island, his tales of everyday living should appeal to all.