said, in that year before the Beatles. And I would discover that he was right.
Across the decades that followed, we remained friends. To be sure, we weren’t close; I was a downtown type, out of the bohemian tradition of the newspaper craft; Talese was more uptown. We met covering fights, or in restaurants, or at occasional parties. But I never lost my admiration for his adherence to the highest principles of the reporter’s craft, his insistence on going beyond the surface, the quick hit, the glib assumption. He is doing that as I write.
This book—originally published in 1971—is only one example among many of the refusal of Gay Talese to take his discovered truths off the rack. He sets aside all the melodramatic temptations of the literature of the Mafia, and sees his cast as subjects, not objects. They exist in his pages as human beings, one at a time, not as cartoons. Talese understands, as all good reporters do, that you can never be certain about the truth. Human beings lie. They offer alibis. At their best, they plead “guilty with an explanation.” At their worst, they blame others. In the world of the Bonannos, they usually say nothing at all.
Talese somehow managed to gain access to that world, to write about it with a certain degree of empathy, free of prosecutorial zeal. He is not exactly counsel for the defense, but by refusing moral certainty, he tells us more about that world than we knew before he published this book, and more than we have learned since then. It is an essential document in the project of understanding the American twentieth century. And it is more. Reading it again, I was reminded of the words of the splendid Italian writer Italo Calvino: “Every rereading of a classic is as much a voyage of discovery as the first reading.”
By that test, Honor Thy Father is a classic. With any luck, my ten-year-old grandson will read it when Talese and I are both long gone. If he does, I hope he will understand how much his grandfather cherished the work of this fellow Talese, and the pleasure of his company.
—Pete Hamill
2009
AUTHOR’S GLOSSARY
JOSEPH BONANNO
Patriarch of family. Born in 1905 in western Sicilian town of Castellammare del Golfo. An anti-Fascist student radical in Palermo after Mussolini came to power in 1922, Bonanno fled Sicily and entered United States during Prohibition. Decades later, a millionaire, Bonanno was identified by U.S. government as one of top bosses in American Mafia.
FAY BONANNO
Wife of Joseph Bonanno. Born Fay Labruzzo in Tunisia of Sicilian parents who later emigrated to United States and settled in Brooklyn. There, in 1931, she married Joseph Bonanno.
SALVATORE (BILL) BONANNO
Eldest son of Joseph and Fay Bonanno, born 1932.
CATHERINE BONANNO
Daughter of Joseph and Fay Bonanno, born 1934.
JOSEPH BONANNO, JR.
Younger son of Joseph and Fay Bonanno, born 1945.
ROSALIE BONANNO
Wife of Bill Bonanno, whom she married in 1956. Born Rosalie Profaci in 1936; niece of Joseph Profaci.
Joseph PROFACI
Millionaire importer of olive oil and tomato paste. Until death from cancer in 1962, boss of Brooklyn organization with close ties to organization headed by Joseph Bonanno. Born Villabate, Sicily, 1897.
JOSEPH MAGLIOCCO
His sister married to Joseph Profaci; after Profaci’s death, Magliocco, a longtime aide, succeeded to leadership of Profaci organization. Suffered fatal heart attack in December 1963.
JOSEPH COLOMBO
Succeeded Magliocco; negotiated uncertain peace within factionalized Profaci organization following Gallo brothers revolt of 1960, but organization never regained power it had during 1950s and 1940s under Profaci. Colombo in 1970 started Italian-American Civil Rights League; in 1971, at League outdoor rally, Colombo was shot by black man posing as photographer.
STEFANO MAGADDINO
Boss in Buffalo area. Native of Castellammare del Golfo, distant cousin of Joseph Bonanno, but enemy of Bonanno since 1960s.
GASPAR DI GREGORIO
Magaddino’s brother-in-law, loyal member of Joseph Bonanno organization for years—until in 1964, disenchanted by elevation of thirty-two-year-old Bill Bonanno in organization, led internal revolt that led in mid-1960s to so-called Banana War. Magaddino, among others, backed Di Gregorio’s cause.
FRANK LABRUZZO
Brother of Fay Bonanno and loyal captain in Joseph Bonanno organization.
JOSEPH NOTARO
Loyal captain in Bonanno organization
JOHN BONVENTRE
Cousin of Joseph Bonanno and veteran officer in organization who in 1950s returned to native Sicily to retire. In 1971, in Italian government’s anti-Mafia drive, Bonventre was cited as leader and exiled with other alleged mafiosi to small island off northeast coast of Sicily.
FRANK GAROFALO
Loyal Bonanno captain; returned to peaceful retirement in Sicily in 1950s, where he died natural death.
PAUL SCIACCA
Bonanno member who quit organization in 1964 dispute, joined Di Gregorio’s faction.