A Goomba's Guide to Life FROM THE PUBLISHER
Attention would-be paesans: Can't distinguish "gabagool" from "pasta fazool"? Not sure how to properly accessorize your track suit with gold chains? Does the phrase "go to the mattresses" make you sleepy? Now Steven R. Schirripa, The Sopranos' own Bobby Bacala, exposes the inner mysteries of this unique Italian-American hybrid in A Goomba's Guide to Life so that anyone can walk, talk, and live like a guy "from the neighborhood."
Über-goomba Steve Schirripa shows how being a goomba made him what he is today, offering lessons learned on his own journey from Bensonhurst to Vegas, and to his current gig as Bobby Bacala on one of TV's most popular shows. Along the way, he shares secrets that will help you get in touch with your own inner goomba. You'll learn what music to enjoy (Sinatra, yes; Snoop Dogg, no), what movies to watch (Raging Bull, yes; Titanic, never), which sports to follow (baseball is good; golf and tennis, fuhgeddaboudit), and even tips on goomba etiquette. Ever wonder how a real goomba gets the best seat in the house? (Hint: It involves tipping, jewelry, and intimidation.) Schirripa even includes goomba do's and don'ts (never, ever criticize a goomba's mother or her gravy; always wear more jewelry than you think you need).
With knockout photographs of Schirripa and his compares, and insider information on how to think goomba, speak goomba, cook and eat goomba, and even how to behave at goomba weddings and funerals, A Goomba's Guide to Life will show any wiseguy wannabe how to sing like a Soprano.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Schirripa may be best known for playing a goomba on TV (he's Bobby Bacala, Uncle Junior's dimwitted lackey, on The Sopranos), but he has some first-hand experience to draw from as well. Schirripa grew up in the heavily Italian Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, where his bookie father was arrested 32 times; he himself worked at Vegas casinos for years before stumbling into acting. But too much of this tongue-in-cheek how-to ignores Schirripa's potentially compelling life story in favor of shopworn riffs on Sinatra and prosciutto. ("Goomba culture is pretty simple stuff. All those cliches? They're true," Schirripa writes-which might make one wonder why a guide such as his is necessary.) Even with almost 30 pages devoted to recipes, the book feels padded, and Schirripa and Fleming are surprisingly stingy with Sopranos anecdotes. They strive for lowbrow authenticity-the word "ain't" shows up eight times in the first three pages, and one sentence begins, "Just like I been saying"-but end up sounding sloppy. Sopranos junkies may enjoy the occasional behind-the-scenes tidbit, and there are a few genuinely amusing moments. But the self-conscious style and overreliance on lists ("You might be a goomba if..." and the like) just might consign the book to "fuhgeddaboudit" status, despite its obvious marketing potential in Sopranos-themed displays. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
AudioFile
As satisfying as a bowl of pasta fagioli, this audiobook is delivered with tongue firmly in jowl by the titular goomba, Steven R. Schirripa. You may know him from "The Sopranos" and numerous films. His Brooklyn accent is as thick as a Bolognese sauce, and his humor as generous as portions at an Italian family dinner. While some "inside information" is shared about the goomba's life, there is plenty of broad satire and a germ of truth in all that he says, despite the clichés of urban Italian- Americans. What we carry away from Schirripa's witty and intelligent banter is one real truth—that goombas are, as he says, the Italian equivalent of the Jewish mensch—an honorable man with a heart of gold. D.J.B.
© AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
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