It sounds like one of the basics of journalism:

You know those two things attached to the sides of your head? Those ears? Use them. Remember that in life. Listen with both ears. You listen to one story. You listen to the other one. Someplace in the middle is the truth. It’s up to your own brains and knowledge to determine what to do, if you know the background of the people who are involved.

But it’s actually an extract from Sammy “The Bull” Gravano’s memoir, Underboss, in which capo Salvatore “Toddo” Aurello is advising Sammy how to deal with a beef. I’m only about a quarter of the way through the book but it’s a riveting story thus far and promises to get even better. The most surprising aspect in the first six or seven chapters is how realistic Hollywood/TV depictions of life in the mafia really are. As Gravano says of The Godfather:

I left that movie stunned. I mean, I floated out of the theater. Maybe it was fiction, but for me, then, that was our life. It was incredible. I remember talking to a multitude of guys, made guys, everybody, who felt exactly the same way. And not only the mob end, not just the mobsters and the killing and all that bullshit, but that wedding in the beginning, the music and the dancing. It was us, the Italian people!

I’m used to a book shedding new light on a subject. So it’s odd, and strangely gratifying, to have my prejudices confirmed by Underboss. Though I assume that Italian-Americans, who lament their depiction in the media, might disagree.

Test

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