3 out of 4 stars
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With John Costello’s current state of life, most people would have never guessed that he had a turbulent start in life. It’s easy to speculate that he had a good start, but the truth is very far from what we would have guessed. In his book Executive Hoodlum, the opposing worlds of organized crime and executive lifestyle have come together to form a gripping, inspirational biography through John Costello’s life.
The book starts off with the present time. The author is in a risky situation due to his father’s conniving stunts. The author then gets into detail about his background to explain why he was in that situation in the first place, starting off with his father’s background then eventually leading on to his rough childhood until it reaches back to the present time. In his book, he detailed his constant turmoil over his life, his father’s abuse and adultery, his strife against his own family and half-family, his relationships with different of people and how all of those things helped him get to where he is now.
The book is like a crime novel and I liked how it keeps the reader looking forward to what might happen. Knowing that this book is a non-fiction, it still amazes me that all of those events happened in real life. I also liked the author’s honesty in his book about his life. The author is not afraid of showing his troublesome relationship with his father alongside some more people in his life, his rocky start and most importantly, his emotions during difficult moments. The author’s way of telling his story is extremely raw and shows the reality in his life. The reader can really feel the author’s grit and determination despite everything that happened to him. Personally, I think that the way he told his story is really impressionable and inspiring for us readers. The way that the author turned his life around through his persistence is really something to look up to especially by those who are in the similar situation as him. Aside from that, I really liked the dedicated pages for the pictures of the author’s life, because I think it helped in solidifying the image of the author’s life that was forming in my mind. It’s also a good thing that the author wrote the conclusion not just for himself, but as well as for the other characters as well. Of course, I really liked the conclusion because it showed the author’s development throughout the story and it is a fitting ending for such a fascinating story.
However, I didn’t understand the story at first because there is a lot of mafia terms that I didn’t know. It takes a little while before you get it and be absorbed into the story. Aside from that, I was a bit turned off by the author’s tone in some of his stories in his book. It comes off as a bit bragging, and I understand that it is a part of his personality and that the author wants to write in the rawest form of his story, however, it still didn’t change the fact that I’m turned off by his tone. Another thing that I disliked is the spelling errors. Usually, these errors would not bother me but there are times that the errors were bunched up in a specific part of the story, and it’s pretty hard to not be distracted by it.
Overall, Executive Hoodlum is an extremely gripping, thought-provoking, and inspiring biography by John Costello. I give it a 3 out of 4 stars because it is a good book, however, the tone of the author might discourage some of the readers that might not get past the initial tone of the story. If you like to read a crime story and the like, you will like this book. I do recommend it for everyone to read it, especially those who are having a hard time in his or her life right now and might want to read something to motivate them.
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Executive Hoodlum
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