Booknote: I Heard You Paint Houses

Charles Brandt, I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa. Hanover, NH: Steerforth Press, 2018. ISBN: 9781586422387.

Genre: nonfiction
Subgenre: memoir, biography, true crime, mobsters
Format: trade paperback
Source: Berea branch of the Madison County (KY) Public Library

I picked this up out of curiosity, in part because it is the basis of the recent Netflix film The Irishman. The book's title comes from the first phrase Jimmy Hoffa told Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran upon their first meeting. To "paint a house" is to kill a man. Sheeran was, among other things, a mob hitman connected to Russell Bufalino. This book is a series of confessional interviews Sheeran did towards the end of his life with the book's author. The big highlight is that the book provides a solution to Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance. Note that some people still contend the book's claims. I leave that for readers to keep reading and decide on their own.

The 2016 edition of the book that I read is meant to go with the film; the book itself came out back in 2004. So this is an "expanded" edition. In addition to the 31 chapters of Sheeran's book, we get an afterword where the author mostly wraps the story after Sheeran ends his story. We then get an epilogue to the 2005 first paperback edition of the book that offers some additional follow ups and details. Then, as if that is not enough, we get a conclusion that collects "stories that could not be told before." To be honest, some of the stories in the conclusion we could have done without, a lot of that conclusion segment felt like filler. Sheeran's story runs to about 278 pages. The rest of the book brings it up to 366 pages.

Sheeran's story is actually pretty interesting. He served in World War II and then lived through the 50s, 60s, and into the 70s. A lot of history, including the rise of the Teamsters Union, happened during his life. Some of it you may recall if you are old enough, or you may recall from reading other books. The story as Sheeran tells it is interesting and engaging. This part of the book goes back and forth between Sheeran's narrative and Brandt's writing. Brandt mainly adds additional elements of clarification, expands on things Frank said, and fills in the gaps in Frank's narrative that readers may miss. Overall, a good story that captures its times.

The book pretty much ends after the afterword. The epilogue serves to update the book in 2005. However, the conclusion does seem way too long, and feels like a lot of filler. Some stories were interesting, and others could have stayed buried. To be honest, reading the supplementary material felt like a drag at times, and I think many readers may either skim or skip it with no great loss.

In the end, I did like the book, mostly, but I did feel the supplements were just stretching things. On a side note, I have not seen the film as of this blog post, but having read the book I would like to see it sometime down the road.

3 out of 5 stars.

Book qualifies for this 2020 Reading Challenge: