Book review: Politics & Pasta by Buddy Cianci

Get Politics and Pasta: How I Prosecuted Mobsters, Rebuilt a Dying City, Dined with Sinatra, Spent Five Years in a Federally Funded Gated Community, and Lived to Tell the Tale at Amazon

Anyone who refers to themselves as "glib" has either a great sense of humor or an enormous ego. Buddy Cianci has both.

You can't live in and/or around Rhode Island and not know "Buddy." He turned Providence from a crime-ridden eyesore to a thriving and beautiful city. Even the people who hate the man appreciate the city's resurgence. And despite his felony conviction, there are a lot of people who'd vote him back into office.

In his entertaining and open memoir, he recounts his youth, his law practice and his terms as mayor. He brags about his high points (often with good reason), and talks frankly about his lows, including the investigations, scandals, indictments and the conviction that landed him in Federal prison for five years.

If you've ever heard his radio show, you'll realize that the book is written very much in his own voice. As Politico wrote, Buddy is "[b]eguiling, hilarious, with an excuse - and a joke - for everything." Is he snarky sometimes? Oh yeah. Sarcastic? Uh-huh. But that's Buddy.