Review: This Family of Mine by Victoria Gotti

For my first read of round 3 of the Buzzword Readathon, I chose This Family of Mine by Victoria Gotti. Victoria Gotti is the daughter of the former boss of the Gambino Crime Family. This is her tell all about her parents child hoods, how they met, how her father was introduced to the "underworld" that is the mafia. She goes into detail about her pregnancies and all of her major health issues.

I have always been fascinated by the Mob culture and everything since I was in middle school. The fascination started when I was in a school play for Bugsy Malone. Bugsy Malone took place in the prohibition era and the bad guys were called the Down & Outs. It had the speak easy's and flapper girls. But none of that is mentioned in this story.

We start off the story with learning about John Gotti and how he had 7 siblings, and that they were crammed into a two bedroom apartment and how his father was abusive and a major gambler. Victori also gives insight into her mother's childhood and how her mother's mother put her into a school for girl because she was born out of wedlock and the father wanted nothing to do with her until she was married to John Gotti.

Victoria goes into her siblings births and the death of her brother and her mother's breakdown over that. I was ugly crying at the part where her mother went to the funeral home and covered her son with a blanket because he was cold. My daughters love blankets and I lost it at that.

Another part that made me cry uncontrollably was the birth of her daughter Justine who was stillborn and the baby was placed into her arms dead and she didn't know that her baby had passed. My heart went out to her while reading about her pregnancies and how she fought like hell for her babies when the odds were very much against her and they were life threatening.

I enjoyed getting to know more from the daughter of a infamous mob boss who didn't like the mob life that her father had. Some people may say that it is all lies to cover the truth. Some may say that it is totally factual and may be too little to late to save face.