Somewhere in the jumbled, dissonant unraveling of the narrative, the contradictory generalizations and redundancies, the gratuitous expletives, racial epithets and cavalier misusing of God’s name is a history parts engaging and deplorable, insightful and mystifying. Since when do historians ape the voice of their subjects? Was that for the sake of believability? If it was to give the reader a sense of the vernacular, there were more than enough quotes that accomplished that objective.

There were so many shifts in chronology and disconnected anecdotes to cause literary whiplash. It was a sad bit of writing. This was a book in desperate need of an editor or three.

Just say: no.

I grew up in the era of The Rat Pack and thought this might be an interesting book. It was. The author really does a good job of bringing Frank,Dean,Sammy and Peter to life. Joey Bishop gets the short end of the stick and I would have liked to learn more about him. No one comes out of this book smelling like a rose, but they were just human, weren't they?

Eye opener

My husband has always been a Sinatra fan. After reading this book I can only think of him as a gangster wannabe; a degenerate. I found nothing in him to look up to. The other Rat Packers at least had some semblance of normalcy, somewhere.

Gossip, smut, demonstrably inaccurate in almost every way.

Very informative....not sure if it is all true....not very flattering to the members of the Rat Pack !

Gossipy look at music legends

Enjoyable read, but all this can be found in better books, such as the 2 volume Sinatra biography by James Kaplan. But for a quick over view of the Rat Pack and their history, this is a fun read.

Wonderful look at what has always been a pleasurable but unnutritious slice of Americana - the Rat Pack. Shawn Levy spares us the tedium while not holding back on the dish and dirt, making some of the most vapid celebrities of the 20th Century sympathetic.

Fantastic writing and insight into Rat Pack members and that era … all of them including Kennedys on the side are horribly flawed and unlikeable so be prepared to lower your opinion of them

Wild times.

The author writes this tell-all book in a very casual, earthy voice, raising each Rat Pack member to a pedestal before denigrating them. But maybe they deserved his treatment because of their lifestyle, and, obviously, they weren't angels. My parents were of the same generation but were oblivious to the goings-on in Hollywood and Vegas. They simply enjoyed the group's music, bought it, played it, and watched the singers perform whenever they appeared on our little black and white TV. Now that I've read about the Rat Pack's debauchery, I wonder how Mom and Dad would feel if they knew the truth.

My Way ?

A look inside this time recollects a lot of not just culture, but history. A time capsule of decadence and debauchery which objectively seems really pathetic but tremendously interesting and worth reading about. Reminds me of the old proverb " what profits a man ...... "