I Heard You Paint Houses

Carter Rutkoski
Cole- Edwards; Fletcher
ERWC Blog
January 21, 2020

SSR Blog Post 

            During the first semester I read 2 books, but for this post I’d like to focus on the second book I read, ‘I Heard You Paint Houses’ by Charles Brandt. This book is a narrative nonfiction written about Frank Sheeran, a mafia hitman who recounts his life and the crimes he committed while working for the Buffalino crime family. The book was the basis for Martin Scorcese’s latest film, ‘The Irishman’, but whereas the film is a dramatization of Sheeran’s life, the book it is based on is the raw story, told as Frank told it. As a narrator, Frank Sheeran tells the reader his life as a man at the end of his life reflecting on his past. He tells of his time in the army during World War 2, his friendship with Russell Buffalino and Jimmy Hoffa, and the way his hitman life has affected him.
            Frank’s recounts of his life can almost be described as the ramblings of an elderly man, but the stories within his ramblings are what make the book as captivating as it is. Along with Frank Sherran’s raw ramblings, we have the occasional voice of Charles Brandt. Brandt is the voice of the outside looking in, popping in and out to comment and reflect on what Frank is telling. To me the most interesting aspect of the book is the dynamically static growth of Frank throughout his life. Upon becoming a mafia hitman, Frank’s life and character reaches a point which it never deviates from in any major way. He does things that would shake a normal man to their core, and yet he takes it all as just another day at the office.

              It’s this static growth which affects the world around him, and both grows and destroys his relationships and friendships with everyone he’s ever known. Now at the end of his life, realizing his mortality, Frank tells us everything. Yet despite this, he lives and dies just like the rest of us. Frank's story as he tells it is his attempt at reconciliation, and fixing whatever he may have broken throughout his life.