Off the Back of a Truck: Unofficial Contraband for the Sopranos Fan

by Nick Braccia, Eddie McNamara

Unleash your inner Soprano and relive all of your favorite moments with this companion guide to the award-winning series The Sopranos.

We all know and love The Sopranos, one of the most important television dramas to ever hit the small screen having run for six seasons on HBO. The story of the Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano balancing his family life with his role as a leader of a criminal organization inspired decades of genre-bending “peak TV.” Now Off the Back of a Truck: Contraband for the Sopranos Fan takes you one step further into the world of Tony Soprano and his family, offering an Italian potluck of fresh and fun takes that any true fan can get lost in for hours.

Off the Back of a Truck is for everyone who finds themselves glued to the TV during Sopranos marathons and still searches the best scenes on YouTube.

This book includes:
-New looks at everyone’s favorite episodes, scenes, and characters: “The Pine Barrens,” Big Pussy’s death, and more
-All 86 deaths analyzed, evaluated, and ranked
-Reflections on the show’s use of true crime, music, food, and fashion from critics and culture writers who are also huge fans
-Commentary from special guests, TV critics, and pop culture influencers

This book takes you on a journey through the six seasons you have watched time and time again—just in time for David Chase’s September 2020 prequel film!

Genres: Nonfiction, Tv, Pop Culture

320 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2020

Reviews

[Kammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher for an advance copy of this copy via netgalley!

A easy to read guide about every episode and character in the television series. You can read whichever pages you want in the order you chose which makes it a fun book. I rematched the whole series while reading this book. It will get you hooked to do the same!

[Wrymer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommended if you're a Sopranos fan!

Most interesting segments would be a deeper look into all the scams and heists of the show and the real life counterparts of said operations.
A really enjoyable and personable explanation of the origins and evolution of Italian-American culture, with a specific emphasis on their language, swear words and food. And an analysis of the performance of various therapists on the show by a professional psychiatrist.
And a long introspection of the creative inspirations for the Sopranos that goes beyond just the regular mob films like Goodfellas and The Godfather.

[Jason Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, The Sopranos is my favorite tv show ever. That being said I will watch and/or read anything about it.
This book was very cool.
Breaking down every death on the show by season, I thought, was awesome.
If you are from Jersey, or a fan of the show, do yourself a favor and read this book!

[Alex Weimer · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun book! The book goes through every death on the series and offers multiple interpretations for the final scene. The insight in the book is extremely entertaining. An extremely good read (haha) on all levels. Funny and enlightening.

[Nick Zidarescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovingly written by fans for fans, with great critical and cultural insights into so many aspects of the show. Manages to cover the same breadth as The Sopranos Sessions but with arguably more depth and is simply more interesting. The love for the show, its world and characters, its craft, and (perhaps most importantly) New Jersey just seeps through

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now that I've finished watching The Sopranos I can finally start reading all the auxiliary spoiler-filled Sopranos stuff. And this book makes a great place to start! The introduction makes it clear that the book is supposed to be thumbed through and poked around, as there is a lot of people writing about many aspects of the show. Devour what's interesting to you, and skim or skip what isn't.

Some of the more interesting chapters and essays included the nuts-and-bolts of the crimes shown on the show (ever wondered how exactly "points shaving" or "no-show bids" work? Now you know!), an essay about the Italian-American meals featured on the show, a look at the two licensed games from the series (a pinball game, which supposedly rules; and a PS2 game, which supposedly sucks from a gameplay perspective but has some excellent writing and voice work). The best segment is probably "Whack Attack," a ranking and analysis of all 92 deaths during the runtime.

Some less interesting chapters (for me, at least) concerned the portrayal of therapy and observations about acting.

The Sopranos had a lot to say--about family, violence, masculinity, the immigrant experience, and much more. It deserves a book that looks at all these elements, and "Off the Back of a Truck" delivers.

[Jeff Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Upon receiving “Off the Back of a Truck: Unofficial Contraband for the Sopranos Fan” as a birthday gift, I was confused. I had never heard of the book, and I couldn’t quickly figure out what it was. Yes it was a Sopranos book, but it wasn’t an episode guide, or an oral history, and it didn’t have pictures. It was a vaguely described book with a weird, almost frustrating, layout. At best it was mysterious, at worst stupefying and seemingly pointless.

Well, surprisingly and delightfully, the book’s initial shortcoming—that it’s not an obvious Sopranos item—turns out to be its biggest strength. “Off the Back of a Truck” is for the deep-diving fan jaded by all the redundant bullshit: novelty books, HBO promotions masquerading as content, etc. This is the graduate-studies of Sopranos fandom, and it’s very satisfying.

“The Sopranos” had a quality common to the greatest entertainments: it could be (thoroughly) enjoyed on a basic, everyman level, but it could also be analyzed and critiqued by those wanting to go further. “Off the Back of a Truck” is a true gift for the latter group.

[RyReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Off the Back of a Truck" is 100% a must-read for all fans of 'The Sopranos'. It is equally enjoyable to read this book front to back as it is to flip through to a random page. With multiple contributors, you're guaranteed to hear multiple perspectives and learn something new about the show.

My personal favorite parts of this book:
- The section on food used in the show--- including a recipe for breakfast spaghetti
- The analysis and ranking of all 92 deaths in the show
- Reading the essays some of the contributors wrote on their favorite episode

I look forward to re-watching some Soprano episodes over the holiday with this companion guide sitting close by!

I'm very thankful to Goodreads for hosting this giveaway, so I could win a copy and give an unbiased review.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of the show I found this book addictive and enjoyable. Highly recommend. My favorite sections were Inspired Crimes: Investigating the Schemes and Whack Attack. Glad I received my copy via Goodreads Giveaways.

[Matthew Wilder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvelously curated essay on the food, fashion, murder styles, and cinematic influences, among much more, of the show that invented prestige tv.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: This book was received via a Goodreads giveaway.

I only watched The Sopranos in its entirety a few years ago, so it was fresh enough to make this book very enjoyable. This book would be difficult to get much out of if you have not seen the show since it ended. It is clearly written for the serious Sopranos fan! I enjoyed the clever mix of material which kept the book engaging, from top episode breakdowns to essays on Italian-American language and cuisine.

[Aspen Aragon · Rating 5 out of 5]

such a fun way to look at the sopranos world, especially with breaking down the families and episodes. Well done as a huge sopranos fan.

[Zac · Rating 4 out of 5]

While other Sopranos books focus their energies on episode analysis and behind-the-scenes trivia, Nick Braccia’s 2020 offering carves out a unique niche by trafficking in Sopranos-adjacent lore. It discusses the cultural context (crimes, food, music, and fashion) that informed the show as well as its big and small screen antecedents (I credit it for getting me interested in the first season of Wiseguy) while also exploring The Sopranos’s subsequent impact. There are favorite episode run-downs here too, as well as series death rankings, and while some of the picks are debatable, even the worst is more thoughtful and informed than the typical vapid top-ten clickbait cluttering the Internet. Some Sopranos fans may find the amount of “side content” distracting and tedious, but for those who have already heard the behind-the-scenes stories, it is precisely this unique focus that gives Off the Back of a Truck value. Credit Braccia for going where other books won’t.

[Joe Emery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant.

[Michael Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a few interesting tidbits you'll get from this book, but for the most part it's big swings and even bigger misses. A guy who "just completed his psychiatric training" will analyze Melfi's performance, here's a list of all the songs we liked from the show, and "Here's what Heather thinks of New Jersey."

But the most offensive thing about the book is that it pretends the Sopranos was a "serialized drama." It wasn't. It was a serialized dramedy, and there was another one on HBO that took pop culture by storm right when the internet became more common in households: Sex in the City. I don't care if you don't like the idea of it being centered around women and womens' problems. I don't care if it doesn't meet your mistaken high-minded view of Sopranos. It's the same kind of show. Drama. Comedy. And it was out 2 years before the Sopranos hit the air. Stop ignoring it. Its finale had over 10 million viewers and was just shy of what The Sopranos clocked. HBO had already built up a much larger viewership that was there to find The Sopranos because Sex in the City got there first. But for some reason womens' issues aren't considered as monumental and artsy as a 57 year-old guy wailing about his balls or a mobster wheezing to his therapist about family issues.

Another ridiculous notion is that HBO didn't really exist as a network before The Sopranos. Along with Sex in the City, there was Oz, Dream On, Mike Tyson Pay-per-view fights, The Larry Sanders Show, and of course, it was one of the first networks with newly released movies, where you could turn your living into a movie theater with the right screen and sound system. Most people subscribed for the movies, but HBO did have original programming before The Sopranos and a good lot of it was better - even if it was the pre-internet era and hyperbolic cults didn't spring up around every show like they did by 1999.

It all goes back to that hilarious SNL skit back in the day where reviewers go overboard on what is essentially a family sitcom/dramedy show and say that The Sopranos will soon replace oxygen as what people breathe. It was a great show, but no, it wasn't Shakespeare, and it wasn't nearly as deep as its mostly beta male audience thinks it was. It was basically an 86-episode Goodfellas rip-off.

[Mike Cheng · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author Nick Braccia (and apparently some friends of his) is obviously obsessed with The Sopranos, and this book is definitely a worthwhile read for hardcore fans of the show. Showrunner David Chase and company apparently went through painstaking detail to craft each episode, many of which have subtle symbolism as well as clever placement of songs, references, and jokes. One example: Christopher Moltasanti (Michael Imperioli) shooting the baker’s foot in S1E8 and saying “it happens” as a reference to the infamous scene in Goodfellas where his character Spider is shot by Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci). Some of the less obvious ones (at least to me): Gloria Trillo foreshadowing her similarities to Livia Soprano (“poor you”); Junior Soprano singing Core ‘Ngrato in S3E13 and why such was followed by a mix of songs in Chinese, Spanish, etc.; and the use of orange juice (or Tang in the case of Tony B) as a harbinger of doom. Fun fact about Carmine Lupertazzi Sr. - Frank Anthony Vallelonga (who played him) is the factual basis for Viggo Mortensen’s character in Green Book. There is also a short chapter devoted to a factual explanation of how certain illegal operations work (e.g., the garbage industry, running numbers, the HUD scam, and no show construction jobs). Every single death is also discussed and ranked (first place goes to Adriana (another fun fact - the decision to delay Christopher’s confession to Tony to a later episode was first broached by Drea de Matteo to surprise the viewers of her death)). The book ends with a debate over the show’s final episode Made in America, and whether it's possible that Tony wasn’t shot (imo nope).

[Reverenddave · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is more like a collection of posts from a pop-culture website than a book. Listicles, short essays by multiple authors, personal narratives, interviews, even at least one recipe. As such the quality varies. For example, the section exploring the real life criminal enterprises fictionalized in the show was interesting if often too brief, but an interview to get the perspective of a North Jersey native on the show or a ranking of the show's top 40 song cues seemed superfluous and better suited to a theme week on The Ringer than a book you pay for. (In fact that site even did a more immersive article on Sopranoscon than the one found in this book.)

Ultimately, the book might serve a useful jumping off point for revisiting particular moments in the series but Sopranos obsessives would be better served with Matt Zoller Seitz' The Sopranos Sessions.

*Disclosure: This is a NetGalley review.

[Kea4 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve never watched the Sopranos. Sure I know what the show is about and how the show ends but I just never got around to watching it.
If you are a fan of the show I think you’ll like this book. Gives a second look at the episodes, scenes, characters killed off ec.

Explains about the real-life Mob and how they were taken down in New York. You also get a breakfast spaghetti recipe.

The discussion at the end about the shows ending was pretty interesting seeing who thought what of the ending.

If you want to jump into the world of Tony Soprano again this book might be for you.

https://theworldisabookandiamitsreade...

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book came out in 2020 and is really just some of the highlights of the show. Goes over the songs and which were the hits, food and recipes, the Italian language including swear words, and also some of the real crimes that some of the show stories were based on. Goes into season by season and the deaths, really a good look back at the show for a fan or someone who maybe wants to begin to watch the show. A lot to this book and a good read. I received this book from Netgalley.com

[Daniel Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of essays concerning the author’s favorite episodes, analysis of the 92 character deaths on the show, investigation of the crimes perpetrated, glimpse into the music and food on the show, look at the films and movies that served at inspiration and a look into the ending of the final episode. Some interesting tidbits and the section about the death of the characters was well done.

[Paul Sheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid read if you’re a fan of the show. There wasn’t much of anything in here I didn’t already know or think of previously. But still nice to read as to gain a better understanding of Chase, his history, and television history in general.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you loved the Sopranos, you'll love to read this book. Made me want to watch the whole series again. 3.5 stars

[Robert Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal read!

[Nick Salloum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good for unofficial, well researched

[William Dickerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent companion piece to one of the greatest television shows ever made.