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  • Sonny Boy

  • A Memoir
  • Written by: Al Pacino
  • Narrated by: Al Pacino
  • Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (13 ratings)

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Sonny Boy

Written by: Al Pacino
Narrated by: Al Pacino
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Publisher's Summary

The Instant New York Times Bestseller

“The book is a beautiful trip.” (New York Times Magazine) • “Soulful . . . Feels like hanging out within a history of American movies over the last 50 years.” (Los Angeles Times) • “Startlingly cinematic ... A fine memoir.” (The Guardian)

From one of the most iconic actors in the history of film, an astonishingly revelatory account of a creative life in full

To the wider world, Al Pacino exploded onto the scene like a supernova. He landed his first leading role, in The Panic in Needle Park, in 1971, and by 1975, he had starred in four movies—The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon—that were not just successes but landmarks in the history of film. Those performances became legendary and changed his life forever. Not since Marlon Brando and James Dean in the late 1950s had an actor landed in the culture with such force.

But Pacino was in his midthirties by then, and had already lived several lives. A fixture of avant-garde theater in New York, he had led a bohemian existence, working odd jobs to support his craft. He was raised by a fiercely loving but mentally unwell mother and her parents after his father left them when he was young, but in a real sense he was raised by the streets of the South Bronx, and by the troop of buccaneering young friends he ran with, whose spirits never left him. After a teacher recognized his acting promise and pushed him toward New York’s fabled High School of Performing Arts, the die was cast. In good times and bad, in poverty and in wealth and in poverty again, through pain and joy, acting was his lifeline, its community his tribe.

Sonny Boy is the memoir of a man who has nothing left to fear and nothing left to hide. All the great roles, the essential collaborations, and the important relationships are given their full due, as is the vexed marriage between creativity and commerce at the highest levels. The book’s golden thread, however, is the spirit of love and purpose. Love can fail you, and you can be defeated in your ambitions—the same lights that shine bright can also dim. But Al Pacino was lucky enough to fall deeply in love with a craft before he had the foggiest idea of any of its earthly rewards, and he never fell out of love. That has made all the difference.

©2024 Al Pacino (P)2024 Penguin Audio
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What the critics say

“A movie superstar of rare stature . . . In Sonny Boy, Mr. Pacino still sounds like the actor who dazzled in his heyday. The book, written with Dave Itzkoff, preserves Mr. Pacino’s personality, with all his intelligence, his wit and his eagerness to talk about the theater history he loves.”—Farran Smith Nehme, Wall Street Journal

“At its best, reading [Sonny Boy] feels like pulling up a stool next to the actor as he unspools one anecdote after another . . . A glimpse into the idiosyncratic mind of our most mercurial movie star, who’s more than happy to wax poetic about the lifesaving qualities of Chekhov or to share his imagined conversations with Bertolt Brecht.”—Chris Stanton, Vulture

“Startlingly cinematic . . . A fine memoir. From fish out of water to Hollywood star, the method actor traces his path to success, spending as much time on the films that flopped as the greatest hits.”The Guardian

Editorial Review

Al Pacino brings the heat, the love, and the voice
Quick, who’s your favourite Pacino? A brilliantly understated antihero like Michael Corleone, or the extravagantly operatic Tony Montana or Frank Slade? Dearest to me – at least until his epic moment on stage at this year’s Oscars – is Dog Day Afternoon’s Sonny. Touchingly, “Sonny” was also what Al’s beloved mother called him, back when he was a South Bronx street kid in the 1940s. Sonny Boy, Pacino’s hotly anticipated memoir, takes us back to those days, from growing up in a fractured Italian American family, to his creative awakening in New York theatre, to his dizzying rise and long career at the heights of cinema. His boyhood friends – whose lives were destroyed by crime and drugs while Al, thanks to his mother and grandmother especially, was spared – used to call out “Sonny” and “Pacchi” from the sidewalk, waiting for him to come down and play. Now, the world waits for his voice and story, for the man behind the roles that live in our hearts. Here he is at last, and as Pacino himself might have it, no further preamble is needed. — Kat J., Audible Editor

What listeners say about Sonny Boy

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very good

loved it, interesting stories and great narration by the author. felt like a friend was telling stories.

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Just like he’s sitting across from you

Fantastic. Loved the stories that pertained to his movies. Interesting to get the background on his performances

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Great biography by a great artist!

If you are Al Pacino fan you are gonna love this and if you are not, then you become one.

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My favourite actor

Being a hardcore Pacino fan, I knew most of his anecdotes and stories. While he talks a lot about his 70s and 80s films, I would’ve loved him to go more in depth in his 90-present output. Still, this is a great book, and very Pacino. So happy he wrote this!

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A touching, honest memoir.

I loved this. Al's narration felt like he was there with me in the room, telling me his life story.

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