From Publishers Weekly
Fans of mob turncoat Henry Hill based on Nicholas Pileggi's Wiseguy (an account of Hill's life) and the popular film adaptation Goodfellas will be forced to dramatically re-evaluate him after reading this gripping memoir by his children—who were only a passing blip in those earlier versions. Their warts-and-all portrayal of the immense disruption to their lives caused by their father's criminal recidivism is often heartbreaking. At a young age, they were exposed to family friends like Jimmy "the Gent" Burke, whom they knew as Uncle Jimmy, unaware he was a brutal truck hijacker. When investigators on the 1980 multimillion-dollar Lufthansa heist obtained Hill's cooperation as a witness, the children were given an hour to pick through their possessions to select what they could take with them into their new life in the witness protection program. Gregg and Gina often give overlapping perspectives of the same events, as they struggle to adjust, without the benefit of any guidance, and to craft plausible backstories for their new classmates and neighbors. Gregg's story is especially moving as he traces his personal evolution from model student to an adolescent forced to protect his mother from his father. The grimness is leavened with humor, and the many readers who will be rooting for these innocent victims will be heartened by their capacity to transcend a truly awful upbringing. B&w photos. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
While Martin Scorsese's almost-lovable wiseguy Henry Hill led a life of unbroken adventure with the Mob--finding haven in the federal witness protection program when he informed on his colleagues--it was hard to know just who, besides Hill's crime victims, was paying the tab. In this wrenching but involving account, we find out: his children. Hill's son and daughter pick up the story pretty much where Scorsese's Goodfellas left off: the family packing their belongings into Hefty bags and hustling to safe houses in the Hamptons, then Omaha, then rural Kentucky, then finally Redmond, Washington. "Our lives weren't just falling apart," explains son Gregg, "they'd been vaporized, liquidated, erased." And their father only made things worse, resuming his criminalizing but also carelessly exposing the family to the mobsters trying to kill them. Miraculously, son and daughter here seem to have outrun the horror of their childhood, so far. Alan Moores
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM OUR EDITORS

Gregg and Gina Hill are the son and daughter of former Mafia bad guy Henry Hill, the subject of Nicholas Pileggi's 1987 bestseller Wiseguy and Martin Scorsese's dilm Goodfellas. Gregg and Gina grew up in the Witness Protection Program, moving from place to place and changing identities as their parents sought normalcy and safety. Being hunted by professional hit men was not their only problem. Their own father, unrepentant and sometimes violent, continued his scamming activities, endangering the entire family. On the Run is a memoir unlike any other.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In the 1970s, Henry Hill pulled off heists and busted heads with the Mob. In the '80s, he became famous-as the antihero of the bestselling book Wiseguy and blockbuster movie Goodfellas. But there was one story he couldn't tell. Now his children, Gregg and Gina, tell it for him.

ON THE RUN is the extraordinary true account of what it's like to grow up in the federal witness protection program. Just as Gregg was celebrating his bar mitzvah and his sister, Gina, was buying her first bra, Henry Hill was informing on his former cronies. Henry, his wife, and children were swept into protective custody. And Gregg and Gina, who'd already been exposed to their father's wild side, were about to be ripped from their home and lose the only normalcy they'd ever known.

Taking only what they could fit in a bag, the Hill children began a nightmarish life on the run: constantly moving from town to town, often without warning, and always knowing that their Uncle Jimmy, along with their father's other former "friends," wanted the Hills dead. All the while, Henry, a violent career criminal with a taste for hard drugs and women, used his new identity to break the law and make new enemies-forcing the family to run again and again. For Gina, the journey from Queens to Nebraska to Kentucky to Washington State was one of fierce denial-of trying to see the best in her abusive father, of learning her skills as an amateur actress, and finally uttering the unspeakable truth to her best friend. For Gregg, it was a chronicle of heartache, sacrifice, and violence: giving up a tennis career, standing up his first date because the family had to flee that night, and finally, after a series of near lethal confrontations with his father, running for his life.

Exploding the myths of glitz and camaraderie that surround the Mob, ON THE RUN is a gritty, heartbreaking true story of children born into two families at once: the loud, violent Hills, and the silent, murderous Mafia. In their own eloquent words, Gregg and Gina Hill tell how they survived both-and finally got the best revenge.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Fans of mob turncoat Henry Hill based on Nicholas Pileggi's Wiseguy (an account of Hill's life) and the popular film adaptation Goodfellas will be forced to dramatically re-evaluate him after reading this gripping memoir by his children-who were only a passing blip in those earlier versions. Their warts-and-all portrayal of the immense disruption to their lives caused by their father's criminal recidivism is often heartbreaking. At a young age, they were exposed to family friends like Jimmy "the Gent" Burke, whom they knew as Uncle Jimmy, unaware he was a brutal truck hijacker. When investigators on the 1980 multimillion-dollar Lufthansa heist obtained Hill's cooperation as a witness, the children were given an hour to pick through their possessions to select what they could take with them into their new life in the witness protection program. Gregg and Gina often give overlapping perspectives of the same events, as they struggle to adjust, without the benefit of any guidance, and to craft plausible backstories for their new classmates and neighbors. Gregg's story is especially moving as he traces his personal evolution from model student to an adolescent forced to protect his mother from his father. The grimness is leavened with humor, and the many readers who will be rooting for these innocent victims will be heartened by their capacity to transcend a truly awful upbringing. B&w photos. Agent, Joel Gotler at AMG Renaissance. (Sept. 21) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Though their family was anything but typical, Gregg and Gina Hill lived more or less normal lives until spring 1980, when their father, "Wiseguy" Henry Hill, went into the Witness Protection Program, taking his family with him into an unknown and dangerous future. Here, Gina and Gregg tell the story of their early lives, the misery, discomfort, and fear that living on the run brought them, and their attempts to live a normal life when the facade could come crashing down any second. Told chronologically in alternating voices, the experiences of Gregg and Gina are as notable for their differences as for their similarities. Gregg, two years older, was the serious one who could see the danger their father posed to the family, while Gina believed in her daddy through all of his irresponsible behavior and broken promises; her awakening to reality is particularly painful. Whether or not readers remember the notorious subject of Nick Pileggi's Wiseguy and Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, they will be spellbound by the heartbreaking story of his children. Recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/04.] Deirdre Bray Root, Middletown P.L., OH Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews