How do you write a book in such a difficult field to handle? one problem – apart from the obvious unmanageability of bulky bibliographies – is that “mafiological” literature continues to be beset by its original dilemma: is the mafia the set of codes of honor and family values that we are used to seeing in a mascagni opera? ? Or is it the brutal reality of a criminal association whose sole objective is the parasitic accumulation of wealth? One possibility is to keep in mind Giambattista Vico’s old saying: “myths have a public basis in truth”. What truth, then, lies within the mafia myths that the cultural industry has so gladly dispensed to us? What social needs, what desires and fears do mafia myths satisfy?
Underpinning these questions is my list of 10 books (some facts, some myths, and some both) that can help navigate these murky waters.
You are reading: Best books on the mafia
1. the primitive rebels of eric hobsbawm (1959) robin hood in england, janosik in poland and slovakia, diego Corrientes mateos in andalusia and the mafiosi in sicily are in this book archetypes of the social rebel who took from the rich to give to the poor. it is unfortunate that the most powerful of the mob myths, the honorable bandit with the shotgun and tights, took shape in the pages of one of the most scrupulous and fact-focused modern historians. The verdict is unanimous: Hobsbawm is guilty of Mafia mythology. but then again, don’t we all want a world of equality and justice, where someone, even a mobster, can right wrongs and show that oppression can be reversed?
2. leonardo sciascia’s day of the owl (1961)a sunburned sicilian town reminiscent of lordsburg in john ford’s stagecoach. a bus is about to leave the station when a shot is heard, leaving a body on the ground. the problem is that captain bellodi, in charge of investigating the crime, is not john wayne – nor does sciascia have the patience for western-style happy endings. The book remains one of the most compelling and exciting detective stories ever written about the mob; You should only avoid it if you can’t tolerate messy endings.
See Also: Best Books of 2021 So Far | Time
3. the godfather of mario puzo (1969)
Like Christ in Dostoevsky’s legend of the Grand Inquisitor, decorated war hero Michael Corleone returns to civilian life after World War II. Whether he should resist the temptation of organized crime or give in to it for the good of the family, is the question that Puzo borrows from Dostoevsky. The godfather is a temptation of Christ for Nietzschean times – when the gift is dead, the will to power asserts itself as a “yes!” to criminal life.
4. Mafia and Mafiosi by Henner Hess (1973)First published in German in 1970 and republished in 1998, this is the classic sociological work on the Mafia. Hess is on a mission to debunk all the myths of the mafia: its medieval origins, its Masonic rituals and, above all, the myth of the mafia as an organization. Hess’s Mafia is instead Sicily’s disorganized but dominant subculture to which no Sicilian is a stranger. Unsurprisingly, the book was highly hated in Sicily.
5. global mafia by antonio nicaso and lee lamothe (1995)sitting on the advisory board of the nathanson center on transnational human rights, crime and security at york university in toronto, and with a personal history of fighting the mafia Nicass has understandably little patience with the myth of men of honor. With journalist and novelist Lee Lamothe, Nicaso writes this informative book on the transformation of organized crime under the “new world order.”
6. Excellent Corpses by Alexander Stille (1996)This carefully researched book reads almost like a novel. it would be logical, in fact, that only a george rr martin novelist could imagine the endless saga of grisly murders that take place on almost every page of this book. Credit for the gruesome plot goes to mob boss Salvatore Riina, who made Westeros look like a spa vacation by comparison.
See Also: Roxanne St. Claire – Book Series In Order
7. gomorrah by roberto saviano (2006)
saviano investigates the global and financial ambitions of organized crime in the era of neoliberalism. reading Gomorrah, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish the logic of today’s mafias from that of global corporations. Beautifully written, Gomorrah is an example of that peculiar Neapolitan genre, the “essay novel.”
8. Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb (2007)I have recommended this sometimes as a travel guide. the way robb describes sicilian landscapes and cities, in particular palermo, “looted” for about 30 years by mafia constructions and land speculation, is unmatched by even the “rugest” tourist guides.
9. Brotherhoods of the Mafia by John Dickie (2014)The historian Dickie is a masterful storyteller, which is fortunate for the reader of this 800-page tome, whose pages turn very quickly. is one of the few books I know of that attempts to trace the exhaustive history of not one, but three Italian criminal organizations: ‘drangheta, camorra and mafia.
10. Umberto Santino’s Mafia and Antimafia (2015)While the Mafia has garnered enormous public attention, the Antimafia—which Santino tells us is as old as the Mafia—has a remarkably low profile. The founder and director of the antimafia Centro Siciliano di Documentazione in Palermo, Santino is ready to change all that with this timely story.
See Also: I Stack Experience Through Writing Books – Chapter 115 – Mangatx
- The Mafia: A Cultural History of Roberto Dainotto is published by Reaktion Books priced at £20. buy it at the guardian bookstore for £16.