I have a confession to make. I have a strange attraction for anything related to the Mafia. I love all three Godfather movies. And as good as the movies are, the actual book by Mario Puzo is even better. I own Casino and have watched that and Goodfellas more times than I care to count.
I'm not really sure what the pull is. I guess it's because it's this kind of dark, shadowy, other-wordly thing. For a girl who grew up in clean, white, new suburbs, the world of mobsters, crime and corruption seems as far away as the worlds of the Brontes or just about any science-fiction writer. There's a certain unreality to it.
I started reading a new book the other day called Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops who Murdered for the Mafia. It's a great story about the fine line between the world of cops and the world of mobsters. I guess I was a little surprised to learn that in some parts of New York City, it's not uncommon for the members of one family to belong to both groups. Or at least that was true during the events in this book: in the 1980s and 1990s when the mob was imploding because of new RICO statutes that allowed for easier prosecution and the growing prominence of rats -- mobsters who testified against other mobsters.
Reading something like this also allows me to read more than one book simultaneously. Stefanie had a great poster recently about reading more than one book at a time. Because the three books I'm reading right now are so markedly different, I'm having no problem in keeping each one straight in my head!
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3 comments:
You are reading three very different books. You know you're introuble though if Jane Austen talks about putting out a hit on somebody ;)
I also LOVE the mob...have you seen The Departed? So, so good. Great blog!
Stefanie -- My sister just gave me the first three Harry Potter books, but I'm going to hold off for now. I think if I added that to the mix I have now, my head would explode!
Stie -- I can't even believe I totally forgot to mention The Sopranos in my post! I highly recommend Netflixing them, which is what I did. I've watched bits and pieces of the ones on A&E and they are cutting LOTS out to make it appropriate for even basic cable. It's just not the mob without all that profanity!
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