So after publishing yesterday’s post my husband called me a mafiosa… so I figured I ought to clarify. I said the following:
Cosi Fan Tutti by Michael Dibdin – This is the lightest of what I picked up, but it looks like a good, fun mystery and it’s set in Naples around the mafia…what’s not to love? We’ll see!
So – in clarification. I do NOT love the mafia, and I never intended to make light of a horrible, criminal organization. I DO love Italy (I have visited several times, and studied abroad there in college, and I’m 3/4 Italian…), and I do find the mafia fascinating. I studied Criminal Justice, after all… In any case. The mafia is terrible. I do not love them.
I do, however, have a good book to recommend if you are interested in reading about the Sicilian mafia (different from that of Naples…and Calabria…and elsewhere), Cosa Nostra. The book is called Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia by John Dickie. I picked it up while I was studying abroad in 2004 and it was truly fascinating. I read it 12 years ago so I’m a little fuzzy on the details, but I do remember it being a fast-paced read, despite being a “history,” and very thorough. It talks a little about the linkages between the mafia in Italy and the mafia in the US, but doesn’t delve into any of our domestic mafia issues. Anyways – my 12 year old memory says at least 4 stars, maybe 5. Check it out!
Kristin Houlihan, Writer 