The Mammoth Book of the Mafia

by Nigel Cawthorne (Editor)

Can’t get enough of The Godfather and Goodfellas? Enter the underground world of organized crime. Get true accounts from the mouths of prominent former Mafiosi and others who have infiltrated the hidden world of organized crime: the American Mafia, the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the Camorrah, 'Ndrangheta, and Sacra Corona Unita. This fascinating compilation contains accounts from the likes of Richard Kuklinski, Frankie Saggio, Joey Black, Albert DeMeo, and Donnie Brasco.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, True Crime, Crime, Biography

512 pages, Paperback

First published June 25, 2009

About the author

Nigel Cawthorne is an Anglo-American writer of fiction and non-fiction, and an editor. He has written more than 80 books on a wide range of subjects and has contributed to The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph Daily Mail and The New York Times. He has appeared on television and BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Many of Nigel Cawthorne's books are compilations of popular history, without footnotes, references or bibliographies. His own web site refers to a description of his home as a "book-writing factory" and says, "More than half my books were commissioned by publishers and packagers for a flat fee or for a for a reduced royalty".

One of his most notable works was Taking Back My Name, an autobiography of Ike Turner, with whom he spent a number of weeks working with him on, taking up residence in Turner's house. The book caused much controversy, resulting in court cases for three years following its release.

Cawthorne currently lives in Bloomsbury, London with his girlfriend and son, Colin (born 1982).

Reviews

[Elias · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting stories but not well written according to me: too many characters introduced at the same time, and jumping between their firstname/lastname/nickname in the following pages. It looks like the author did it on purpose not to make it easy to read and to follow.

[Risha · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Martin Bull · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the worst edited books I have come across, indeed there appears to have been no editing at all, save the selection of accounts. The accounts themselves are at times impenetrable so devoid are they of context. There are so many names of mobsters introduced that it is difficult to know exactly who is (or was) who, and the same people pop up in different chapters but without any cross-referencing. The accounts themselves are snippets of larger works and the "introductions" to them are poorly written. At times it is not clear whether the accounts are written in the first person or the third person, or are actually being interchanged. So, I started out really disliking the book. However, I persisted, and it grew on me. For all its faults, I began to feel that these raw, first-hand, subjective accounts were, in their similarity and brutal nature, providing a real insight into life in the mob, or at least part of the life in the mob, since the accounts do tend to focus on the killings rather than the more mundane racketeering. Towards the end, I felt the similarities bordered too much on the same sort of thing, but the message got across. I felt I learnt something from this book, especially about the old Sicilian Mafia in North America. I suspect the book could have been half as long and served its purpose.

[Pippa Holzapfel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took me a while to finish, i feel like they could have elaborated more on the stories instead of just telling you about another mob guy who killed some other mob guy 13 times. Will rewatch the Godfather trilogy after reading this

[BrianC75 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting content but writing and structure a little bit incoherent for me. Enjoyed first part of book more than second - probably due to content.

[Martina Loddo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did not finish

[Jessica D'Entremont · Rating 3 out of 5]

mostly good collection of stories. some were very confusing with too many names being dropped for no apparent reason. still glad I read it.

[Alastair Rosie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book certainly lives up to its name, it’s big and covers a lot of ground, mostly America and the time span stretches over several decades from the 1930s up until the close of the 20th century. We learn of the origins of the Five Families of New York. The rise of the Chicago mob, the destruction of Las Vegas and the gradual rise of Mafia families in other American cities. There is also one chapter that takes us to Sicily during World War Two.
The stories are told in first person with a short introduction at the start of the chapter, which sums it up quite nicely. I found it to be a good start for anyone interested in the Mafia. I’m not, but the book was pressed into my hands by a colleague at work and so I read it. As a reference book it’s adequate although the subject matter is extensive, so I would guess that to provide all of the relevant information would take several volumes but as a basic Mafia 101 course this is the book to get. The one thing I didn’t like about it was the lack of an index, which would lift it from three to four stars or even more. The Kindle version would provide search facilities although it’s just as pricey but if you are using this as a reference book then that’s the format to buy. Not sure if I’d buy it at the price on Amazon though but if it gets low enough I might snap up the ebook version. But in all sincerity the lack of an index is a fault with the paperback version and one that detracts from its appeal as several characters pop up right throughout, many times just in passing. So if you want a good picture of Lucky Luciano and his partners in crime or victims then the index comes into its own. Similarly there is no bibliography, which is surprising as even references to news items would be a great help for further reading.
The one thing it does do is lift the lid on the Mafia and expose the corruption, double dealing and rampant violence that is played out on news broadcasts and in that regard it does deserve all three of its stars.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started out as a pretty interesting look inside the mob. But by the end there were just too many stories of how many ways there are to whack somebody and it felt like a Quentin Tarantino movie that ran an hour too long. Still,it's a good history of the Mafia and organized into profiles of key Mafia figures, so if one chapter gets too tiresome you can skip around and still have a good read.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

a brilliant collection of excerpts from every point of view on the mafia. from the feds, the informants, and of course the wiseguys themselves. highly recommended. things you never knew about the mafia, things youll never forget

[Larry Van Bibber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great synposis of several prominent Mafia people.

I recommend it to any one who reads about the Mafia

[Nicola · Rating 2 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of real testimonies, unfortunately pastiched together in a difficult manner. It's difficult to work out where the history begins and the commentary ends sometimes.

[Jessica Woolley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rally wasn't for me this one. It was a bit too heavy for a bedtime read and I hair couldn't get into it

[Crystal Cramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book. There are stories of the Mafia and people behind who lived the lives. Some of these sound like ideas behind sopranos

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to follow...