Volume 19, Number 1 · July 20, 1972
Everybody's Mafia
By Wilfrid Sheed
The American Mafia: Genesis of a Legend
by Joseph L. Albini
Appleton-Century-Crofts, 354 pp., $3.95 (paper)
The Mafia Is Not an Equal Opportunity Employer
by Nicholas Gage
McGraw-Hill, 224 pp., $6.95
Honor Thy Father: The Inside Book on the Mafia
by Gay Talese
World, 526 pp., $10.00
The Godfather
by Mario Puzo
Fawcett, 446 pp., $1.65 (paper)
The Godfather
directed by Francis Ford Coppola
As with God in the late Middle Ages, all that there is to know about the Mafia seems to be known by now except whether it actually exists. Among recent exegetes, Professor Joseph Albini finds the evidence so conflicting that no single Mafia can be deduced. Like a street-corner rationalist looking for contradictions in the Bible, Albini believes that when two accounts differ they must both be wrong, and that separate names (Cosa Nostra, the Outfit, etc.) must necessarily stand for different things.
Review, 5711 words
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