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 enlarge | Author: Peter Robb
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $8.92
You Save: $7.08 (44%)
New (24) Used (16) from $7.52
Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 146736
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0312426844
Dewey Decimal Number: 914
EAN: 9780312426842
ASIN: 0312426844
Publication Date: November 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Travel essays with a history of the Mafia February 27, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
What an odd book. A history of the Mafia mixed with fond travel essays. Would a history of the Mafia in Italy be too heavy without the travel essays? Maybe, but I would not have read it. Would a travel book about Naples and Sicily that ignored the Mafia be dishonest? Maybe, but I would have enjoyed this one a lot more without the Mafia history.
Would a travel book without maps or photos be frustrating to read? Yes. A history book without maps or photos or an index? Yes, frustrating.
I would not read it again. There is no one to whom I want to give the book. I would not recommend it to anyone who did not want to read a lot about the Mafia in Italy or Italian government after WWII. A student of small-time terrorism might like it. It was readable but not fun to read.
 MIDNIGHT IN SICILY ' E IL BEL PAESE DELL' ITALIA ' November 28, 2007
PETER ROBB HAS WRITTEN ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING BOOKS TO EVER COME
FORTH FROM ITALY.
MR ROBB IS A SKILLED STORYTELLER IN THIS ALL TOO TRUE 'GIALLO'
[CRIME STORY] OF POLITICS, MURDER, MAFIA, CULINARY, TRAVEL,
ART AND HISTORY OF 'LA SICILIA' FEW HAVE EVER UNDERSTOOD.
MR ROBB TAKES US ON A JOURNEY OF THE 'MEZZOGIORNO' AS NO AUTHOR BEFORE
OR SINCE HAS DEIGNED TO UNDERTAKE.
HIS KNOWLEDGE OF THE PEOPLE,PLACES,POLITICS [ AND CUSTOMS ] THAT DEVELOPED INTO WHAT WE UNDERSTAND AS MODERN DAY SICILY IS RENDERED AND FLESHED OUT WITH THE ASTUTE EYE OF THE ARTFUL ARTESIAN AND HISTORIAN.
FOR AN APPRECIATION OF MODERN DAY ITALY, HOW IT'S DESTINY BECAME ENTWINED
WITH THE INCUBUS OF CRIME THIS TOME IS A SCHOLARLY MUST READ AND NECESSARY PREREQUISITE.
LUIGI B
Dour and Tense December 28, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've had this book lying around the house for some years and an impending trip to Sicily motivated my recent reading. It has a flow and comfort with material that I hadn't felt in Robb's book on Carravagio(which was the reason I'd shelved MIS).Robb was resident of Naples for sufficiently long to know his subject well. Mafia ethos is portrayed in all its gritty and complex shades. For someone well outside the culture and the flood of Sicilian names that, frankly frequently lost me, it was a testament to Robb's narrative grip to sustain me to the conclusion. He's able to evoke the topography, his senses are on green alert, with interest in the cuisines of various cafes, fully related. The note on Sicilian authors, painters and historic events is beautifully interwoven, spaced so as to relieve us of the tedium and intrigue of Sicilian politics.
 The Killin' Sicilians June 14, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
If you didn't think you could ever call a history of the Cosa Nostra's brutal terrorism a fun read, try this book. The bombs, assassinations, extortion: it's all there. But also included are mouth-watering descriptions of the house seafood specialities of the restaurants where the kisses of death were exchanged. The author jumps around a lot, pulling together the facts and fictions of Sicilian political history and mixing it up with descriptions of the art and cuisine on the island. Once in a while he gets carried away and I had trouble following along. He also throws a lot of Italian names at you. I am generally unfamiliar with Italian and the names started to blur together after awhile. It doesn't really matter much in the end though, who blew up a particular bridge or politician, the m.o. of the cosa nostra comes through loud and clear.
The Poetry of Finitude April 21, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
One of the greatest books about Sicily ever written. It evokes like no other the visceral reality of the acceptance of Death as the only truly "serious thing". Another masterpiece from my second favourite contemporary writer (second, that is, only to Nick Tosches, himself a master of all things Sicilian).
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