Customer Rating:  
Summary: Over-promise, Under-delivery
Comment: I had high hopes for this book. Sadly the meadering prose makes a potentially rivetting book dead dull! I stuch with it to the end in the hope that it would redeem itself. It did. It ended!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A fascinating and unique perspective on the world today
Comment: A passionate, troubling and at times personally conflicted exposé of the Neapolitan mafia the Camorra, Roberto Saviano examines the origins, the history and the bloody rise to power of the various clans to become a powerful and influential force not just in Campania or Italy but throughout the world. In Gomorrah, in a manner that would force him to go into hiding following publication, he names names, examines the environment that gave rise to the Camorra, and tries to understand the thought processes behind their actions, behaviour and their business practices.
What is revealed is staggering and on a scale almost beyond the ability of the reader to grasp. Saviano shows a more widespread and powerful organisation than the more well-known Sicilian mafia, a confederation of clans and cartels that has its fingers in almost every aspect of world commerce - not just gun-running and drug-dealing, but in everything from the fashion industry (passing off high quality copies with the tacit agreement of the main fashion houses) to electronic goods and even monopolising the waste disposal industry. In a nice symmetry, the novel opening by looking at how all the world's commerce passes through Naples, and ending with a look at how it all comes back to Naples as waste to be illegally disposed of in the surrounding countryside.
Exceptionally well-written in this respect, full of poetic, original and insightful observations (which some clearly find difficult to read) that strive to capture the enormity of the scale of the Camorra's activities, the book can also be quite shocking, describing the killings and clan wars, the battles over territory, the grim tortures and executions carried out to anyone who opposes the System. It's a fascinating look at the manners and morals not just of the Camorrah, but of of the world today, of big business of the most ruthless sort taken to its ultimate extreme, with no social conscience or long-term outlook. Truly terrifying.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The only thing you learn in the black hole of Naples is how to die
Comment: In going undercover, R. Saviano experienced at first hand the Mafia at work in the Naples region.
It is a story of savage infighting, bid-rigging, trafficking and relentless slaughtering of competition.
Economics
Mafia business is one of the most aggressive forms of neoliberalism. It is a naked struggle among clans in order to create monopolies and to maximize profits. Their activities cover as different sectors as real estate, construction, cement, garment, farming, sugar and trafficking of drugs, cigarettes, arms and waste. A clan cartel could generate as much as 30 billion euros of revenues per year.
The author also clearly explains the bidding contest for contracts in the garment industry, where small `illegal' factories with harsh working conditions are tailoring even unique pieces for the top names in the industry.
Ethics and creed
For the Mafia, ethics equal protection of the defeated. Justice and injustice have only significance as victory or defeat. The only thing that counts is the law of the strongest, are the means to rule.
Its members don't consider their activities as contradictory to the Christian message as long as those activities are good for the clan and its affiliates. Killing of enemies and traitors is seen as a legitimate transgression of the fifth commandment.
Lifestyle
Once in a commanding position, most bosses are confronted with the long arm of the law. They are always on the run and are not capable of enjoying their wealth. They become prisoners of their own business empire.
A big part of the book unravels a secession war between Mafia families and the killing of a priest. The relentless bestial slaughterings become rather boring and can only be fully appreciated by insiders.
Roberto Saviano wrote a courageous book exposing business empires built on monopolies, extortion and brutal power struggles. It is a picture of a lawless society.
Highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great story but, oh!, the writing
Comment: There are two things you need to know about this book. Firstly, it is a (literally) shocking expose about the power, reach, spread and influence of the Comorra, the Naples mafia. It names names, it gives details. It's staggering. It's also laughable in places - when he recounts how a lot of the younger mafiosi can no longer shoot straight, because they'er copying how they hold guns in the movies and rap videos, and the capo who builds himself an copy of Tony Montana's villa.
But the second thing you need to know is that it's really badly written. I don't know if it's the original or the translation - maybe both - but the prose is breathless and florid. Passages need to be read and reread to understand what he's going on about. There are sections where he remembers himself and the text is readable, and they are the bits that are most successful and most shocking. But overall it's hard work.
A pity though, because the book is brave and important. Just badly written.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Needs Savage Editing - Maybe A Re-Write
Comment: What could have been an excellent investigative book turns out to be a difficult to read book. The first chapter is riddled with metaphors and is written in such a florid style one begins to wonder if it is a different author. Maybe an author who was confused on whether he should be writing poetry or prose rather than hard fact.
Subsequent chapters are infused with far too many names and places for any reader to grasp. Once in a while there is a flash of light when the author concentrates on one character and gives an insight into his biography. Alas, these examples are too few.
I was disappointed that Saviano didn't focus enough on the politicians in Italy. If he was prepared to put his life on the line for naming a few psychopaths why didn't he go all the way and name key names in the political hierarchy?
It makes a saddening read, even more so to know that the psychopathic criminal gangs in Italy are responsible for 6% of the Italian GDP!
Saviano needs to read the works of some genuine investigative journalists such as John Pilger before he embarks on any more ventures. His emotive style ruined the book.
Finally. The book has convinced me that Italy is a 'basket case' and has fallen off my countries to visit.
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