When hiring a car in England this year, the young guy who took my booking information was curious about what life was like in Italy. “Have you got the credit crunch?” he asked before reverting to the default option query : “Have you still got the Mafia, then?”
Aside from the three Ps ( pizza, pasta and Pavarotti) the English cannot quite get the image of the Godfather out of their heads. Think Italy and Mafia is an immediate word association.
I suppose national stereotypes work like this. When Italians think of the English they think of James Bond, Mr Bean and the Royal Family. So you can imagine an Englishman at a Hertz Rental in Rome being asked “Have you still got the Queen, then?”
Families are always especially fascinating especially when they are so disfunctional, anachronistic and ruthless.
But enough about the Royal Family! This is a post about the Mafia and in particular an excellent new book by my good friend Tom Behan called simply ‘Defiance’ and subtitled ‘The story of one man who stood up to the Sicilian Mafia’. Continue reading
