Sicily or not Sicily

I grew up in New Jersey and knew a little about the Mafia as it existed around New York City and in movies and magazines. I actually knew much less than I thought I did.

Peter Robb's book "Midnight in Sicily" brings Sicily, Cosa Nostra, and even the Taliban and Al Qaeda into much sharper focus through great research and compelling writing.

Overall the book is about the trial of former Italian prime minister Guilio Andreotti for being a mafioso and for setting up the murder of a journalist who would have exposed him, Mino Pecorelli.

Actually, it tries to make sense of Sicily from 500 BCE to 1996 (when the book was published). La Cosa Nostra is presented as a set of feudal estates that maintained order in a constantly invaded island and maintained it for millenia. In this setting the mafiosi resembled the samurai in Japan who defended their feudal lords. Once the second world war came to Sicily, things changed. The CIA and the Americans funded a change in the mafia. Cosa Nostra became rich by peddling drugs, heroin and others, to Americans and northern Europeans (See Michael Lewis' "Boomerang" for more details and related stories). The CIA funded this in its war against Communism!

Robb presents Cosa Nostra as an ancient way of life--revenge driven and killing at the slightest insult, respecting a wife and children and protecting them but having mistresses and violence as part of life. In "Midnight in Sicily", Robb lays out that, for many years in Italy, thousands of people were killed every year to support a government that was really the puppet of the mafia.

A well written, complex and fascinating book. Who knew that the Boy of Mozio may be the best Greek statue or that the artist Guttoso made thousands of beautiful drawings of his mistress of 20 years, Marta Marzotto, only to have his 100 million dollar fortune, made from these pictures, stolen by the state as represented by Andreotti?

Includes great recipes for pasta con le sarde and caponata.