Made Men -Seven Brothers-

Made Men b y Greg B. Smith
I enjoyed this book- I had never heard of the Decavalcante crime Family. I have heard that there were five major mafia families in New York. I have watched the sopranos on Hbo,and seen many of the mafia movies. The writer of this true crime book did a fine job in delineating the history of this crime family as the federal Government was putting it out of business coincident with the production of the sopranos t.v. series in the same city[elizabeth,NJ]. The writer shows in detail how the members of the crime family responded to the pressure that the Government brought to bare upon them. And how they brought about their own burnout. The author did not go into detail about the death of John D Amato in 1991 by Vinnie Ocean and Anthony Capo when according to the T.V. series CITY CONDENTIAL ON BIOGRAPHY CHANNEL. The family learned that he was a submissive homosexual. The family consented to his being wacked.

Excellent Read: a future bestseller for sure.
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1406VF09I4C63 This book fully details what it's like to be a gangster during 1920s era prohibition. If you love Mob movies, you will surely love this book. Donnie Brasco is an excellent book as well. I heard about it in the New York times. I was studying at the Georgia State library when I heard about this professor and took his course. He is awesome and I highly recommend him to anyone who wants to learn about filmmaking and other studies.Best of Yukmouth

85 pages in an...
Im 85 pages in and nothing has happened. I dont know where its going or even what its about.

A let-down
Fun, but a bit dull ... Flashes of real humor here, and some insight into how the mob of the '90s worked. But I was expecting the story to build to a real climax, and since it never ended in the trial of the protagonist (antagonist?), there was no resolution. This isn't the fault of the author, necessarily, because he probably had to work against deadlines. But if you want to know the real story of the DeCavalcantes, it's more interesting to read the NY papers' accounts of the trial in 2003. Among the sensational revelations that never made it into this book -- the head of the family was rubbed out for being gay! (This inspired the famous story line in 'The Sopranos' centering around gay Vito.)

"Disjointed and Repetitious"
I have to say that I must agree with the comment in the Literary Journal review, above, that the writing in this book is disjointed and repetitious. It was so broken that in many cases it was hard to follow. The author jumps from person to person with little background and less connection from one part of the book to the next. I was all ready to like this book. I've been a big fan of The Sopranos, so I was very interested in this book. Unfortunately, it was hard to enjoy. It also lacked the saving grace of those little bits of insider information that can be so fascinating. It just wasn't there. The author could have taken the approach of directly linking the people and events in the book with Sopranos people and events. In fact, it looked like that was exactly where he was going. At one point he mentions several events from real life that directly coincide with Sopranos events. But then the book disappoints by not linking people, beyond the most general terms and far too seldom to enjoy. Overall, this book was a big disappointment. I can't recommend it at all.