Note that I listened to the audiobook. I didn't read the ebook I'm posting, but it's the cheapest option as this isn't an inexpensive book.

This book is 825 pages or nearly 34 hours of audiobook. If you are looking for something fascinating to keep you busy for long periods of time. This is the book!

If you are looking for a feel-good book to help you overcome the negative news you encounter every day, this is definitely not the book for you!

This book traces the 5 primary mafia families in New York City and the surrounding areas. It begins in Italy and Sicily in the 1800's to give us background and comes all the way into the early 2000's.

This book discusses some pretty common mafia crimes such as extortion, illegal gambling, and murder. But occasionally it will give a description that is quite disturbing, so I rated it as GC.

It was also upsetting to hear how many people were involved with them--celebrities, presidents, FBI agents, etc. The mafia was...and probably still is deeply entrenched in our politics, construction, food distribution, and even trash collection.

The families were making multiple millions of dollars every year, sometimes up to hundreds of millions a year. At one point, they were making more than the top 10 US industries--combined. And all of this was illegal and mostly from people who didn't know they were being duped or who felt they had no choice but to pay them for protection or other things.

On the good side, if you are looking to research the mafia, this is a great book to start with. You get a lot of lingo and background info as well as information about the structure and inner workings. I had always assumed there were about 10-12 "made men" per family. NOT...EVEN...CLOSE! At one point, most, if not all of the families in New York had about 400 made men. Yikes! And that's not including all the "associates" and "wannabes" and such as well.

This was a truly fascinating, but also deeply disturbing book. If it had ended with the FBI completely dismantling the mafia, it would have been great. But it's real life. In real life, they greatly damaged them...then 9/11 happened and funding and personnel were diverted to anti-terrorism. In the meantime, the anti-mafia parts of the FBI and other organizations have been greatly downsized, if not eliminated, while the mafia has been branching out and starting to add other nationalities and their twisted ideas on how to make money. If anything, the mafia has been silently growing in power and influence--perhaps not to what they were in their hay day...at least not yet. But they are certainly not dead and gone.

Anyone wanting to learn more about the mob, their history, and their inner workings.

That this book also referenced other books and movies we could look into for more information.

Also, this is one of the few books of this length that I really didn't want to end. I was eager for the book to go on instead of ready for it to be over, as I usually am with any book over 10-12 hours.

How the book ended, but that's the reality of the story he was telling. It doesn't have a happy ending. I do wish there was an update, but perhaps, since there's so few resources dedicated to getting rid of the mafia now, there's not much to update except that they are secretly growing larger and more powerful every year.

Check out some of the other books and movies listed in this book

Grateful I don't live in New York, though I know there is mafia in Los Angeles as well--I just don't know it, personally.

It's a fascinating look at a disturbing criminal organization. The author goes in depth and gives tons of great info.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires   from Amazon.Com!

Created Jun 06, 2022 at 4:42pm • Submit your own review...