About this title: A groundbreaking, major bestseller in Italy, Saviano's gripping nonfiction account chronicles the decline of Naples under the rule of the Camorra, an organized crime network with a large international reach and stakes in construction, high fashion, illicit drugs, and toxic-waste disposal.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780312427795ISBN:0312427794
Description: New. NEW, unread book, publisher overstock-FAST SHIPPING! Our savvy customers know Purple Turtle has BEST PRICES AND BEST SERVICE! Satisfaction guaranteed! read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date published: 2008-11-25
ISBN-13:9780312427795ISBN:0312427794
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
Binding: PAPERBACK
Publisher: Picador
Date published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780312427795ISBN:0312427794
Description: Fair. 0312427794 Books may have remainder mark. All books leave the warehouse within 1-2 business days..100% satisfaction guaranteed. read more
Binding: PAPERBACK
Publisher: Picador
Date published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780312427795ISBN:0312427794
Description: Fair. 0312427794 Books may have remainder mark. All books leave the warehouse within 1-2 business days..100% satisfaction guaranteed. read more
Binding: PAPERBACK
Publisher: Picador
Date published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780312427795ISBN:0312427794
Description: Fine. 0312427794 Books may have remainder mark. All books leave the warehouse within 1-2 business days..100% satisfaction guaranteed. read more
Binding: PAPERBACK
Publisher: Picador
Date published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780312427795ISBN:0312427794
Description: Fine. 0312427794 Book may have remainder mark or sligth shelfware. All books ship within 1-2 business days..100% satisfaction guarantee. read more
""Gomorrah" is one of these books that make a huge impact on what you think about the society and the economy. It doesn't describe anything new, but mixed with strong emotions and feelings of the author - the whole complex world of mafia as presented in the book is very moving and terrifying. For me the most scary aspect of this story is how such "black" business may be seen as a normal entrepreneurship by people involved in it. Roberto Saviano is a very brave man. His book helps to see more clearly some of the problems of modern economy and what the people's ignorance may cause. The only hope is that this story has made enough impact on society and not only in Italy, because the problem of organized crime is always international and global."
"An incoherent, rambling mess. So much so in fact that I could not finish the book, which I hate doing. I got 50 pages into this 300 page book and I still had no idea what it was about.
Ostensibly the book is about the Gomorrah, which is the main Mafia family in Naples. But you wouldn't know that from at least the first 50 pages of this book. At first it seemed the book was about the corruption that takes place at the massive Naples port, in which merchandise is regularly let into the country without proper inspection, thereby allowing the merchandise to bypass the proper tariffs and keep the costs low and allow it to be sold cheaply.
Then it seemed the book was about the Chinese infiltration of the port, since so much of the merchandise found at the Naples port is imported from China and the businessmen trying to sell their products established residency in order to make sure their products are not stolen off the corrupt port to begin with.
Then it seemed to be about the poor Italians who try to rob the merchandise enroute to the city for sale and then are shot dead by people protecting that merchandise. At least ten pages was devoted to a teenage boy just introduced to the book who was abruptly shot trying to rob a truck and the author goes on and on about the boy's murder, the town's mourning and funeral.
After that the book shifts completely into an account of how all the Mafia families create and sell first-rate quality knockoffs of all the high-end Italian fashion retailers. In fact the knockoffs are so good that the only real difference is the price tag.
I got all this information from the first 50 pages, which felt like reading four different books in the first four chapters with no real tie into each other and only cursory mentions of the Gomorrah at all. Absolutely no context was given at any time to explain to the reader how this all tied into the organized crime in Italy. Countless names of people, places and brands were mentioned and dropped within a few pages but we are meant to care about these names repeatedly without any explanation whatsoever.
And the language, my god. Sentences go on forever and written in such a lumbering style as to suggest the author became so enamored with his own flourishes. I give the author a slight benefit of the doubt since he is native Italian and presumably wrote the book originally in Italian, so perhaps this book suffers from plausible translation and an assumption the reader will not need any context or background information in order to be interested in the topic. I hate not finishing books, but with so many good books out there why waste my time?"
"Disappointing considering all the buzz that it got - probably 2.5 stars - but that might be partially an issue of translation; I can't really qualify this, but it often feels like the translator was too literal in transplanting every word into english, so that some of the style and descriptions that might have flowed in Italian doesn't quite pop here.
Also, I often more curious as to how the Camorra actually performed the operations he talked about. It's very important if they completely control the port, for example, but how do they control it? He talks about the bottom rung, the people on the street, and the top rung, the guys constantly on the run while they run operations and prosecute mob wars, but I didn't get much of a feel for the people in between, the middle managers who actually make a network run. That said, there is much in the book that is worthwhile, and Saviano is at his strongest when he talks about the moral gray areas that such a strong organized crime element has created. The Comorra are so deeply embedded in the functions of italian capitalism that everyone is kind of to blame, and Saviano addresses his own sense of outrage and guilt at that well.
The discussion of the Garment industry in the beginning of the book is probably the best all-around."
"I read this book while travelling through Campania. We had lovely weather, stayed in some of the most beautiful coastal town in Europe and had a very breezy and relaxing week, but every moment I expected to turn the corner and find the seedy underside of southern Italy - some youth selling drugs, or hand bags, or Kalashnicovs - but never found it.
Well, there was a very lively trade of cheap clothes wherever we went ...
For any fan of the Wire, you won't be surprised by how organized crime can embrace modern economics. The Comorra (aka the system, aka the clans, aka the Naples mafia) have their fingers in so many pots and pushing down so many scales, that they don't feed off of the economy of southern Italy, they are the economy of southern Italy; swallowing up so much of the country that they've had to turn to legitimate and semi-legitimate businesses. Any corporation starts to die when it stops expanding, and once you've saturated and monopolized the drug market, you have to move on to waste management, hotels, designer jeans and local government. The Economist often reports on how inefficient the Italian workforce is, and one could assume it has to do with two-hour lunches and the general personality of the people, but actually it is because of the multi-billion dollar crime syndicate that is ingrained in the country; seems to make more sense, when you think about it.
This is the world that Saviano grew up in and investigates. His prose is passionate and floral, and could use some editing when he is opining at the end of chapters, but when he is reporting on events and ideas, he writes more solidly. Gomorrah made me feel like I was floundering in corruption and continuing cycles of crime, but what keeps the story from being repetitive is the ingenuity of the subject. The criminal syndicate in Italy is so far reaching that each chapter tells of a different aspect of the whole. Sadly, but realistically, Saviano does not offer any solutions, but casts light on the problem, and in doing has done an impressive job of investigative journalism that is enlightening, depressing, and enjoyable, though not the best choice for beach reading in Capri."
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