THE HONORED SOCIETY; Searching Look at the Mafia Society

by Norman Lewis ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 18, 1964

As recently as five years ago, many law-enforcement agencies regarded the Mafia as a myth created and sustained by the New York . The recent Revolt in the Mafia by Raymond Martin, a police trouble-shooter in South Brooklyn, covered the enormous number of unsolved killings there as a result of the Gallo boys' revolt against crime kingpin Joe Profaci (since deceased; and the Callos are locked up for ""associating"" with each other). Norman Lewis takes the widest-ranging view of the old Mafia aristocracy in Sicily and does it with considerable class. (Society has been serialized during February in The New Yorker). Lewis worked with British Intelligence in Sicily during World War II and had access to all court files about Mafia activities. Not only that, his former father-in-law was a Sicilian baron and involved in the Mafia. Lowis's survey is so thorough an investigation of Sicilian mafiosi that it never bothers covering any activities in the New World. The greatest political split in the crime cartel was between the returned modern killers and racketeers like Lucky Luciano and the old-fashioned ""men of respect,"" who ruled with great regality. (There are constant literary comparisons with the Sicily of Lampedusa's novel The Leopard). A very fine job, perhaps too high-toned to attract sensation-seekers.

Pub Date: May 18, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION