Customer Reviews

Before Bruno: Book 1 - 1880-1931: The History of the Philadelphia Mafia

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I thought that this was a wonderful book. I am from Philly and have been following the misadventures of the Philly mob all my life. This book works as an authoritative and documented history of an interesting field. It explains the roots of the mob to compare to its sorry state today. It is written in a style, however, more akin to that of a novel than an academic text. I highly recommend it.

The author must be given a lot of credit for doing the research and bringing to light this negelected subject. This is the only book ever published that deals with the early days of the Mafia in Philly. Therefore it is essential reading for any serious students of the subject. However, the author's style of writing is bland and lifeless. She manages to transform a tremendously interesting subject into a dull and almost sterile story. Hopefully books number 2 and 3 are more exciting.

The 1st couple chapters made me feel like I was doing a thesis for a masters and is more for sociologits. The main part of the book was really good reading if you are into the history of Philly , the Philly mob or ethnic groups in Philly. I read it for mainly the mafia history. It is obvious she did a lot of work on the background. I just wish it was a little longer for the amount of money you pay. Looking forward to the next volume.

As a crime historian, I treasure author Celeste Morello's two volumes on the early Philadelphia mob. As a reader, however, I was a bit disappointed. Morello appears to be a far better historian/researcher than she is a writer. She apparently had difficulty weaving an overabundance of facts into a coherent story. Accounts of underworld incidents often interrupt other accounts or character descriptions.
While those aspects of the books diminish the reading experience somewhat, they barely put a dent in the author's overall achievement. Morello seems to have a rare understanding of the Sicilian psyche and illustrates the importance of old-country rivalries in making sense of underworld conflicts.
Due to her willingness to tap into records neglected by other researchers, to her critical eye, and to her grasp of Sicilian tradition, the two volumes of Before Bruno contain a wealth of information that won't be found elsewhere.