Customer Reviews

Tony Soprano's America: The Criminal Side Of The American Dream

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This is an awful book. It purports to be some kind of sociological analysis of the cultural forces shaping the Sopranos.

It is, instead, a slanted political diatribe, essentially blaming all our ills on a loss of collective social sensibility and retreat from political liberalism.

That's rank B.S. I consider myself a liberal (believe it or not) but do not blame the forces of social disintegration solely on a recent shift in our political winds.

I don't know that I even agree with one of the author's key assumptions: that we care less about one another now. Some communities and neighborhoods are more tightly knit together than ever before. We move steadily toward a more orderly, efficient and respectful society, despite our mistaken retreat from social liberalism.

While this book is heavily promoted as an analyis of contemporary America in light of the Sopranos, it is awfully light on the Sopranos side. Basically, a snippet of plot description from "The Sopranos" is used as a lead-in to each chapter, which then heads into dry sociological analysis.

Why is it I have the suspicion that this book originally lacked any mention of the Sopranos, but then received the snippets, the title, and the heavy promotion to get some portion of the Soprano fan market? I guess it worked, I bought it without taking too much of a look at it.

It isn't even very good sociology. It makes all sorts of claims and statements without citing statistics or having footnotes.

Not really worth it. Browse it in the bookstore and decide for yourself, but there really isn't much here.

If David Simon's personal values and political orientation are crucial to your life, don't miss this book by any means. If you aren't aware of what his personal values and politics are, just watch the editorial columns of your local newspaper for 3 or 4 days, focusing on the writers of whom you've never heard or cared. If you don't want to spend even that much time, I'll mention that Simon appears fascinated by redistributionist cant and utopian (read as impractical and impossible) social democracy. He doesn't care much for any of the national administrations in recent years, including that of the Clintons and seems to wish we'd have something along the lines of a French or German polity of the last half dozen years. None of that is illegal, although I tend to think that the concepts are foolish and impractical. What did offend me (more than my lost $15 or 20 purchase price) was the shameless appropriation of David Chase's and James Gandolfini's work to sell social and political ideas that are barely relevant to it, if at all. If you don't know or care who David Simon is or what his personal critiques of America are (and he ain't Tocqueville by a long shot) save your money and effort and avoid this dime a dozen rant.

This book represents a new low in social and political commentary.
Disguised as an analysis of the Soprano's success and how that reflects on American Society is a complete farce. The irony is that the author is pushing his Western European Socialist agenda using the guise of one of the more sucessful and profitable American TV shows of the past decade.
Would anyone buy this book without the Soprano's hook?
It's not even well written. The Soprano's themes don't even fit into the commentary that follows in each chapter. It's amatuerish at best and I've seen better writing in high school news papers.

The author claims this TV drama portrays contemporary culture. What about 'Father Knows Best', or 'Mayberry RFD', or 'All in the Family'? Weren't they all hit shows in their day? Is 'The Sopranos' a modern dress version of 'I, Claudius'? Would the plots be usable for 'At Home with Cesare Borgia'? Can a work of fiction ever be a measure of society? Perhaps its popularity is due to its dealing with usually unreported facts (like 'The Untouchables'). Or the fantasy of a strong and powerful man who can do as he pleases (think of James Bond or a John Wayne film).

I wonder how reliable are its statements? Page 9 claims the murder rate of America is "ten times higher than Europe, Canada, and Japan combined". But the rate of violent deaths in America is less than in many European countries or Japan, and just above Canada's! Page 11 claims poverty was not a social problem before JFK! That would be news to FDR or Truman. Simon uses his sociological imagination to analyze this show as a case study. This would be a better book if it was based on a real "Middletown" rather than a fantasy TV drama.

Page 14 talks about the pursuit of financial success as if this was strange, but De Tocqueville said the same thing around 1835. Did they have today's problems then? Simon then says America is "anti-intellectual" because success involves making money, not education! But what about Europe and its history? Is there much difference? Page 16 talks about putting businessmen into government. Was it different under King James II, Louis XIV, or the Caesars? Page 157 says people can "keep only $1 in every $2 they earn over $5000"; he needs to do better research.

Chapter 6 compares crime in America to a department store of many levels, from the bottom to the top. Street gangs, organized crime, white-collar crime, banks and major corporations, the criminal justice system, and, crime in Government Intelligence Agencies. I found this the most interesting section of the book. Are we doomed? Chapter 8 contrasts the realities of everyday life to what we learned in Civics Class. Simon claims a bewildered and disillusioned public react with skepticism and cynicism. And this keeps people from acting to correct their problems.

Chapter 9 proposes solutions to the many problems of today's America. Simon correctly states that nothing worthwhile can be achieved without collective action. I think the same history tells us that his solution is worthless ("join a local church ... oppose environmental destruction ..."). If the problems are caused by the corporate control of politicians since the 1860s, then the solution is to rebuild democracy by eliminating corporate power on the state and national level. Other books have made this point ("Wealth and Democracy" by Kevin Phillips). You must start with a new political party that is NOT controlled by the "two party system". It won't be easy. Corporate power, like hell, is not easily conquered.