**Update** Saw Roberto Saviano on TV last night. He was talking. Talking. And talking. And talking. And talking. And talking. For a frickin hour and a half without stopping except when he was interrupted by applause. Great writer, but his nonstop jabber has me ready to whack a star off this book.**Gomorrah is a young journalist's account of just what the power of the mafia has done to southern Italy, particularly (but not solely) the Camorra in the Campania region. While he does discuss briefly other groups such as the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, the Sicilian Cosa nostra, and the Pugliese Sacra Corona Unita, the main focus of this book is the Camorra, whose massive power in the drug trade, the fashion industry, arms deals, hotel construction abroad, cement-manufacturing, and illegal toxic waste-managing have turned Naples and the surrounding cities into the lawless trash-heaps they are today -- literally.This is one of the most upsetting books I've read in a long time, even if the translation was poor, it still worked. The voice is that of a professional journalist, but someone who also grew up in the Camorra territories: he is an emotional reporter, a saddened philosopher, but he never overdoes it. He takes us through the internal family wars which leave hundreds of Camorristi dead, while a few outsiders fall victim as well: mothers of bosses, a 14 year-old girl caught in a crossfire of bullets, an ex-girlfriend of a low-ranking Camorrista who is tortured, shot, then burned in her car. He tells the story of a priest who dared speak out against the Camorra simply by publishing open letters to the church community -- these letters are arguably the most moving part of the book -- only to be shot dead in his church. He reveals the lives of the Camorra wives, who are just as involved in international business and trade as their husbands are -- and they are just as violent. These are not the mafiosi that Americans have glorified in movies like The Godfather and The Sopranos, with pinstripes and stupid shoes restricted to a few Jersey-trash families. Today's Camorristi dress like they walked off the set of The Matrix, they are more brutal than ever, they are forever expanding, and they happily recruit young boys in the surrounding regions of Naples -- a place so goddamn shitty that the two times I drove through it I thought I would be shot ... it makes Oakland or Pakistan look like Disneyland -- because these kids have no hope. There is no work, there is no money, there is no way out, no life other than this. Studying and moving north seems pointless to them ... the only people with power and respect are the mafiosi. Death at the hands of a rival family or boss is glory for them. Now here's the fun part. After ten years of experience in Italy and having lived in Verona for the last 3 years, I have become a firm believer in the Lega Nord party, the political group that wants to control immigration and eventually cut the country in half, making Italy two separate countries. And they should. Southerners are the most wonderful people in the country, but if they don't join the military or escape to the north, they generally turn to organized crime. Not all, but most. The corruption in the south leads all the money in the north, where everyone works, to just get wasted paying the taxes that the southerners either evade or can't pay. Well, I've been fucking stupid and naive. After reading this book, I now know that, heh, the vast majority of the toxic trash dropped on Napoli has come from Veneto, my region. Whenever a mafioso is in trouble, he hides out in the north, usually in Veneto. Not only that, the biggest producers of Christmas cakes in Veneto and Lombardia? Camorra ties. The biggest milk producers in Italy? Camorra ties. And it's not just organized crime, it's a national affliction. Cell phone companies here get together and fix prices every year. When there was talk of making pharmacies something anyone could open, EVERY PHARMACY CLOSED because all of the pharmacists went on strike. Same with the cabs, who didn't want more than one cab company operating. I love it here, I honestly do, but I can't help but think ... THIS.FUCKING.COUNTRY. ARHGHG!I wish everyone would get off America's back about how we need to pollute less and recycle more, that we need to have more equal opportunity and basically just be better all-around. Goddamn. Read this book only if you want any sort of nice image you have of Italy destroyed. Excellent read, but thoroughly upsetting. Read at your own risk. Hope I don't get whacked for having written this.
This is a worrisome portrait of the extra-legal underworld centered in and around Naples. It is run by "clans" that are much larger, more ruthless, more sophisticated and more international than the American style Mafia family. These clans compete with each other for market share in drugs, hazardous waste, high fashion, arms and anything else they choose.The prose is absolutely wonderful. Well chosen words provide descriptions of people, life and feelings in a way you usually don't find in investigative journalism. Both the author and translator deserve credit because this high level of prose is maintained throughout. On pp. 214-5 there is a beautiful rumination on concrete. Phrases, "secrets in the bowels of the economy, sealed in a pancreas of silence" and "micro-criminal excrescence nourished in movies" demonstrate that the prose originates with Saviano.Organizationally, the book is not 5 stars. It seems like these are loosely tied together articles. It is not clear how the opening part about fashion, shipping and the Chinese ties up with the rest of it. Even within the chapters there are a lot of unfinished vignettes and some come out of nowhere. For instance, Anna Vollero's minute of fame on p. 147, or the mention of local governments "dissolving" which is not explained. Does this mean the schools close? The police get laid off? There is an isolated but interesting piece on Mikhail Kalashnikov, who's invention has helped to make this all possible.I feel like I received an education on the reach of organized crime in Italy. I knew nothing of the Aberdeen connection and little of the Sparticus trial. Some of the stories, for instance about the 14 year old recruits training with body armor are chilling.Last year I read The Sack of Rome: How a Beautiful European Country with a Fabled History and a Storied Culture Was Taken Over by a Man Named Silvio Berlusconi which described how the government operates. Berlusconi inspired laws, enabling the accused to chose their own prosecutor and laws whereby a witness is not compelled to testify do not help in bringing an end to this scourge.The dedicated police, prosecutors and press of Italy seem to labor in the shadows. Their lives and families are in danger, but they persist. This unheralded group deserves the respect and support of the world, if only in self interest as witness to the hazardous waste tsunamis can bring to their shores.
Do You like book Gomorrah (2007)?
A bordo della sua vespa, Saviano ci guida nell’impero economico della camorra, facendoci scoprire i meccanismi del “Sistema”.Partendo dal porto di Napoli, punto di passaggio per tutto quello che è prodotto in Oriente, scopriremo tutti i settori dove la camorra ha investito a livello mondiale, quali il tessile, la droga, le armi, il cemento e, infine, i rifiuti.Leggendo questo libro si comprendono: ingranaggi, struttura e organizzazione dei clan, i cui capi si considerano degli imprenditori, bramosi di soldi, fama e rispetto e senza pietà per alcuno, uccidendo, sfruttando e avvelenando la loro stessa terra con i rifiuti tossici.Saviano ha uno stile fluido e scorrevole che ti cattura, travolge dall’inizio alla fine, ti colpisce nell’anima. La storia è un complesso di fatti, dati e nomi, ma anche e soprattutto di rabbia, dolore e amore per la propria terra natia; una denuncia per portare all’attenzione del maggior numero di persone possibili i problemi che riguardano l’intera l’Italia e non solo il Sud.Una delle cose che più mi ha colpito è come la morte sia sempre presente in ogni capitolo: basta pensare che in 26 anni la camorra ha ucciso 3600 persone.Dopo questa lettura, non sono più in grado di guardare il mio Paese con gli stessi occhi di prima.
—Pucca182
Anyone expecting a kind of cool, macho life of gangsters, with charismatic real-life characters and bloodily amusing anecdotes is in for a shock. This is a raw, vicious and angry book, a true expose of how the Camorra dominates life around Southern Italy and how from there it extends its tentacles worldwide.Although it gives an overview of the various gangs and the characters involved, the book goes much further and breaks down the sociological and economic causes of and reactions to all that happens around Naples. How there are numerous communities where a young man can either be a nobody with no respect in a dull steady job, or can have the possibility of riches and glamour in a gang. Then once in a gang, how he is part of a huge international conglomerate with its fingers in drugs, smuggling, waste disposal, cement, fashion and many other areas.All of Europe, the US, South America, Africa, Asia are touched by what happens in Naples. With particular mention going, bizarrely, to Aberdeen in Scotland.There are numerous stories and little details which will live in the memory: the long-time dead being exhumed and dumped on rubbish tips; women not wearing high heels because they’re harder to run in; ambulance drivers finding men wounded by gunshots in the street and not taking them to hospital, instead waiting at the roadside for the killers to come back and finish the job off; the fates of mayors and priests who had the bravery to stand up to these gangs.I remember when this book came out that Roberto Saviano had to go into hiding in an Army base, such was the various gang’s fury at this expose. Since then he has been forced to leave Italy altogether. Hopefully one day circumstances will change and he can go back without fear of reprisal, as this is brave and searing account which clearly needed to be written.
—F.R.
Ausgezeichnet! Ein Camorra-Sachbuch aus der Innensicht des teilnehmenden Beobachters im Günther Wallraff Stil, geschrieben wie ein spannender Thriller mit vielen Hintergründen, persönlichen Elementen bzw. Ansichten und Querverbindungen. Bereits am Beginn fällt ein ganzer Haufen Leichen im Hafen von Neapel aus einem Container. Ausgehend von dieser Story wird die italienische Textilindustrie, über die Bauindustrie bis zur Müllentsorgung beleuchtet und genau beschrieben, wie das System Camorra legale Aktivitäten mit illegalen verknüpft und wie die Bevölkerung mit der Mafiavereinigung interagiert bzw. kollaboriert.Bedauerlicherweise leidet die Sachbuchkomponente ein bisschen unter diesem dramatischen Stilelement. Bei allen Namen, Spitznamen und Familienzugehörigkeiten ging mir total der Überblick verloren, wer nun wen abgemurkst hat und wer mit wem verbandelt ist. Ein paar grafische Erläuterungen der Clanstruktur hätte ich gerne gehabt, weshalb ich einen Stern abziehe. Aber vielleicht ist das eh total egal, weil alle mausetot sind ;-).Nichtsdestotrotz eines der grossartigsten Mafiabücher, das ich bisher gelesen habe und das waren einige, weil dies auch mein Diplomprüfungsthema in Italienisch an der Uni war.Fazit: Wer sich für das Thema Mafia (Camorra) und Wirtschaftsverflechtungen interessiert, unbedingt dieses Buch lesen. Es ist spannend, aktuell, persönlich, flüssig zu lesen und man hat am Ende sehr genau gelernt, wie das System Camorra in Italien und internatioal funktioniert.
—Alexandra
