Review: Madame Sadayakko

Madame Sadayakko by Lesley Downer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this on a lark and was truly fascinated and entertained throughout. From the close of the 19th Century to after WW II, Sadayakko's life covered an impressive range of not only time, but space and art, as well. For space she went around the world and returned to Paris having built up an impressive career as an actress in front of, mostly, audiences, that knew little of what to expect and could not speak her language. Her equally impressive husband went from agitprop "river beggar" actor to chaperone his impressive geisha wife to the stage and stardom. In art she proved non-pareil for her time and impressed enough the equally pioneering Loie Fuller to receive that impressive artist's important support to launch a Paris-based European fame.

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Review: Berlin Embassy

Berlin Embassy by William Russell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The author manned the visa desk in the Berlin embassy while Hitler rose and European countries fell. His insider look into life under the Nazis was a nice follow-up read to The Home Front: Life in America During World War II as both focus on normal life under these extraordinary conditions. Russell details contemporary jokes, trying to shop for thread and other basics, and reproduces newspaper articles from the virulent, anti-British press. There are also several applicant cases that add to this unique WWII memoir.

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Review: Last Mafioso

Last Mafioso by Ovid Demaris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Since reading Green Felt Jungle, Demaris's expose on Mafia operations in Las Vegas co-written with Ed Reid, I was intrigued to read is inside look on an acting boss found to be an FBI informant destined for the Witness Protection Program. I applaud Demaris for including the detailed "dramatis personae" to make sense of the myriad character spread over 500 pages. However, the story is not really engrossing until we, literally, "cut to the chase" in the final act as a Mafia contract pushes "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno out of the Mob, into hiding, and ultimately into the witness stand as a gov't-protected testifier. For some reason, Demaris chooses to fill a lot of the book with lengthy conversations that ring false; supposedly Demaris and his colleagues automatically lapse into narrating their own documentary about Mafia history and hits. I would like to know more about how he came to be an FBI source for so long. This important sub-plot is relegated to a passing reference.

The book is a revealing tale of life in the Mafia with an indepth look at the Los Angeles crime family, The Chicago Outfit, and The Cleveland crime family, and several notable mobsters. There are also notable non-mobsters featured with unsavory connections, including Frank Sinatra (willing to work with made men to make his mom proud to save a son in Knights of Malta), and murky mayor Joseph Alioto.

Johnny Roselli's life is also detailed and the book describes conversations the two had about John Roselli's involvement in the CIA's plot to assassinate Fidel Castro, known as "Family Jewels" when declassified in 2007. The book also mentions Roselli's alleged involvement in the John F. Kennedy assassination, but dismisses the notion that the Mafia had anything to do with the JFK murder while suggesting both Hoffa (for the scrutiny of RFK) and Castro (for uncovering the CIA's plot to assassinate him) had motive and intent to slay JFK.

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Review: Gomorrah: A Personal Journey Into the Violent International Empire of Naples' Organized Crime System

Gomorrah: A Personal Journey Into the Violent International Empire of Naples' Organized Crime System by Roberto Saviano
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Camorra (here spelled "Gomorrah") is an Italian Mafia-type crime syndicate which arose in the region of Campania and its capital Naples. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating back to the 17th century. Unlike the pyramidal structure of the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorra's organizational structure is more horizontal than vertical. Consequently, individual Camorra "clans" act fairly independently of each other. This book explores much of that clan structure, which contribute to making this crime syndicate unique.

The Wikipedia Camorra article lists the following crimes typical of this organization:

* Racketeering
* drug trafficking
* waste management
* murder
* bid rigging
* extortion
* assault
* smuggling
* illegal gambling
* terrorism
* loan sharking
* prostitution
* money laundering
* robbery

I think all of these are touched on here, with special attention to infiltration of cement (construction) and garbage industries. It sounds like whole square miles of southern Italy as well as China are being polluted and turned carcinogenic by these practices. While this is appalling enough, I feel something not listed there deserves its own entry: Italy's Mob-controlled counterfeit fashion industry. From this book:

The workforce in clan operations is highly skilled, with decades of experience under Italy's and Europe's most important designers. The same hands that once worked under the table for the big labels now work for the clans…Which means that the clothes made by the clans aren't typical counterfeit goods…but rather a sort of true fake. All that's missing is the final step: the brand
name, the official authorization from the motherhouse.

This is also done in cahoots with Chinese partners and while intriguingly leading off the book, it does not get sufficient treatment later on and is probably worth its own book.

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Review: Padre Pio: Man of Hope

Padre Pio: Man of Hope by Renzo Allegri
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I first was going to pass on this book without reading it, figuring it literally the type of hagiography that rarely holds something illumination, but then while reading Gomorrah I was intrigued by how many Italian gangsters revere the saint to the point of having his icons, etc. So, I picked this up since it was at hand. I found this a fascinating story of a man at war with papal, Capuchin and other Catholic establishment powers while worshipped and adored by the area populace and beyond. This went to the point of "Exclaustration": official authorization for Pio to live for a limited time outside his abbey while he fought the diabolical disease at this home. Actually, his visions and struggles with demons -- some may say hallucinations -- seems to have made inkpot-throwing Luther pale by comparison. Obviously the writer sides on the miraculous: He feels it obvious Pio could strive for a decade to secretly establish a hospital while considering ludicrous the several detractors that feel his stigmata came from hidden application of iodine or nitric acid or some other available caustic. Regardless, and I am sure I personally could never know the truth of these phenomena, yet still as a story of the growth and embattled success of a Catholic saint, this is a fascinating story crossing over both World Wars and with cameos from Gianbattista-Giuffre (an unscrupulous "God's Banker"), Pope John Paul II, and a sketchy entrepeneur named Emanuele Brunatto.

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Review: King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. by Wil Haygood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Was Clayton an opportunistic spectator, or progressive instigator to social change? It seems to me from this detailed, encompassing biography a blend of the two from the flashy Harlem politician who coined the phrase "Black Power" at his 1966, May Howard Univ. speech. Chameleon-like, he stumped for Eisenhower and allied with LBJ; anything to advance his profile and advance integration for African-Americans. Clayton's career with the two major parties covered a transformative, post-Reconstruction era when the GOP traded Teddy Roosevelt-era progressivism to buck change and the Democrats fractions into the recalcitrant Southern Dixiecrats and a radicalizable norther arm of the party. Along the way, Clayton chased skirts and photo ops in Europe, Africa, Puerto Rico (where he hoped statehood would advance him from the House of Representatives to the Senate), and Bimini where he hunkered down battling ethics violations instead of representing his constituents. I do admire his pluck in taking on both The Mob and corrupt police in battling numbers rackets and other corruption in his district.

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Review: No Stone Unturned: The True Story of the World's Premier Forensic Investigators

No Stone Unturned: The True Story of the World's Premier Forensic Investigators by Steve Jackson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The "World's Premier Forensic Investigators" are, by this book, searching in Russia for the remains of Romanovs.

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