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The Godmother: Murder, Vengeance, and the Bloody Struggle of Mafia Women
Bottom of the pile
23
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
10/100Critics
36/100Scholars
Author:
Barbie Latza Nadeau
Publisher:
Penguin Books
Date:
September 6, 2022
The story of one womanâs rise to prominence in the Italian Mafia, and the as-yet untold stories of the women who followed in her footsteps.
What The Reviewers Say
Pupetta, who died last December at 86, may be the star but she is hardly the only engaging figure in this crisply written, dutifully researched book exploring the role of women in a sector of Italian society not noted for its embrace of a #MeToo ethos.
Pupetta’s story anchors a unique look at organized crime and the underworld that Rome-based journalist Nadeau reveals: the lives of women in organized crime and the underworld. That perspective makes The Godmother unique and refreshing for this genre, and raises intriguing questions about women’s roles.
Nadeau describes well the culture of normalized misogyny in Italy, as well as how 'the mafia and the malavita, ‘dishonest lifestyle,’ it produces are just another facet of the culture.' The trouble is that the book’s tone is all over the place, going from a kind of girl bossification of mafia women to a celebration of anti-mafia prosecutors for imprisoning them — sometimes on the same page.
The Godmother is an original piece of work that takes mob-watchers outside of the usual cliches...It’s often a challenge for American readers to follow a narrative set in a foreign country, but I found myself wanting to hang out with Nadeau’s vicious and deluded sorceresses and listen to them lie to me just a little more about how they’re the victims in all this...Their stories are deeply disturbing, darkly funny in places, and validate the notion that the best thing about the Mafia is its gift for mythmaking..
