This Is Italy
Every now and then you read a book that makes you think: if only it counted more pages. First Family of Pietro Valsecchi – actor and TV producer in Italy – is such a book. After 477 fascinating pages it is unfortunately already over.
This Mafia novel is about the Palermo family, who flee the poverty of Sicily to pursue the American Dream in New York. The story is set in the time of the great migrations from Italy, at the beginning of the 20th century.
But once settled in New York's Little Italy neighborhood, life in the promised land has its own challenges. And that poverty and crime still haunt them.
At the heart of the story are the eldest brother Frank and the younger brother Sal, who are polar opposites in character. In addition, there is daughter Nina and the benjamin of the Tony family, the only one born in America.
Father Luigi works as hard as he can to give his children a better future than in Sicily. Mother Carmela does everything in her power to keep the family together.
But Italian migrants around 1900 do not have an easy time. They have to fight against discrimination and prejudice (not so strange, because quite a few Italians end up in crime) and have to contend with the Black Hand, the New York variant of the Cosa Nostra that they had just fled in Sicily.
As a child, Sal is tempted to do some odd jobs for a local mob boss, Michele Di Bella. One thing leads to another and so Frank's younger brother works his way up to crime.
Frank just wants nothing more than to become a real American as soon as possible. He studies to become a lawyer and in his spare time earns money as a shoe shiner. In the meantime, he follows his father's advice to stay away from the wise guys who hang out in the vicinity of Café Giglio on Mulberry Street.
When a detective asks Frank to join the police, he initially does not listen. But later he sees this as the only possibility to really change something about the difficult existence.
Inevitably, the brothers' chosen career paths will intersect. And what will Sal's first family be? The Palermos… or the Mafia?
A greatest mafia novel. This is how the publisher describes this family history in the style of The Godfather. And I can really only agree with that. Because although the fact of different loyalties within one family is not particularly original, and many books have already been written about the mafia, Valsecchi has written down the experiences of his characters in this book very powerfully and visually.
This is undoubtedly due to the fact that the writer works in the film and TV world and initially wrote down the idea as a screenplay for a TV series. With accurate descriptions and a storytelling style without frills you are immediately sucked into the story. Valsecchi possesses the talent to make the characters come to life fully.
It is therefore nice to read that the story is now being adapted into a film by Nicholas Pileggi, who previously drew top films such as Goodfellas, Casino en American Gangster.
This mafia novel is a must for fans of the genre. Similar to the godfather by Mario Puzo. Wonderful to read during your holiday in Italy (I did that myself).
First family (Prima famiglia)
by: Pietro Valsecchi (translated by Philip Supèr)
480 pages
€ 22,99 (also available as an e-book)
World Library, June 2017
ISBN 9789028427051
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