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Mafia Life: Love, Death and Money at the Heart ofOrganised Crime. Federico Varese.
In Mafia Life: Love, Death and Money at the Heart ofOrganised Crime, Federico Varese offers the reader a journey into the humandimensions of mafia members. Through unfolding stories from the JapaneseYakuza, the Chinese Triads, the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the CalabrianNDrangheta, the New York Mafia and the Russian Vory-v-Vakone, we obtain newways of thinking about the existential identity and fragility of differentmafia groups across the world.
Varese responds to some fundamental issues and questions:what are the codes when a person is associated with the Mafia; how do mafiagroups recruit their members; what happens to loved ones when a mafioso breaksthe rules; and how do you rise to become the epitome of power within the Mafia?Drawing on wiretaps, reportages, historical analysis, judicial evidence andbiographical studies of prominent criminal figures, renowned criminologistFederico Varese delves into the everyday life of the worlds most secretivesocieties. Across nine chapters, readers find themselves watching therecruitment ceremonies of the Mafia, paying visits to gambling clubs in Macauand spending time in luxury hotels in Dubai. Themes such as death, romance,fear, faith, choice and drama are the fulcrum of this book through which wecontextualise different mafia groups within a realist frame of an opportunistand cruel world rather than through romanticised visions narrated in cheapfiction and plays.
The political-criminal nexus is the network through whichthe Mafia emerges sometimes as a substitute for the state and at other times asa collaborator with state actors on the basis of mutual benefits. In thePolitics chapter, the reader takes a closer look at the relationship betweena formidable organised crime group, the Hong Kong Triads, and a powerful state,China, to uncover why and how student protests were suppressed in 2014 in HongKong. We learn from Vareses interview with two local members of the Triadsthat they were used to disrupt the protests; after short interrogations, they werereleased by the police, who were already aware of their interventions. Theseintersections between the Mafia and the state sometimes become blurry and it ishard to distinguish who is the de-facto ruler in territories of injustice.
As Varese also shows in these two chapters, mafia membersnonetheless make fatal mistakes easily. Perhaps this is another reason that theexpected destiny of many mafia members lies between a life on the run and astruggle to survive. In the following Money chapter, the reader rationalisesthe tough life of mafiosi as they strive to make the right investments, get anadvantage from the global movement of financial assets and establish socialnetworks with bankers, who even defy the Mafia by prioritising their owninterests.
Pragmatism makes the rules both strict and changeable in thelife of a mafioso. This contradiction is more comprehensible at theorganisational level. Yet, when it comes to individual cases, pragmatism maynot always reign. In fact, mafiosi are human beings who are often ruled bytheir emotions as much as by their aspirations regarding the future of thebusiness and the family. Experience and pragmatism are therefore the twoengines of sustainability when the Mafia decide on the next pathway for theirplans.
But what happens when a love relationship threatens thesustainability of the organisation? Varese takes us to Palermo and narrates howthe relationship between Niko and his lover Amali posed serious risks to theCosa Nostra. Based on previous experiences, women and emotional relationshipsare mostly portrayed by the mafiosi as perilous and untrustworthy, whether inthe Cosa Nostra, the Vory-v-Vakone or the Yakuza. Nevertheless, it is notalways easy, even for a mafioso, to resist the power of affection and love. Onthe other hand, the danger of love should not be reduced to that betweenromantic partners. The strong emotional connection between a mother and her sonposes a vital risk to the mafia as it unrecognises omertà the code of silence. The Love chapter also shows how rebel women, who sufferfrom the loss of their beloved ones, might become fearless, and theconsequences of this makes the Mafias blood run cold.
Mafia Life approaches the mafioso first andforemost as a human being, and then unveils the bewildering social and culturalpanorama in which the Mafia flourishes around the world. In the book, themafioso appears as the reflection of his destiny: an ordinary person who isstriving to find his own way of life. Emotions, rationale, strength andweakness together paint the landscape of the existential identity of a mafiamember in Mafia Life. In this beautifully penned book, the readerhas the opportunity to go beyond the fabricated mafia image usually offered tothe public. Mafia Life is a landmark text exploring realms ofpower and looking at these contested men of our time from an anthropologicalpoint of view.
