Compelling book worth reading - Rated 
Perhaps most striking about this book is the unrelenting level of savagery involved within the constantly feuding crime families and clans - not just in Naples but right across the world, including all the places where they have expanded their operations. At one level, the book is a catalogue of slaughter - when Saviano introduces a character from the criminal underworld, you just know that within a few pages he'll be dead. And with these criminal families, "dead" doesn't just mean a swift gunshot in the back of the head - it's generally butchery of the highest order, such as decapitation, throwing people in acid, torture, you name it. It's appalling to think that the population of Naples and surrounding areas are simply conditioned to this, desensitised, to the extent that it's "normal" and seen as a part of everyday life. At another level, and related to the unceasing violence, is the fact that their criminal activities are totally enmeshed in the everyday economic life of Italy - so that if you are on vacation and stay in a hotel in Naples or other parts of Southern Italy, chances are that the hotel was built by the mafia, using labor trafficked in from North Africa, and with all manner of money laundering, theft, narco-trafficking, deception and embezzlement going on in the background as part of the construction. Saviano's book leads one to the inescapable conclusion that serious, organised crime is a totally integrated part of life, society and the economy of Southern Italy, with the prospects of the Italian government changing this being somewhere between none and zero. The book is, unfortunately, let down by a slightly flowery writing style, and lengthy lists of names of people and towns which don't add to the narrative in any way. Worth a read, all the same.
The Unacceptable Face of Capitalism - Rated 
According to the Washington Post, Robert Saviano's book "could have been told by Dashiell Hammett's chilly protagonists" and therein lies the problem. Hammett wrote fiction reflecting aspects of real life, Saviano has done much the same. In the world of investigative journalism it's called poetic licence, in drama it's dressed up as "faction" but the question remains the same. How much is real and how much is fiction?
There's no questioning the reality itself. The Camorra is the Neapolitan version of the Sicilian Mafia. Unlike the highly structured Mafia it is composed of a number of competing clans vying for power and control of lucrative businesses on a regular basis. They both operate in a similar way. Extortion, racketeering, money laundering, drugs, murder (with no distinction between men, women, children, class, politics or religion) and are motivated by greed or, as they would view it, the entrepreneurial spirit. If anything represents the unacceptable face of capitalism it is the Camorra.
Of course, the Camorra distort the pure economic market with bribes, threats and the connivance of the business and political world that characterises the fragmented state of Italy in general and Campania in particular. Ironically, their attempt to mix the cement and garbage markets so outraged public opinion that it created a widespread stink. However, the cartel remains undefeated.
A number of reviewers have blamed the English translation by Virginia Jewiss for the book being a poor read. While I do not read Italian that judgment seems harsh. Saviano's account is based on fact but is not a collection of historical facts. It is a journalistic rendition of such facts which is why it reads like one of Dashiell Hammett's books.
Which is a pity. A simple presentation of facts, together with personal insights, would have produced an equally effective expose of the Camorra. Unfortunately such a presentation would probably not have been translated into a major motion picture suitable for the twentyfirst century film-maker. No one doubts the bravery of Roberto Saviano, or the judges, police and officials who risked their lives taking on the Camorra and sending their leaders to prison. It is also clear that he hit a nerve amongst the Neapolitan criminal fraternity which is why he is now in hiding.
I did not find the book either unforgettable or compelling. Its revelations of the devastating brutality of organised crime produced disgust rather than attraction. Saviano's most telling point is not so much the stories of violence as of the Camorra's complete absence of social responsibility. It is as if the only people who matter in this world are themselves and the survival of the fittest by the murder of their rivals is the only way they can survive. Only organised and determined political and social resistance will ever stop them.
Leading Camorra are still being arrested (most hiding in Campania itself). However, there is no sign of extirpating it root and branch as new generations of youngsters slip easily into the lower reaches of the organisation. Until Italy, including Campania, establishes a social and political culture which excludes the acceptability of violence, the Camorra will continue to thrive.
I thought for some while before deciding to award four stars. To award more would be to accept the total authenticity of Saviano's account which I feel unable to so. To award less would be to insult his courage. Read the book for yourself and make up your own mind.
The other face - Rated 
I read several reviews of this book before purchase .Comments about the translation etc .
However , that having been said ,it is a brave , revealing and very scary view and picture
of contemporary crime .Yes it reads like a thriller , but what a brave writer ,to have
exposed these facts to the general public.
Good and worth a read but could have been much better - Rated
Definetely worth a read, excellent and graphic in the way it exposes the violence and corruption off the mafia from this part of Italy - however it tends to waffle and wander aimlessly at times and feels a bit disjointed - could have been better edited / structured.
Nonetheless I'm glad I read it and would still recommend it as it's a unique expose
A hero and a poet - Rated
I was amazed to see some of the reviews of this book that criticised the translation and found it difficult to read. For me it is a modern classic of Italian literature. The translation brings out the chaotic, headlong progress of the original and the result is, in my opinion, powerful poetic prose. This book is not a simple factual account. A book that tried to be simple and factual about the Comorra would be misleading. It is labyrinthine and the lists of names become mantra-like, it is a cluster of images and feelings that leave the reader confused but probably with a better idea of what the Comorra is and what it feels like to live with than a more coherent and organized account. Saviano is a hero and a poet of the Neapolitan people.
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