The ANNOTICO Report

This is a book that adds to, and keeps alive the necessary discussion of  Negative Stereotyping of Italian Americans.

However, in answer to the question posed: "Should  IA Anti-Defamation groups be at a constant  boil, and be so bothered?"

I would respond: That seems to be a "brain dead" question!!!!!!

Should Blacks be SO concerned about being so often depicted as Pimps and Niggers?? Should Jews be SO concerned about being depicted as Mendacious Shylocks??. Should Asians be concerned about being  concerned about being depicted as Sneaky, Slant Eyed Gooks ????

Allow me to phrase it another way:
 Would I choose to be looked at as "scum" or "just another immersed assimilated American "???

I'd rather have my Ethnicity be given the respect it deserves, since Romans/Italy were the foundation for Western Civilization.
BUT, I am not offered that choice  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(

"Finally, a book that helps to explain America's enduring fascination with the mythology of the Mafia.
For anyone who's interested in the subject, An Offer We Can't Refuse is essential reading-thoughtful,
informative, entertaining, and, most of all, even-handed."-John Turturro "

Journalist De Stefano takes a careful look at the appeal of the Mafia in
popular culture: how the image of the Italian gangster developed and how it
affects Italian-Americans . . . De Stefano meticulously documents books, TV and
films, especially the Godfather series, the work of Martin Scorsese and The
Sopranos.- Publishers Weekly

"A whip-smart meditation on the power of ethnic myth, in this instance the
one that supposes that to be an Italian American is by definition to walk among
the dons and the goombahs."The Mafia, some say, is fading away. But 'if the
mob indeed is dying, American popular culture tells a different story,' writes
cultural critic De Stefano:

Thanks to The Sopranos, organized crime has been restored in the popular imagination
to its proper role as heart and hearth of italianit?. So culturally accurate is the show,
De Stefano allows, that it may not be possible to correct that perception; even as the
mobsters surrounding Tony Soprano take their cultural cues from earlier Mob classics-
particularly The Godfather, the touchstone of it all-there are few pop-culture pieces that do
not echo The Sopranos, few that depict Italian Americans as being, well, just
plain folks without conniving, murderous streaks to wrestle with.

De Stefano writes elegantly of self-discoveries: As a bearded radical (? la Al Pacino's
Serpico, one imagines), he was still thrilled by Don Corleone, only to wonder later
whether there weren't more to the story.

He examines the rise of the mobster in popular culture, tracing its
origin to the 1930 film The Doorway to Hell (and not, as many histories do, to
the following year's Little Caesar), and follows its course through the thick
stereotypes of the Untouchables era, to the pensive doings of Martin Scorsese's
rebel gangsters and, finally, to David Chase's current depictions, which have
anti-defamation groups at a constant boil.

Should they be so bothered? De Stefano is sympathetic, but he wonders whether
an unlinking from the mob and all its symbolism might not mean 'the end of the Italian American
as a protagonist in American popular culture.' "What's worse, to be seen in a negative light-or
to not be seen at all? A good question, and a very good source for those who
like to scratch below the surface." - Kirkus Reviews

For Immediate Release: Sarah Russo, Publicity Manager Farrar, Straus and
Giroux(212) 206-5325 | srusso@fsgbooks.com