Organized Crime on Page and Screen - by David Geherin (Paperback)

About the Book

"Thanks to writers like Mario Puzo, filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, and actors like Al Pacino and James Gandolfini, Mafia characters are well-known figures in contemporary popular culture. But the Mafia is not the only criminal organization in existence today. In addition to the Sicilian and American Mafias, there are powerful organized crime groups like the Neapolitan Camorra and the Mexican drug cartels. This book takes a close look at all these examples of organized crime by examining (1) the different ways these organizations and their members have been portrayed in many of our most popular novels, movies, and TV series, and (2) how the gangster figure has evolved from its earliest depictions in a trio of Hollywood films in the 1930s up to the present day"--

Book Synopsis

Thanks to writers like Mario Puzo, filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, and actors like Al Pacino and James Gandolfini, American and Sicilian Mafia characters are well-known figures in contemporary popular culture. Other powerful organized crime groups appearing in popular media include the Neapolitan Camorra and Mexican drug cartels.

This book takes a close look at all these examples of organized crime by examining the different ways these organizations and their members have been portrayed in many of our most popular novels, movies, and TV series, and how the gangster figure has evolved from its earliest depictions in a trio of Hollywood films in the 1930s up to the present day.

About the Author

David Geherin, a professor emeritus of English at Eastern Michigan University, is the author of ten books on crime fiction, three of which were finalists for the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award. He lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan.