What's with All the Mafia Stories? Guest post by Mark Rubinstein

Mark Rubinstein: What’s with All the Mafia Stories? 

Whether it’s The Godfather, Goodfellas, Casino, Scarface, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, a Jack Reacher novel, or crime novels by Don Winslow, Nelson DeMille, Dennis Lehane, James Patterson, or other bestselling authors, the mafia will likely make an appearance. 

It can be the old Italian mob or Russian Organized Crime, or the Irish or Albanian mafia or the emergence of a Colombian or Mexican cartel kingpin. It can involve the old Untouchables series, the Cagney, Bogart, and Robinson movies of the 30s and 40s, or the more contemporary mafia-thriller renderings. These stories live on in the popular imagination and no doubt, will continue to do so. 

Mafia stories seem to have a timeless appeal whether they arise as a blockbuster movie, a nail-biting TV series, or a page-turning bestseller. 

There may be many reasons for the enduring popularity of mafia stories whether told on the screen or page. 

For one, the mafia may be seen as the realization of the American dream. Against many odds, the mafia Don is depicted as a self-made man who, despite the odds being stacked against him, climbs the economic ladder to success. Though mafiosi are often portrayed as flawed, greedy, and ruthless, they’re pitted against the well-ordered establishment and are portrayed as outsiders who manage to beat the system. Thus, the fictional mafiosi are idealized anti-heroes who succeed in a cruelly hostile world. 

We shouldn’t forget that mafiosi are portrayed mythically as “men of honor” bound by a code of intense loyalty and enduring family ties. There’s the well-worn lore that they’re men of passion in an age when such qualities are viewed as rare to non-existent. Of course, this is the fictional mafia while in reality, the mafia (of any ethnic persuasion) corrupts, degrades, and kills. The fictional portrayals romanticize these criminals, often making them heroic figures or anti-heroes. But we all must have our illusions and mafia stories provide us with plenty of illusory lore, especially when it comes to honor, tradition, and family loyalties. 

And let’s not overlook the reality that people have always had a morbid fascination with crime, violence, and sex, (whether presented in a series like The Sopranos or Game of Thrones) which are richly depicted in countless mafia tales. 

There’s the vicarious nature—and the fantasy—of the forbidden and exciting criminal life depicted in stories involving the dark side of human nature. It’s a darkness we find compellingly attractive. This is especially true for sex, vengeance, and violence. These hidden (largely unacceptable) urges are often at the deeply buried core of our beings and run rampant in virtually all mafia stories. 

How else can we explain the popularity, not only of mafia tales, but of boxing, professional wrestling, and mixed martial arts, otherwise known as cage fighting? In essence, mafia tales appeal to the primal urges that lie deeply buried within us. And whether reading a crime novel, watching a mafia television series, or sitting in a movie theater, we can get our vicarious fix of these forbidden fruits.

 

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Mark Rubinstein is the author of Assassin's Lullaby. Rubinstein, a novelist, physician, and psychiatrist, has written eight nonfiction books, including The Storytellers. He has also written eight novels and novellas, including the Mad Dog trilogy and The Lovers’ Tango. He lives in Wilton, Connecticut. For more information visit http://www.markrubinstein-author.com

The Mafia Connection: Guest Post by Lorie Lewis Ham

Lorie Lewis Ham: The Mafia Connection

Roxi Carlucci is the main character in my new book, One of Us, and she comes from a Mafia background. That may seem like an odd choice for a book that leans in the cozy direction, but it actually started many years ago when I first created her cousin, P.I. Stephen Carlucci. 

I created Stephen’s character when I was a teenager and first began trying to write a mystery novel. Sadly, that book never got very far, so Stephen ended up making his debut at a mystery party that my brother and I wrote. Around that same time, I developed a fascination with the Mafia, and I thought it would be fun if Stephen had a Mafia background, which worked well for the mystery party. By the time I finished writing my first mystery, Murder In Four Part Harmony, Stephen had moved from main character to P.I. boyfriend, but the Mafia connection stayed. 

As I researched that side of Stephen’s family, I read everything I could find about the Mafia, including the book that inspired the movie Goodfellas. The thing about the Mafia that drew me in was their sense of honor, despite being ruthless criminals. It was an intriguing dichotomy. I felt like this underlying darkness in Stephen’s background gave his character more depth. He first learned about his family connection when his older brother was killed and his parents decided it was time for him to know the truth. Since then, he has spent his life rebelling against it—first becoming a cop, and then a P.I. 

Move forward in time to the new series featuring Roxi. Roxi’s feelings towards the Mafia are a bit more ambivalent. Her father was on the fringes running the family winery in Paso Robles until he and her mother were killed in a car accident when Roxi was a teenager. Because of that, she never saw much of that world, but she was drawn to its sense of honor. That obsession with honor, and a little bit of a dark side, is all that Roxi carries with her of her Mafia family background. One of Us is the first in this new series, and as it progresses, questions will begin to arise about her parents’ death. Could it possibly have been a Mafia hit instead of an accident? 

For now, that Mafia connection is just in the background, and it helped form who Roxi and Stephen became. Stephen follows Roxi into the new series. Roxi’s obsession with honor comes out now in her love of Camelot. She even has a replica of Excalibur. 

Roxi expresses those feelings in this paragraph from One of Us: 

I had fallen in love with that whole world when I saw the musical as a kid, and with Lancelot. It wasn’t long until I was reading every King Arthur book I could find. Then I discovered The Once and Future King and that had become my constant companion. The one positive thing the Mafia world had going for it was honor, at least in the old days, and I think that was one of the things that had drawn me to Camelot. The idea of honor had become very important to me—it still was. 

The violence of the Mafia never shows up on the page of my books, but they do influence who my main characters are. 

One of Us: A woman starting over. A gossip website. A handsome playwright with a dark side. A director with an explosive temper. And a murder without a motive. It’s a mystery set in the historic Tower District—Fresno's dining, arts, and entertainment hub.

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Lorie Lewis Ham lives in Reedley, California and has been writing ever since she was a child, and publishing since she was 13. For the past 11 years, Lorie has been the editor-in-chief and publisher of Kings River Life Magazine, and she produces Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast where you can now hear an excerpt of her new book One of Us. You can learn more about Lorie and the new book on her website mysteryrat.com, where you can also sign up for her newsletter, and you can find her on Twitter @mysteryrat and Facebook.