Made Men: The True Rise-and-Fall Story of a New Jersey Mob Family

I enjoyed this book- I had never heard of the Decavalcante crime Family. I have heard that there were five major mafia families in New York. I have watched the sopranos on Hbo,and seen many of the mafia movies. The writer of this true crime book did a fine job in delineating the history of this crime family as the federal Government was putting it out of business coincident with the production of the sopranos t.v. series in the same city[elizabeth,NJ]. The writer shows in detail how the members of the crime family responded to the pressure that the Government brought to bare upon them. And how they brought about their own burnout. The author did not go into detail about the death of John D Amato in 1991 by Vinnie Ocean and Anthony Capo when according to the T.V. series CITY CONDENTIAL ON BIOGRAPHY CHANNEL. The family learned that he was a submissive homosexual. The family consented to his being wacked.

The book had good information but was written poorly in my opinion. It was a very slow read compared to other mafia books I’ve read.

I have to say that I must agree with the comment in the Literary Journal review, above, that the writing in this book is disjointed and repetitious. It was so broken that in many cases it was hard to follow. The author jumps from person to person with little background and less connection from one part of the book to the next. I was all ready to like this book. I've been a big fan of The Sopranos, so I was very interested in this book. Unfortunately, it was hard to enjoy. It also lacked the saving grace of those little bits of insider information that can be so fascinating. It just wasn't there. The author could have taken the approach of directly linking the people and events in the book with Sopranos people and events. In fact, it looked like that was exactly where he was going. At one point he mentions several events from real life that directly coincide with Sopranos events. But then the book disappoints by not linking people, beyond the most general terms and far too seldom to enjoy. Overall, this book was a big disappointment. I can't recommend it at all.

I paid $6.99 for this little book. The idea of life imitating art imitating life was a real well done exploration. The author definitely had his facts together, and I never doubted his facts were anything but "the gospel." Yeah, maybe I didn't care that much about the characters, but that's because they were described as they really are. Very violent and dangerous people. This book might not be earth shattering, however, it's no waste of time for people that like the real grit.

Confusing, twisting changes to names made it difficult to keep track of story. Many times I thought we were moving ont a new character, only to find out it the same one.

In the biginning of the book it was a little draggy and that is why I only gave it a 4 star rate. However as I got into the book it became more interesting and informative. Yes I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read about the mob as I do!!

A little disjointed in places. Needed more history of major characters. Good overall read with many facts and historical f acts.

Great book one of the best mob books that I ever read. I couldn’t put the book down. Read it in two days

This author is a superb writer.The whole story of these man could have been a mess of confusion and boring.But he had separated the man out, by describing their personalities, talents and eventual downfall.A highly interesting read with sheer moments of humour.It was just perfectExcellent sellerBuy with confidence

Really enjoyed this book. Interesting read

very interesting read

Very enjoyable read. The Soprano's connections and references arent all that frequent or important, probably more of use as a marketing angle. However the book itself is very good in its own right and it's interesting to hear about a mafia family that is otherwise rarely mentioned

The dark side of the New Jersey Mafia