Sonny by S. J. Peddie

 

Review

It was a very interesting read.  When I started, I thought it was just an average mafia story.  It then turned out to be much more than that, a man’s long life, full of happenings, experiences, violence, love, affection, duty, and sin.  It was basically about original sin, about the culprit, yet Sonny Franzese, the mobster, wasn’t a completely negative character for me.

We can make an easy judgment sitting in our comfortable armchair, just as it was convenient for a judge to make a judgment from the height of the judge’s pulpit.  Sonny's life was predetermined, her environment, her innate qualities, led her to sin.  He spent more than thirty years in prison, but he survived all his enemies, and for decades lived the life he had always longed for, playing a role in which he had a good time.  And was he really the only one guilty?  Wasn't society, the political system, the state, the government, the law enforcement authorities guilty too?  In my eyes, they are the real culprits who created the opportunity for the mafia to operate, turned a blind eye to it, and were content to sometimes be able to imprison one or two mafia chiefs by illegal means.  Theoretically, the mafia represents evil and the state represents good and truth.  Though the line between good and bad is usually very thin, we often don’t even know where it is.  A lot of people have been killed by Sonny in his long life, but the book didn’t tell me if there were innocents among them.  He usually killed mafia members, instructing others to kill them.  The reason for this was mostly the fear of being killed or of being imprisoned for their betrayal.  The bad killed the bad, so I didn’t shed tears.  Sonny’s business methods were tough and ruthless, but doesn’t the state treat its citizens the same, stronger countries treat weaker ones?  Everyone longs for some kind of power, and if he gets it, he will be ruthless and inhuman.  It’s more obvious in Sonny’s life, and that’s why we condemn him while we excuse others.

We also met Sonny, who befriended famous people who sought her graces and had a love affair with women that the average person could only dream of.

But we all die, Sonny’s life is worth as much in the present as it is all of us, nothing.  He was a prominent figure in the American mafia, but young people today no longer know his name, as do Ava Gardner or Bobby Darin.

In this book, however, we got to know this past world, the life of the Mafia and Sonny.  For me, it’s a good book I won’t forget for tomorrow.  This is a book like this.  I confess, in the end, Sonny became a tragic hero for me, whose death I even cried a little for, despite being a murderer and a sinner.  That’s probably the writer’s merit, though I don’t know if that was his intention.