Redesigning the Mob

Jodi Ceraldi

AuthorHouse

ISBN 978-1-4389-0391-0

Trade Paper, 342 pages

$18.95 U.S.

Reviewed by John Theilmann

Mafia books often appear to follow a certain framework as they concentrate on a Mafioso or on efforts to bring mobsters to justice. Here Ceraldi depicts Nina Cocolucci who divorces her Mafioso husband Vito and goes on to be a success in the mob. Much of the attention is focused on Nina’s home life as she raises three boys, deals with her ex-husband and seeks love. The book covers a slice of Nina’s life from 1970 to the early 1980s. Not a typical mob book at all.

After she is divorced from her sleazy husband Nina is fired by her employer at his instigation. She sets up an advertising business that is both a legitimate business and a front for a Mafia protection racket. The business is a success, taking “clients” away from her husband. By the time she retires the business is composed of almost all legitimate clients as the protection racket has dried up in south Florida.

Some parts of the book are typical mob books as when Vito starts a prostitution ring. This venture ends badly and he is killed on the orders of the New York bosses who run the mob in Florida.

Other parts of the book are anything but typical mob action. Much of Nina’s attention is devoted to raising her three sons, seeing two of them through college and another into the Navy. In spite of her background she is determined that the boys will not become mobsters like their father. In a sense she is successful as none of the three boys becomes a mobster. In another way two of the boys pursue careers related to the mob. Anthony, the eldest, play football for Florida State and becomes a marina operator in south Florida, but remains well-connected and is able to have his father’s murderer killed. Joey, the second son, becomes a lawyer in Ohio. At the end of the book Ceraldi indicates that he is to become a judge, seemingly with mob support. Only Michael, the middle son, who enlists in the Navy right out of high school, has no apparent mob taint. Nonetheless, Nina is a success as a mother as she raises sons who are clearly not like their father.

She is less successful as a businesswoman. Her business thrives, but the mob skims off most of her profits and buys the advertising agency from her for ten dollars when she wants to retire to her family in Ohio.

I’m not sure how much Nina redesigns the mob as the title implies, but the book does capture the changing nature of organized crime in the 1970s and early 1980s as it moved from the purely strong-arm tactics of the past to a somewhat more subtle means of operation. Ceraldi’s description appears realistic as she shows mobsters as everyday people of a sort.

Readers who expect a book loaded with violence will be disappointed here. Readers who want careful character development, done with humanity, will be delighted with Redesigning the Mob. Ceraldi depicts Nina as a flawed character, but one who struggles against adversity and who wants to do right by those people she encounters.

Altogether a different take on crime novels, one that is pleasing to read and full of surprises.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION

I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.