Word: mafia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...humorous moments, the basic premise upon which it is founded makes little to no sense. The novel could have been a much better first effort had it not relied so heavily upon ethnic, particularly Irish and Italian, stereotypes, homophobic jokes, scatological humor and ridiculous portrayals of Mafia types in Boston's North End. Had Lyons focused more on developing real characters and a stimulating plot, Dog Days might actually be a worthwhile read. As it stands, unfortunately, it barely qualifies as beach-reading material, because it's too boring, too violent and too lacking in romance for a truly...
...Days a total cliche--it ends sappily ever after when Reilly, the yuppie boy, realizes love can somehow outweigh money--the characters are stereotyped to the point of offending. Throughout the novel, all the Italians living in Reilly's North End neighborhood are either connected with the Mafia or are vulgar and stupid thugs, while the Boston Irish are crude drunks (including Reilly's mother!). The women are beautiful yet emotionally damaged by problematic relationships with their fathers. Even Reilly's supposed best friend and roommate cannot escape the ethnic pigeonholing, as he hails from an Orthodox Jewish family...
...every chapter, not to mention the constant marginalization of the Italians living in the North End. Perhaps Lyons fully intended to explore the pre-existing homoerotic relationship between Reilly and his roommate Even, a scenario that would have admittedly been more interesting to read than the slapstick imitation-Tarantino Mafia violence which bulks up Dog Days. Reilly and Evan are always denying that they are attracted to each other and make all sorts of homophobic jokes, to no avail--even their girlfriends insist that there is something deeper to their friendship. Yet Lyons chose to take the more mundane path...
...frustrating. Not only is Dog Days generally unbelievable and insulting to many minorities, it is fluff that probably wouldn't even fly on a hot summer's day at the beach. Essentially, the moral of the Dog Days is that if you don't steal dogs from the Mafia, your life will be straight out of the Eddie Bauer catalogue. Wait a minute--the Eddie Bauer catalogue? No, according to Lyons, life for Boston's yuppies is only worthy of J. Crew...
...young sociology professor in the early 1980s, Arlacchi wrote a definitive book on how the Italian Mafia had transformed itself into a modern business. When the country's top Mafia fighter was gunned down in 1982, a badly shaken government asked Arlacchi to devise a plan to confiscate the organization's assets. After the Mob fought back with bombs that killed Italy's top two prosecutors, Arlacchi helped create a program to arrest hundreds of top Mafiosi and imprison them on a remote island off the coast. They failed in an attempt to kill him with a bomb planted...