De Stefano, George 1955–

PERSONAL: Born 1955; son of an auto mechanic and a homemaker.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Faber & Faber, 19 Union Square W., New York, NY 10003. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Journalist and critic. Also contributor to numerous publications, including Nation, Film Comment, and Newsday.

WRITINGS:

An Offer We Can't Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America (nonflction), Faber & Faber (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: In An Offer We Can't Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America, journalist and author George De Stefano examines the role that the image of organized crime has played in shaping the popular image of Italian Americans. De Stefano links the emergence of the Mafia crime figure to the huge numbers of immigrants from southern Italy that arrived in the United States between about 1880 and 1920. These immigrants, who usually did not speak English and were almost always Roman Catholic, were marked as irrevocably foreign in fervently Protestant America. The perception of Italian Americans as criminal figures, according to De Stefano, was accelerated by the advent of motion pictures and television, both of which helped perpetuate the myth of the Mafia. A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that "De Stefano meticulously documents books, TV and films, especially the Godfather series, the work of Martin Scorsese and The Sopranos."

Yet, stated James F. Sweeney in the Cleveland Plain Dealer Online, "while disparaging earlier, racist depictions of the Mafia, De Stefano has little patience with Italian-Americans who think The Sopranos and Good-fellas hurt the community." Instead, De Stefano concludes that the community is far too strong and too successful to be judged purely by a fictional perception. In fact, the journalist suggests, Italian Americans actually profit from their perceived association with the crime world. Declared Allen Barra in the Baltimore Sun Online, "The Mafia myth, he [De Stefano] steadfastly maintains, cannot be the last word: 'Ethnicity remains a riveting, complicated drama of American life, and popular art that illuminates its workings still is needed…. Italian America still has many more stories to tell.'"

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2005, review of An Offer We Can't Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America, p. 169.

Publishers Weekly, November 21, 2005, review of An Offer We Can't Refuse, p. 39.

ONLINE

Baltimore Sun Online, http://www.baltimoresun.com/ (March 20, 2006), Allen Barra, "Italian-Americans' Love/Hate Affair with the Mafia Mystique."

Cleveland Plain Dealer Online, http://www.cleveland.com/ (March 20, 2006), James F. Sweeney, "There's No Real Crime in Fascination with Mafia."

George De Stefano Home Page, http://www.georgedestefano.com (March 20, 2006).