by Rod Dreher
Via Prufrock, here's a review of a new book called The Italians, an affectionate but also critical view of the nation and its people by John Hooper, a Rome-based correspondent for The Economist. From the review, this bit exemplifying contradictions in Italian life starts by saying that the justice system is a bureaucratic joke:
"This farce allows organised crime to flourish. Hooper details the machinations of the three key arms of the Mafia: the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, Neapolitan Camorra and Calabrian 'Ndrangheta. Again the myths are forged in fact. Their brutality is recorded in gruesome detail. Yet, here, too, surprises arise".
