Cosa Nostra
Owen Ikedilo
Reviewed by Amy Lignor
In the 1900’s, in a small town in Sicily,
henchmen for their leader, Don Turtolino, kick in the door of a small
family
dwelling. Mom, dad, and, little Vinny,
are eating dinner. (The other two
brothers, Michael and Tony, have ridden their bikes away from the house
to go
exploring, leaving their younger brother behind). The
scene feels tragic, like one that will
end in bloodshed, and is coming closer to the reader with every line.
However,
after the henchmen eat and tell a rather humorous “thug-like” story,
they offer
the father another month to clear his debt…or face being relocated to
the local
cemetery. The family, of course, chooses
to leave Sicily as fast
as
possible.
They send young Vinny out after his brothers with a few
dollars in his pocket and a portrait of the family in his hand. Unfortunately, little Vinny misses his
brothers at the market and the children return on their bikes and begin
to pack
(as ordered by their nervous father). At
exactly midnight, the henchmen come back and blow away the family
leaving
little Vinny all alone in the world.
Vinny meets up unexpectedly with two “wanna–be” gangsters –
Roberto and Francesco. They con food from restaurants like miniature
Fagin’s
from Oliver Twist. They
combine forces eventually and proceed to
stand by Vinny’s side as he grows up.
(They even teach him to speak English by beating him up if he
gives the
wrong answer. With friends like
these…right?)
Vinny heads to Palermo
in the 1920’s and becomes the driver for Don Giovanni.
In a slick con, he saves the life of his new
“Boss” and moves up the “family ladder” far ahead of others who’d been
proving
themselves for over twenty years.
Suffice to say, he falls into the work very well.
One day, he crosses the path of a beautiful
girl named Elena but is quite surprised when he stumbles across the
fact that
her father is the Don who took the lives of his own family. He wants to marry Elena at all costs but
exact revenge from the man who took his innocence away.
How to do this without his new bride finding
out?
On to New York City: The Corleones have moved to Vegas and the
heads of five families have just met their demise.
“New York was ripe for the taking and Don Gambetta
took it!”
Written as a dramatic screenplay, I believe the best parts
of this story are told in the second-half when Vinny has children and
grandchildren of his own and is living in his golden-years. Everything is peaceful when…suddenly…the
reaper knocks and the past comes back to haunt him.