Just finished the 6th Family not too long ago.
I don't recommend the book, for three reasons.
Number one, it's a most difficult read, with sentences that snake back and forth like a maze.
Number two, the book is not even in chronological order on top of having sentence structure that is nearly incomprehensible.
Number three, the book is too fixated on Vito Rizzuto, like an infatuation or something. I believe Vito's role and importance were way overstated in this book.
The book contradicts itself in the sense that Vito Rizzuto is elevated to be the godfather of all Italians in organized crime in Canada, calls the collective "the 6th family". Then later it becomes clear that many different autonomous organized crime families from different parts of Italy are involved.
I just don't recommend the book, period.
The term "Sixth Family" was created by the authors, but not when the book came out. The authors of Sixth Family and it's successor, "Business Or Blood" are actual Canadian crime reporters, and they had been using the term in some of their articles based on the Montreal Mafia.
The book NEVER, at ANY POINT claims that Vito Rizzuto was the "godfather of all Italians in Organized Crime". It's established early on, that the group he eventually went on to lead, as being the outsiders in the early parts of their criminal lives in Montreal, stating that the Calabrians ran things and were the power. It goes on to tell how they went on to lead the
Montreal Mafia, specifically Montreal and NOT Canada, through the mistakes of former Calabrian leaders, the intervention of Sicilian Mafia bosses, and the fact that they were after all, BONANNOS, and were eventually backed by the powers of the family back in NY. In fact, the book makes clear, at least I think, that the Rizzutos and the Montreal Mob itself was at one point a simple faction of a NY family, it makes sure to mention that there were other Canadian Mafia groups that were connected to Buffalo, and 'Ndrangheta clans in Calabria.
The book also highlights exactly how Vito came to be the power in the Montreal underworld, that he factually was, through alliances with other Montreal criminal groups, like the Hells Angels. And how he eventually became a recognized force by law enforcement and other criminals in the whole of Canada, through smart alliances, and working with those other Italian groups that had already been or became established in Toronto and Ontario, like the Siderno group and the Musitano's. Not by just taking over things himself through brute force and just because.
If you want to learn about the Montreal Mafia, and the Montreal underworld as a whole, there are few better books than The Sixth Family. However as the title states, its about the Montreal Mafia, and whether you'd like to believe it or not, Vito Rizzuto and his father before him were important parts of that group and it's history, so it's going to be more fixated on the Montreal Mafia, than anything else.
I don't see how the book is difficult to read at all, but if you want something thats based on the same subject, a little more chronological, and less about the Rizzuto's, even though essentially they are heavily mentioned and discussed in this book as well, then I'd suggest Mafia Inc.
