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Being Berlusconi The Rise and Fall from Cosa Nostra to Bunga Bunga eBook Michael Day

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Being Berlusconi The Rise and Fall from Cosa Nostra to Bunga Bunga eBook Michael Day

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Being Berlusconi The Rise and Fall from Cosa Nostra to Bunga Bunga eBook Michael Day Reviews

This is a very thorough look at the the life of Silvio Berlusconi as well as the politics and history that allowed him to become prime minister. I read it because my ancestors came from Italy and I try to learn about Italy when I can.

This book is very detailed. The author clearly knows his stuff. The book is 288 pages and includes end notes and a bibliography.

If you want a thorough look examination of Berlusconi and Italian and European politics this is a good choice. An understanding of the existing system would likely add to your appreciation of this book.

While my grandparents were from Italy, I am American and grew up on American politics. As a casual observer Italian politics and even less so of European politics I found myself getting a bit lost in a political system and way of thinking that I am not all that familiar. I don’t think this book was necessarily written with an American audience in mind. This is not a criticism because the author should assume readers will have a certain knowledge base.

The author’s background seems to be European. He is a London-born journalist who has lived in Italy and been a correspondent for The Independent, a British newspaper, for the past six years. He has written articles about Italy for The Wall Street Journal and Variety. He is uniquely qualified to write about Berlusconi. I just think this may not translate so well for an American audience.

I give this four stars because it is through, well written and has a good set of end notes and a bibliography. I do think being an American who is not very knowledgeable about Italian and European politics limited my enjoyment of this book.
If you are a political junkie (like me) you may well enjoy this book. Not so much because you don’t know the story; at the end of the day, Michael Day doesn’t really tell you anything you didn’t already know—but he does put all the scandals surrounding Berlusconi (financial, mafia-related, and sexual) into one package. And, I have to admit, seeing all of it together does make for quite a shocking read.

The trouble is that throughout this story, Berlusconi the man, is largely absent. Likewise absent is a character that looms large in this tale Italian culture. As a result, we get what is essentially a laundry list of Berlusconi’s misdeeds—all of which had been reported in the media but no real sense of why this man (whom Michael Day repeatedly calls brilliant) would do such a thing. In another man’s hands, this story could have been a tragedy; in Michael Day’s it feels more like an opportunity missed.

For example, over and over again Michael Day bemoans that in “any other country” Berlusconi would not have been able to get away with (this, that or the other thing). But isn’t that sort of the point? Berlusconi was not a business tycoon and politician in “any other country”; he was a business tycoon and politician in Italy. So what was it about Italy’s character, mores—and just how things are done that either enabled or perhaps forced him to become the man he did become?

And how did that evolution come about? How and why did a boy who while not enthusiastic about religion dutifully attend church become the patron saint of Bonga, Bonga? Being Berlusconi does not answer that question. And, as a result, it (IMO) largely fails as a biography.

Final verdict if you are political junkie who is interested in the Berlusconi scandals, get this book from the library.
"Being Berlusconi" chronicles the professional life of three-time Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, from his accumulation of wealth as a real estate mogul, though building his media empire, to founding a political party and running successfully for Prime Minister three times, and his eventual fall from grace, with many criminal investigations and eye-popping scandals along the way. Author Michael Day has been an Italy correspondent for "The Independent" for 6 years, and he has written a good primer on Italy's "hedonistic multi-millionaire politician" for those who are bewildered by Berlusconi's frequent presence in the headlines, invariably in the context of some salacious scandal. Day tells the reader what it's all about where Berlusconi came from, what power he wields, how he got it, what he did and didn't do while in office, and all his financial, legal, and sexual missteps. The book's cheesy and vaguely salacious cover couldn't be more misleading. This is a relatively dry treatment of Berlusconi's career and misdeeds. It is generally not gossipy.

Day presents Berlusconi's life and career in two parts, the rise and the fall. The creation of his real estate empire in the 1970s and 1980s is given a cursory treatment, perhaps because it has never been clear where the money came from or how much mob money may have been laundered through his real estate deals. He launched a cable channel, the first block in his media empire, in the 1980s and had the sense to fill it with American prime time television shows and trash TV. Instant success. By 1989, Berlusconi owned three of Italy's six major national television stations, Italy's biggest publishing house, including the country's best-selling news weekly "Panorama", and 60% of Italy's television advertising market. Day follows Berlusconi's political and suspected criminal entanglements, to the extent that he can know them. In 1993, Berlusconi founded the Forza Italia center-right political party, "light on policies and heavy on imagery", with a populist appeal, around the time magistrates began to investigate his business in earnest.

Berlusconi was elected Prime Minister, but served only briefly, as his administration lasted less than a year. He was re-elected in 2001 and appointed himself Foreign Minister for good measure. It was an excellent opportunity to put his foot in his mouth on the global stage. As Day notes, Berlusconi "treats everyone -and every situation- as if he were doing a stand-up routine for package holidaymakers in Rimini." Why was a criminal buffoon repeatedly elected Prime Minister of Italy? Day concludes Part One with a chapter analyzing why people voted for Berlusconi. Part Two, chronicling Berlusconi's decline, begins as he is elected to a third term in 2008. By this time, a 72-year-old Berlusconi is less interested in work and less grounded in reality. He "gave up the pretense that he cared much about governing the country. He just wanted to enjoy himself." This term in office was dominated by an endless stream of sex scandals, diplomatic gaffes, and an assassination attempt. The one that dragged him into court was a dalliance with young exotic dancer Karima El Mahroug.

For the first half of this book, the facts of Berlusconi's professional life are spelled out, but there is no indication of what makes him tick. He was hard-working and very ambitious -though always in service to himself. He ran for public office solely in order to change laws to protect his business interests and to keep himself and his friends out of prison. In this, he usually succeeded. He founded a center-right political party but lacks political conviction or a coherent worldview. He`s so completely self-interested that it's comical. Berlusconi has a big personality, but what is it exactly? Day does not speculate until the book's second half, as Berlusconi goes off the rails, committing political suicide. Day thinks this could be a reaction to the deaths of his mother and sister. To me, his out-of-control behavior sounds like a man desperately afraid of getting old. Or perhaps he's senile. Very little is said about Berlusconi's personal relationships, but Day mentions that "surprisingly little is known". And Berlusconi simply doesn't have opinions or interests beyond what we see.

So "Being Berlusconi" is not a biography. This is a primer on Berlusconi's public life. As such, it is more than adequate. Now I will understand the newspaper stories about him. It probably goes without saying that anyone writing in depth about Silvio Berlusconi is not a fan of the man. Michael Day is a correspondent for the British daily "The Independent", which I would judge as being hard left on the political spectrum. Berlusconi is a right-wing politician, or at least calls himself such, so it stands to reason that Day's distaste for his subject's political stance might color the book. Perhaps it is because Berlusconi offers no evidence of real political convictions, but I did not find that Day's own political views mattered much in his coverage of Berlusconi. They are more evident in his choice of people to quote and comments on other people's views. For example, Day describes "The Economist" as "the international house journal of the center-right", while I think Americans would consider it to be a center-left publication. So there is political bias, but not bias that matters.
Quite an eye opener on how he lasted so long.
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