cover image Tony Soprano's America: The Criminal Side of the American Dream

Tony Soprano's America: The Criminal Side of the American Dream

David R. Simon, Tamar Love. Basic Books, $25 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-8133-4036-4

Tony Soprano lives the epitome of a double life: one minute he's grilling hamburgers with his family, the next he's holding a gun to somebody's head in a dark alley. Criminologist David Simon examines Tony's contradictory persona in Tony Soprano's America: The Criminal Side of the American Dream. According to Simon, The Sopranos taps into a core condition that many people deal with: can a respectable member of society also engage in criminal behavior? Can an upstanding citizen dishonor his or her parents? Simon poses probing questions, about the Sopranos and the real life version, that deal with morality, heroes, corruption, family life, violence and more.