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Michael O'Sullivan has been living these past years under another name: Michael Satariano. Adopted from the orphanage that Eliot Ness managed to get him placed into after the murder of his father, Michael grew up trying to put the past behind him. He went off to serve his county in the Second World War, only to find that the skills he learned while on the road with his father, such as his ability to kill when it has to be done, have been awakened and built upon. He fights valiantly, losing an eye but gaining a Medal of Honor (he's the first to win one in the war) and a ticket off Bataan. He still wants to serve --- he can fire a gun, even with one eye missing --- but Uncle Sam seems to have other ideas.
At first he obediently goes along with the plans, but his insistence about speaking out against the government pulling out of Bataan, leaving his fellow fighters behind, loses him his active status. Ness, calling him in, offers to get it back, if he goes undercover. The Capone organization has changed since Al went to jail. They've made mistakes, and Frank Nitti, the boss in Al's place who is still supposedly taking orders from the man who now lives in Florida, might be ripe for the fall. Michael is eager to join. His own father went to Capone for help in his vendetta against the men responsible for the death of his wife and Michael's little brother, but instead Capone ordered his death. When he gets next to Nitti, he finds that he might be the lesser of two evils; the man set to take over is a much harder, greedier person. Soon he's trying to figure out where his loyalties lie and how he can stay true to himself while being drawn deeper and deeper into a life that you only leave feet first.
We do have a break in the story to revisit Michael, Sr. This would be an interesting short story in itself, but it has some parallels to the main story that serve to underline what his son is going through. Like Michael, Jr., Michael, Sr. works for a man who treats him like a son. Unlike his own son, he joined because he was desperate to make a good life, and the deeper he gets into the organization, the better the life he has. In both stories, Collins makes a point of saying that individuals such as Capone and John Looney seemed like good people, just giving the working man a chance to have a drink. They also gave immigrants --- Irish, in Looney's case --- an opportunity to succeed in the new world, a place that can be very unforgiving. Both Nitti and Looney treat the O'Sullivans very well and are rewarded --- though tempered, in Michael, Jr.'s case --- with loyalty. As in the main story, we also see that there are people involved who do not dance in the gray area; they undoubtedly are bad people who use their position to gratify their worst desires.
THE ROAD TO PURGATORY mixes the excitement of 1940s mafia life with realism. There are stretches where Michael doesn't have to do anything, and his life is fairly normal. Though we don't experience these moments much, they do act as a lull for Michael, making it easy for him to ignore the reality of where he is. But when the time comes for him to fight, he doesn't hesitate. He is, genuinely, a good man. He avoids the woman he loves, his high school sweetheart, because he doesn't want to involve her in his world, but he does treat well the lady who he takes up with. He is, for the most part, honorable; he's not perfect --- far from it --- but like his father, he has decency at his core. And this book illustrates how a good person can find himself on a road that he simply cannot pull off of.
Fascinating and well-researched, THE ROAD TO PURGATORY gives a true feel for the time while making readers wonder what they would do in the two situations presented here. The answers are not easy.
--- Reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
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