Hundreds of students in undergraduate sociology classes this year will become interested in American gypsies due to the publicity this most enigmatic of peoples is receiving from King of the Gypsies. This is justification enough to review the volume in these pages. But an even better reason is that the subject of gypsy life in America calls for more detailed and thoughtful treatment than Maas has given it. Students of the social sciences who read King of the Gypsies should at least have some knowledge of where to look for competent scholarship and honest reflection on the relationships between gypsies and the rest of us who create the social environment in which gypsies thrive.

Since it appeared in New York Magazine, this account of the Bimbo tribe of American gypsies has caused a stir in the city's publishing community. With obvious parallels to The Godfather and The Sting...