The Godfather

The Godfather Review

As much as I love Francis Ford Coppola's movie adaptation of this book as well as its sequel--let's not get into the misbegotten Godfather III--I've always felt that his vision was not exactly Puzo's. Though set mainly in New York, the movies have a northern Californian feel for me. The Corleone compound is on Long Island, but it feels more like a Napa Valley vineyard. Many of the settings lack the requisite East Coast grit, and the Mafiosi speak and behave with the gravitas of Borgia courtiers. Don't get me wrong. Godfather I and II are great films, but if you want to know how the real Mafia behaves, this is not prime source material. (Scorsese's mobsters are more on the money.) Puzo had a hand in the film version of his blockbuster, working on the screenplay with the director, and it's hard to imagine that he wouldn't have been pleased with the result. But if you want to experience Don Corleone's saga with authentic New York attitude, read the book. Puzo managed to achieve Shakespearean drama without sacrificing the reality of day-to-day life in organized crime. The book is often passed over as a mere pot-boiler that was transformed into a great film, but Coppola undoubtedly recognized the elements of a grand story when he read the book. If you've seen the films but haven't read the original, by all means do yourself a favor and pick up a copy. You won't be disappointed.

The Godfather Overview

The Godfather is an extraordinary novel which has become a modern day classic. Puzo pulls us inside the violent society of the Mafia and its gang wars.

The leader, Vito Corleone, is the Godfather. He is a benevolent despot who stops at nothing to gain and hold power. His command post is a fortress on Long Island from which he presides over a vast underground empire that includes the rackets, gambling, bookmaking, and unions. His influence runs through all levels of American society, from the cop on the beat to the nation's mighty.

Mario Puzo, a master storyteller, introduces us to unforgettable characters, and the elements of this world explode to life in this violent and impassioned chronicle.

The Godfather Specifications

The story of Don Vito Corleone, the head of a New York Mafia family, inspired some of the most successful movies ever. It is in Mario Puzo's The Godfather that Corleone first appears. As Corleone's desperate struggle to control the Mafia underworld unfolds, so does the story of his family. The novel is full of exquisitely detailed characters who, despite leading unconventional lifestyles within a notorious crime family, experience the triumphs and failures of the human condition. Filled with the requisite valor, love, and rancor of a great epic, The Godfather is the definitive gangster novel.

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