The Godfather
Mario Puzo
I have never seen the movie based on this book, but given its gripping story and characters, it is no wonder that The Godfather's adaptation is hailed as one of the best movies ever. Puzo's novel gets occasionally sidetracked but stands up as a solid work of Mafia fiction, a clever blend of film noir with genuine family drama, romance, and subtle hints of the American Dream. The Godfather is a big city fantasy gritty and realistic to the core, successfully alternating between surprisingly touching sex scenes, run-of-the-mill business meetings, and scenes of incredible bloodlust and horriffic, but never off-putting, violence. Puzo is an incredibly skilled writer who draws on his refined and realistic characters and thoroughly intense portrait of the New York underworld to create a gripping novel with real literary merit despite its pulp intentions.
The novel opens with four diverse stories of men who have come upon misfortune and who are going to ask their shared Godfather for favors. This approach is the absolute best way to begin the sprawling epic narrative of Vito Corleone, alerting readers immediately to his immense power and his intricate value system that relies on such favors and friendships to retain that power. Puzo is at once subtle and blunt; it is obvious that Corleone is a powerful Mafia Don but the narrative itself waits to include violence, immediately setting its delicate balance. Puzo's restraint is remarkable; though his pacing is off a bit and the novel cluttered with unnecessary side stories, he knows when to shock and when to draw back. The gory details of sex or murder never overwhelm the narrative and thus should not put off readers too much. The restraint in this regard is remarkable.
Unfortunately, the novel's only flaws come from overuse of this restraint. While details come back often enough to ensure that nothing in the novel is pure fluff, some of Puzo's timing is woefully off and makes the book a bit unbalanced at times. The history of Don Corleone, for example, is gripping and intimidating but comes in the awkward middle of the novel, truly belonging perhaps to several other breaks in the story but only breaking up the heretofore effective speed of the narrative. Similarly, details about certain Italian terms are included where they are not necessary at all and create false leads. Most ineffective is the narrative's play on time and space. Though Puzo skips backwards effectively at crucial points in the narrative, other temporal anomalies are simply awkward and ineffective. The most egregious offense is Albert Neri's backstory, an entire nested chapter that is illuminating but comes during the novel's climax. Puzo is otherwise a master of third person omniscient narrative and makes excellent choices; his story is a bit muddled but not less intriguing or worth reading because of a few simple errors.
In fact, The Godfather utilizes the most appropriate third-person omniscient voice that I can recall. It is absolutely crucial that each individual story be followed in this manner, and the use of an absolutely detached narrator only cements the novel's presence as a family epic above any other suitable genre (all of which, incidentally, it excels at). The story throughout is gripping and it is a testament to Puzo's talent that main threads do not get lost in all of the book's many crevices and tangents, though they are plentiful. The book is a sprawling family drama above all, a Mafia-centered fantasy wonderfully packed with interesting characters and possessing a subtlety suitable to the workings of Don Corleone himself. Despite the fact that it may be considered "pulp fiction," Mario Puzo has put quite a lot of talent and hard work into The Godfather, making it an unforgettable book of utmost quality. Excellent for a summer read and enjoyable all-around, The Godfather is a well-written American epic and a modern classic.
Grade: A
Mario Puzo
I have never seen the movie based on this book, but given its gripping story and characters, it is no wonder that The Godfather's adaptation is hailed as one of the best movies ever. Puzo's novel gets occasionally sidetracked but stands up as a solid work of Mafia fiction, a clever blend of film noir with genuine family drama, romance, and subtle hints of the American Dream. The Godfather is a big city fantasy gritty and realistic to the core, successfully alternating between surprisingly touching sex scenes, run-of-the-mill business meetings, and scenes of incredible bloodlust and horriffic, but never off-putting, violence. Puzo is an incredibly skilled writer who draws on his refined and realistic characters and thoroughly intense portrait of the New York underworld to create a gripping novel with real literary merit despite its pulp intentions.
The novel opens with four diverse stories of men who have come upon misfortune and who are going to ask their shared Godfather for favors. This approach is the absolute best way to begin the sprawling epic narrative of Vito Corleone, alerting readers immediately to his immense power and his intricate value system that relies on such favors and friendships to retain that power. Puzo is at once subtle and blunt; it is obvious that Corleone is a powerful Mafia Don but the narrative itself waits to include violence, immediately setting its delicate balance. Puzo's restraint is remarkable; though his pacing is off a bit and the novel cluttered with unnecessary side stories, he knows when to shock and when to draw back. The gory details of sex or murder never overwhelm the narrative and thus should not put off readers too much. The restraint in this regard is remarkable.
Unfortunately, the novel's only flaws come from overuse of this restraint. While details come back often enough to ensure that nothing in the novel is pure fluff, some of Puzo's timing is woefully off and makes the book a bit unbalanced at times. The history of Don Corleone, for example, is gripping and intimidating but comes in the awkward middle of the novel, truly belonging perhaps to several other breaks in the story but only breaking up the heretofore effective speed of the narrative. Similarly, details about certain Italian terms are included where they are not necessary at all and create false leads. Most ineffective is the narrative's play on time and space. Though Puzo skips backwards effectively at crucial points in the narrative, other temporal anomalies are simply awkward and ineffective. The most egregious offense is Albert Neri's backstory, an entire nested chapter that is illuminating but comes during the novel's climax. Puzo is otherwise a master of third person omniscient narrative and makes excellent choices; his story is a bit muddled but not less intriguing or worth reading because of a few simple errors.
In fact, The Godfather utilizes the most appropriate third-person omniscient voice that I can recall. It is absolutely crucial that each individual story be followed in this manner, and the use of an absolutely detached narrator only cements the novel's presence as a family epic above any other suitable genre (all of which, incidentally, it excels at). The story throughout is gripping and it is a testament to Puzo's talent that main threads do not get lost in all of the book's many crevices and tangents, though they are plentiful. The book is a sprawling family drama above all, a Mafia-centered fantasy wonderfully packed with interesting characters and possessing a subtlety suitable to the workings of Don Corleone himself. Despite the fact that it may be considered "pulp fiction," Mario Puzo has put quite a lot of talent and hard work into The Godfather, making it an unforgettable book of utmost quality. Excellent for a summer read and enjoyable all-around, The Godfather is a well-written American epic and a modern classic.
Grade: A
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