Godfather

The Godfather by Mario Puzo, 479 pages

The Godfather tells the colorful story of mob boss Vito Corleone and his children - volatile eldest son Santino, gentle middle child Fredo, unfortunate daughter Connie, and rebellious youngest son Michael, who turns out to be the most ruthless of all.  With the films being the cultural touchstones they are, the basic tale will be well known to most, although there are some differences between page and screen.  The book includes details of Vito's rise to power that were used as the basis of his story in The Godfather Part II, but does not include any of Michael's parallel story from that film.  The book fleshes out a number of supporting characters to varying degrees, notably Joey Fontane and Lucy Mancini, and although their subplots have little to do with the main narrative, they do explore the way the Corleone empire of influence operates.  On the other hand, with the book ending where it does, Fredo is almost a complete nonentity.

Mario Puzo had a long and successful career as a pulp writer, and it shows here, in his crude effectiveness or effective crudity.  All of the lyricism of the films is absent from the novel, replaced with a fixation on sex and genitalia, especially male genitalia.  There is also a great deal of artless repetition - the narrator tells us exactly what Woltz paid for his prize racehorse, for example, only a few pages before Woltz tells us himself.  If this artlessness has an unexpected positive side, it is that it strips the central themes naked.  The confrontation between the values of the Family and the values of America is presented with a minimum of subtlety.  Bonasera wanted to leave behind the obligations of the traditional patron-client relationships for the rootless freedom of his adopted homeland.  The movie producer Woltz uncomprehendingly ponders the values of men who would destroy a six hundred thousand dollar thoroughbred just to send a message.  Michael only grows to understand his father by being involuntarily immersed in Sicilian culture.  The novel is, if anything, less confident that bourgeois morality will prove superior to the feudal ethic, a lack of confidence highlighted by Kay's arc.