The Godfather - Mario Puzo

[ben.!]

What are people's thoughts?

I read The Godfather a year ago and I'm just watching part 1 of the Godfather trilogy, I loved the book, and the film is truly a faithful adaption. It's pretty much just the book on screen, without anything cut or added to.

But yeah, I really enjoyed the book, it's such an engrossing and thrilling read, totally sucks you into the world of the family and their dealings. Also some of the things really caught me off guard, how you get into all the discussions of things and then suddenly all these murders will be carried out. Especially the ending concerning Michael Corleone. I totally did not see that coming.

Great read, I'd recommend it to anybody who likes a good crime novel.:D

[Dark Muse]

I have not read this one yet, but I have had other works by Puzzo that I have really loved. He is a very good writer I think

[bazarov]

This is my favorite non-smart book!
Incredible description of mafia, of strange perception of family, friendship and honor. After The Godfather, Sopranos and those comedians look like a bad cartoon.

[Dark Muse]

If you like the Godfather, if you have not already, you should read The Last Don, by puzo, I loved that one, and they did make it a TV movie that was really good.

[bazarov]

There is also The Last Don, Omerta, The Sicilian...:)

[Virgil]

This is my favorite non-smart book!
Incredible description of mafia, of strange perception of family, friendship and honor. After The Godfather, Sopranos and those comedians look like a bad cartoon.

Unfortunately the bad cartoon is more realistic than The Godfather. The Godfather, at least the movie, presented a very idealized vision of the mafia.

[JBI]

The movie is much better.

[bazarov]

Unfortunately the bad cartoon is more realistic than The Godfather. The Godfather, at least the movie, presented a very idealized vision of the mafia.

I think that how mafia did functioned, at least in those days. Big fishes never went down, and in Sopranos they're drinking tea with feds! That's not so real to me...


The movie is much better.

They are exactly the same.

[JBI]

They are exactly the same.
not at all. in terms of structuralist content they are, in terms of artistic portrayal they are completely different.

[Dark Muse]

Yes, though no doubt the book is Romanticized and Idleaized, as are not most books on any subject?

In the Mafia's hayday, the Godfather is a more accurate portyal of how the orginization worked, opposed to what is in this day and age called the Mafia. As the true Mafia is a dying thing.

I have read many a non-fiction books about the Mafia, as well as fiction, during the Mafia glory days so to speak.

My own family grew up and lived in that world.

I have not read Ometra yet, but I have read the Sicilian, it was a good book but I think The Last Don was better.

[ben.!]

I'll have to read the other works of Puzo, if they are up to the standard of The Godfather. :-)

[Dark Muse]

One of my faveorites of his work is Fools Die

[bazarov]

In the Mafia's hayday, the Godfather is a more accurate portyal of how the orginization worked, opposed to what is in this day and age called the Mafia. As the true Mafia is a dying thing.

I have read many a non-fiction books about the Mafia, as well as fiction, during the Mafia glory days so to speak.



Exactly. That's why I like The Godfather so much.


I'll have to read the other works of Puzo, if they are up to the standard of The Godfather. :-)

They aren't, but you'll like it.

[Virgil]

Yes, though no doubt the book is Romanticized and Idleaized, as are not most books on any subject?

In the Mafia's hayday, the Godfather is a more accurate portyal of how the orginization worked, opposed to what is in this day and age called the Mafia. As the true Mafia is a dying thing.

I have read many a non-fiction books about the Mafia, as well as fiction, during the Mafia glory days so to speak.

My own family grew up and lived in that world.

I have not read Ometra yet, but I have read the Sicilian, it was a good book but I think The Last Don was better.


I think that how mafia did functioned, at least in those days. Big fishes never went down, and in Sopranos they're drinking tea with feds! That's not so real to me...



They are exactly the same.

I don't know what books you've read, but as an Italian-American who grew up in Italian-American neighborhoods and grew up among certain characters I find that movies like Goodfellas and TV shows like The Sopranos are way more realistic than The Godfather. You guys can have whatever opinions you want, but I strongly disagree. The Godfather rests on some sort of code of honor, and frankly anyone that has met or dealt with the mafia knows that's a hunk of dealized bull****.

[Dark Muse]

My cousin was Crazy Joe Gallo

My grandfather and his brothers ran numbers for the mafia, and my Uncle Dominic says that he was run out of New York by Lucky Luciano.

My mother went to New York to visist once when she was younger, and told me that my great grandfather had a family like the one in the Godfather, and she went to a wedding there once, and said, the wedding secen in the Godfather she said was just like the wedding she went to.

[Virgil]

My cousin was Crazy Joe Gallo

My grandfather and his brothers ran numbers for the mafia, and my Uncle Dominic says that he was run out of New York by Lucky Luciano.

My mother went to New York to visist once when she was younger, and told me that my great grandfather had a family like the one in the Godfather, and she went to a wedding there once, and said, the wedding secen in the Godfather she said was just like the wedding she went to.

:eek2: You're kidding? You're a paesan? ;) That wedding scene was realistic for any Italian-American wedding. But that's not really mob related. I agree there were parts of it that were realistic. But the mob does not live by honor and it never has.

[Dark Muse]

Hehe no I am not kidding, my family has mob ties or use to. I have a business card from a gang that my grandfather ran with.

Yes, they actually had thier own business cards

[mortalterror]

I liked the book better than the movie. The movie gets all sorts of props, but it's just the book on screen. People wonder why the third movie tanked. It's because Puzo was dead and didn't write it. As for the first movie, it comes up with the opposite moral from the book. In the book, the mafia is no different from any other power organization, and a strong man has to do what he has to do for himself and his family. His wife isn't shut out in the book, they have a very strong relationship at the end and she's converted to Catholicism to save Michael's soul. In effect, she's become his mother, he's become his father, and the cycle continues.

[ben.!]

Interesting interpretation, moralterror. But you kind of got that idea of the cycle continuing in the last shot of the film, when Michael is sitting in the chair of his father discussing business with people, much in the same vein as the opening with his father discussing the family business.

In the book I don't think Michael's mother ever asks Vito about the family business, I think it may be a rule amongst the family. I guess to tell your wife that you've just taken out people because they didn't pay up wouldn't go over well. :p

However I do agree that the ending conversion to Catholicism for Kay was taken out. But the film in my opinion ended with the same tone. That the cycle continued, only now with Michael at the head and Kay as the mother.

I've only seen the first Godfather so far, I taped Part II on DVD, it was on Channel 10 a few weeks ago. I'm planning to watch when I get a spare moment. :D