From Amazon.com
Omerta, the third novel in Mario Puzo's Mafia trilogy, is infinitely better than the third
Godfather film, and most movies in fact. Besides colorful characters and snappy dialogue, it's got a knotty, gratifying, just-complex-enough plot and plenty of movie-like scenes. The newly retired Mafioso Don Raymonde Aprile attends his grandson's confirmation at St. Patrick's in New York, handing each kid a gold coin. Long shot: "Brilliant sunshine etched the image of that great cathedral into the streets around it." Medium shot: "The girls in frail cobwebby white lace dresses, the boys [with] traditional red neckties knitted at their throats to ward off the Devil." Close-up: "The first bullet hit the Don square in the forehead. The second bullet tore out his throat."
More crucial than the tersely described violence is the emotional setting: a traditional, loving clan menaced by traditional vendettas. With Don Aprile hit, the family's fate lies in the strong hands of his adopted nephew from Sicily, Astorre. The Don kept his own kids sheltered from the Mafia: one son is an army officer; another is a TV exec; his daughter Nicole (the most developed character of the three) is an ace lawyer who liked to debate the Don on the death penalty. "Mercy is a vice, a pretension to powers we do not have ... an unpardonable offense to the victim," the Don maintained. Astorre, a macaroni importer and affable amateur singer, was secretly trained to carry on the Don's work. Now his job is to show no mercy.
But who did the hit? Was it Kurt Cilke, the morally tormented FBI man who recently jailed most of the Mafia bosses? Or Timmona Portella, the Mob boss Cilke still wants to collar? How about Marriano Rubio, the womanizing, epicurean Peruvian diplomat who wants Nicole in bed--did he also want her papa's head?
If you didn't know Puzo wrote Omerta, it would be no mystery. His marks are all over it: lean prose, a romance with the Old Country, a taste for olives in barrels, a jaunty cynicism ("You cannot send six billionaires to prison," says Cilke's boss. "Not in a democracy"), an affection for characters with flawed hearts, like Rudolfo the $1,500-an-hour sexual massage therapist, or his short-tempered client Aspinella, the one-eyed NYPD detective. The simultaneous courtship of cheery Mafia tramp Rosie by identical hit-man twins Frankie and Stace Sturzo makes you fall in love with them all--and feel a genuine pang when blood proves thicker than eros.
This fitting capstone to Puzo's career is optioned for a film, and Michael Imperioli of TV's The Sopranos narrates the audiocassette version of the novel. But why wait for the movie? Omerta is a big, old-fashioned movie in its own right. --Tim Appelo
Chronique amazon.fr
Don Raymondo Aprile, important mafioso new-yorkais, a recueilli Astorre, le fils en bas âge d'un parrain sicilien décédé. Ses trois enfants ont fait de brillantes études mais ont toujours été tenus éloignés de ses activités. À l'inverse, Aprile a initié leur "cousin" Astorre à ses affaires et il l'a même envoyé faire un stage à la source, en Sicile. Retiré du circuit après s'être reconverti dans le secteur bancaire, Aprile est assassiné par des concurrents qui veulent utiliser ses établissements pour blanchir l'argent de la drogue. Le FBI et la police, compromis dans ce crime, ne bougent pas. Astorre, actionnaire majoritaire des banques de son père adoptif, doit tenir ses promesses et protéger la famille Aprile et ses biens contre des ennemis qu'il faut identifier. Et sa vengeance sera terrible !
Ceux qui ont aimé Le Parrain apprécieront Omerta, ultime ouvrage de Puzo, paru peu après sa mort. On y retrouve ses thèmes familiers : meurtres, trahisons, amour de la famille et la loi du silence qui n'en finit pas d'être transgressée. --Claude Mesplède
--Ce texte provient de la
Paperback
édition.
de Mario Puzo
de Mario Puzo
de Mario Puzo
de Mario Puzo
de Mark Winegardner
