Customer Reviews

The Godfather

5 star:		(234)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

GREAT TO READ THE BOOK ONE MORE TIME. GOOD READING. BUY THIS ITEM NOW. DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A 20-WORD FEEDBACK WHEN YOU HAVE TIME TO WASTE.

It becomes clear after watching the movie before reading the book that The Godfather novel is better than the movie even though I rank The Godfather movies as one of the best ever. This saga about Corleone Family, gives the best definition of the mafia genre than all the written works that may be known. The character development is unrivalled, the plot is marvelous, the pace is fast, the setting is engrossing and with the complex though fascinating lessons contained within the lines, one gets something close to a catechism. I think that is why Francis Ford Coppola did not have to alter much in the story to produce the movies.
"Behind every great fortune, there is a crime," Wrote the French novelist Balzac. This quote is the forerunner to The Godfather. It takes a short while into the novel to realize that The Godfather transcends being just a novel. Many readers have confessed that it altered their perception of life after reading it. It certainly is a classic with the most influential and deep-cutting influence on the minds of its readers. This novel presents us with the uncommon code and workings of the Mafia. It also explores the lives of the people who are directly or indirectly involved in it. Throughout the novel, one is forced to view Don Corleone as a very good bad man.
Mario Puzo's The Godfather is rich with wide-ranging characters as well. There is Don Corleone's first son-the short-tempered Sonny, Fredo the weak-minded second son, Michael the reluctant son with his father's steel-mindedness who ends up to save the family and Connie the baby sister who follows her impulses all the time. Then there is Amerigo Bonasera the dreary undertaker, the wily Genco, the ruthless capo-regimes, the psychopathic but faithful Luca, the cool-headed and loyal adopted Corleone son Tom Hagen, the women who married into the family and come to accept the reality of their new worlds, loving characters that are detestable to the real world. In the end, this novel revolves around Don Vito Corleone and his son, Michael, who like a reluctant disciple finally takes over as the head of the Corleone family.
You will not be happy when you read the last page because you will be wish for more about the lives of the Corleones and their fantastic world. For sure the character of the Don will last long in your mind, because beyond being violent, Don Corleone is portrayed as a kind, considerate, strong, reliable and reasonable, man. In his person is to be found the ideal father, husband, friend, Godfather, son, leader and business man. Fame, power, wealth and common place idealism make this book the great story it has been over the past three decades.DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE is another novel with ingenious characters and an inspiring hero.

Not many works of fiction can claim to have significantly changed the face of American culture; Mario Puzo's classic novel The Godfather is surely one of those. Look at the evidence: This book (and the wonderful cinematic counterpart) reintroduced the gangster as an American icon. It helped to spawn entire new genres in fiction and films. (Some critics suggest there should be an entirely new designation for this genre and have dubbed it "The Eastern".) Of course, it introduced that classic catchphrase "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse." Finally, it introduced one of the great heroic criminals into literature in the person of Don Vito Corleone (a character reportedly based on Puzo's own mother). Yes, it is true that the movie and not the novel must take much of this credit, but this work is hardly the two-star pulp trash that a few misguided critics have made it to be. It's solid all the way through, particularly the fabulous portrayals of the ruthless gentleman Don Vito and his family, epecially the sons: hotheaded Sonny (whose penchant for needless violence proves fatal), cowardly Freddie (who is spooked by the Don's near-assasination and runs away to Las Vegas), and, most memorably, cool, reserved Michael (who, in the end, proves a tactical genius truly worthy to be called his father's son.) Also, don't forget the fabulous cast of supporting characters: singers Johnny Fontaine and Nino Valenti (read: Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin), and the many minor players such as Luca Brasi and Amerigo Bonserai, who literally owe their very existence to the Don's generosity. And the women!!! Such marvels of strength, tenacity and character presented in blindly obidient Connie, questioning Kay, and the Don's own wife, who knows much more than she reveals. Her tutoring of Kay into the Sicilian way of life ends the book on a high note. Puzo makes these character studies work because he gives each person his own little spotlight; by chapter's end, you know why each one has chosen to become a family member or confidant. The chapters showing the Don's rise to power, subsequent fall, and rebirth are the highpoints of the book, as the newer, more ruthless families seek to destroy the Corleone's sacred honor by forcing them into trafficking drugs. Yes, in the end, it is Michael who prevails, but the action is so good that the climax is not spoiled by knowing the outcome in advance. The reader will want to visit this novel time and again for it's unique perspectives on honor, justice, and The American Dream.

DO NOT BUY THE SIGNET 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF THIS NOVEL. The novel deserves so much better than the shoddy, distracting proofreading in this edition. I held off on reading the novel because I figured I'd seen the movie & that was enough. Boy was I wrong. It's brilliant. It's masterful. It's incredibly entertaining.

Everyone once in a long while comes along a book that would forever stand out in the midst of all its contemporaries and get etched into the consciousness of the general populace. One such book is Godfather, a modern day masterpiece by Mario Puzo. This book, a classic of our modern times has been widely read and appreciated for over a quarter of a century and has even been adopted into three of the most popular motion pictures ever.
In this book, Puzo delivers unto us a spellbinding tale of the American Mafioso of the Sicilian origin. The intricately woven plot revolves around the lives of the family members and associates of the Godfather, Don Vito Corleone, who is portrayed as a man of immense bulk and even immense power in every place, yet over staying out of the limelight. It delves deeply into the lives of the Don, his family and his associates and henchmen. It gives us a ringside view of an American born Sicilian son's vendetta against his father's attackers, his time in hiding and ultimately his rise as the Don upon his father's death. Through out the book, there is always the feeling that even the Mafiosi have their own families that they care deeply about, as is evident from their actions. At times, even these bloodthirsty 'animales' seem humane, an achievement on Puzo's part.
The portrayal of the brutal, remorseless world of the mafia, which is so dark, yet so magnetically charming, is brilliant, at times even mercilessly so. This tale had raised much of a storm in the hearts of it's readers, albeit one of awe and admiration.
Anyone who starts reading this book would never be able to put it down; so engrossing is this tale of an entire underground, invisible, all pervasive, secret society.

Mario Puzo is truly a gifted writer. In the Godfather, he was able to mix an outstanding story line into characters that were extremely lifelike. As you read farther and farther into the book, I could feel the intensity rise as the Corleone saga continued. The Godfather is one of the few books that I couldn't put down. I wanted to turn to the next page before I was finished with the one I was on.
The Godfather was the first of its kind. Others have tried to imitate such a novel, but no one can match to Mario Puzo's writing skills. Mario Puzo is an outstanding writer and I think that he has given a gift to the world through the Godfather novel.
Mario Puzo's characters were as real as they come. The realationships between the Don and his family gave you a number of feelings. There were those that he didn't trust, and those that he would give his life for. The Godfather's characters brought you into the story and gave more meaning to it. I would recomend anyone to read this book, as it truly is amazing.

What can I say about The Godfather that hasn't already been said? Absolutely outstanding! This book is amazing in every way, a real page-turner. I give it a perfect score, *****!

Noone hasn't heard of The Godfather. Almost everyone has seen it. The movies (I and II) have been acclaimed as some of the greatest films of all time. The Godfather in novel form more than lives up to the expectations that in most adaptations the book is better than the movie. The story follows the rise of Michael Corleone as the Don of his mafia family. Michael is an unlikely Don who starts off as a college-graduate and war-hero who is ashamed of his family's illegal ties. But then circumstances changed...

The book has one better on what the movie has been accused of - gratuitous length. Godfather I and II are both very long and the attention to detail detracts from the attention spans of the more impatient viewers. But a novel is expected to be long and detailed - in fact it's not too long by literary standards.

The book covers Godfather I and parts from II which talk about Vito Corleone's beginnings as an Italian immigrant. It also has many plotlines that aren't in the movies. The greatness of the book is that it creates a whole world of emotion - with the loyalty, betrayals and murders. The book ties in subtle parts of the plot together making you see things that watching the movie aren't at all obvious (like the intentions of certain characters and the motivations for their behaviour). If you liked the Godfather movies at all or are interested in the workings of an Italian crime family at it's grandest, this book is gold.

Quite Possibly The Greatest Book I Have Ever Read. The pinnacle of morality paradoxically combined with a stereotypical vice. Simply stated, this book is unbelievable. The movie does not even come close to depicting accurately the masterful work of Mario Puzo (and the movie is very very good). Read it. What more can I say?

The Godfather is one of the great novels of the twentieth century and constitutes the defining story of organized crime in America. Oh, other novels have and will be written on this subject, some of them very good indeed. But The Godfather stands alone, far above all others of the genre. This is a classic and great novel. Seven stars at least.

This is the story of Don Vito Corleone, whose Sicilian father (family name of Andolini) is murdered by the local Mafia Don in Corleone, Sicily. Relatives spirit young Vito away to America, for otherwise he too will be murdered to prevent the otherwise certain day when he will come for revenge. Vito comes to America and builds an empire of organized crime.

The triumph of this novel is that it explains the Mafia as the Mafia sees itself. As Vito's son Michael explains, Vito (known to friends and associates as The Godfather, a traditional term of respect) sees himself as the equal of presidents, senators, and governors of the states, and sees no reason to be "a fool" or to accept the rules of society that condemn others to (what he perceives as) lives of failure and subordination. Accordingly, Don Corleone rejects the rules of society, the fact that governments restrict the use of violence to themselves, and builds his own society--La Cosa Nostra ("our world"). Within the narrow limits of this world he is more powerful than the government.

The book can be criticized for somewhat glorifying the underworld, but in reality by the time the reader completes the novel the corruption, violence, and destructiveness of organized crime are depressingly obvious.

The other amazing thing about this novel is Puzo's ability to tell an extraordinarily complex story involving many characters in a coherent fashion that never loses the reader with too much detail. By the time I finished the novel I felt that I knew Tom Hagan, Michael and Sonny Corleone, the Don himself, Johnnie Fontane, and a whole host of other characters. Most novels founder in confusion when they try to present so many characters and so many interconnected sub-plots. Not here. Puzo tells his story with superb prose and flawless coherence. From a craftsmanship standpoint, this is precisely the type of novel that all novelists aspire to write. Few succeed. Puzo succeeds brilliantly.

Before reading this novel I had never understood the role of the Mafia in American (or Sicilian!) society, and how complicity by the authorities is what really allow it to function. Puzo did understand these things, and the novel explains with insight and clarity.

This novel stands head-and-shoulders above most other American novels of the Twentieth Century, and is the defining novel about organized crime in America.