The Godfather, Novel - Review by Naga

The Godfather 

by Mario Puzo 
Rating; 3/5  

Hailed as one of the highest rated and best selling thriller with a cult following for both the novel and the movie, this book has left me conflicted with mixed feelings. There were moments when i cringed in disgust as the author explains in detail the numerous distorted sexual alliances between rich men in their sixties, seventies and young girls who are barely over twelve years old. What a perverted world it must be when money and fame creates a void to be filled with booze, drugs and incessant sexual fantasies and escapades. Even if what he has described about movie stars from Hollywood happens to be remotely true, it is a depraved and degraded world that no amount of money should convince one to be a part of. The enjoyable aspect is the adrenaline rush experienced with the twists in the narrative where it is  hard to anticipate much less predict who has betrayed our major players in the game and what is to come next.It is usually and always someone very close to the crown bearer and very dear as well. Which makes the sting that much more painful I guess.

Vito Corleone is a good man, a kind husband and a truly benevolent soul that helps anyone in need of help  asking for very little in return. All he wants is their loyal friendship and an occasional display of the same. When the law fails to provide safety and security which it must to the people who have elected it, when those in power collude to suffocate the helpless man in poverty and need to enrich the desires and needs of the rich, people sought the assistance of Vito Corleone otherwise known as 'the godfather'. He is a mafia boss and a Don of the underworld established in the New York city and heading one of the most powerful families along the east coast. The legal business his family is involved in is importing olive oil from an Italian island called Sicily and distributing it in USA. Unknown to the outside world, he also dealt with betting, gambling, prostitution and other such illegal activities which were funded by him and any issues that arouse were dealt with using his carefully built political connections. As a child he was secretly shipped from Sicily by his mother to escape the state of violence and poverty poor people are forced to live in in his city. He grows up into an honest hard working regular guy until a thug decides to exploit him and his friends effectively stealing their hard earned money. He takes law into his hands and kills the guy having failed to persuade him to see justice. The Don even as he was at that time never gave people more chances after his powerful and thoughtful persuasion failed to steer them his way. Highly whimsical and doing good or bad to people based on his existing convictions of them through out his life as we happen to later learn, He kills the bully in cold blood and decisively destroys evidence. Although there is no proof to show him the perpetrator, the neighborhood soon realizes what happened and starts treating him  as 'the man of respect'. He soon wins the reputation of being honest to his word and honor, a rescuer to the weak and those downtrodden by a biased and unfair system.

He has three sons and each of them a different character. His eldest son Sonny with his body built like a bull is a ruthless and hot blooded schemer who through sheer force could intimidate people but lacking in powers of diplomacy and persuasion, clearly declared unfit to succeed Vito very early on. The second son Freddie who is the most obedient of his sons but so very timid and lacking in cunning that he through the middle of the story turns into a 'ladies man' and a hotel operator. The last is Michael inheriting many of his fathers virtues in addition to some of his own qualities that make him the perfect Don. Where his father out of good heart which would be called weak hesitated to destroy peace and hurt his enemies as they laughed and plotted behind his back, Michael went after each one of them with an uncanny vengeance in the end establishing his invincible empire.

Through the middle of the story, a man named Sollozo comes to the Don with a proposal seeking his investment and legal protection for a trade in narcotics. The Don weary of the perils and the outcomes in the game involving drugs refuses and declines to assist even if the other families are willing to stand behind Sollozo. Sollozo plots to kill the Don but he survives the attempt despite being riddled with five bullets in his body. Sollozo plans to make the deal with Sonny by getting rid of the Don but Sonny is in no mood to join hands with the enemy. Michael so distant usually from the family business and a student dating an american girl with plans to settle far away from his family is forced to enter the arena to protect his father. Fearing another plot from Sollozo, he goes undercover and shoots Sollozo and the head of the police department after convincing his hot headed brother that he is up to the task at hand. He goes into hiding for a couple of years, falls in obsessive love with a native girl of Sicily, marries her, enjoys the marital happiness and when it is almost time for his return back to the states, she gets killed in an attempt at his murder. Shattered and a different man from when he left, he comes back to learn that his brother Sonny is killed too. He inherits the family business as the Don retires, avenges the deaths of his family and they eventually move out to the west coast for new business ventures. The Don dies from a massive heart stroke before Michael becomes an embodiment of all the skills the old man would have appreciated.

I am waiting to watch the movie which won Al Pacino who played the role of Michael Corleone an Oscar award. I feel it must be watched while the original story remains fresh in my mind. The mafia is shown in the light of doing good to the helpless and serving a surrogate role to the justice system in this novel but it is not hard to imagine that people lured by the money and power there is to be made from it take it in an entirely opposite direction serving the interests of those in power and becoming wing men to the rich and wealthy.