Fools Die

Set in the backdrop of the Las Vegas and Hollywood ambience the narrative becomes monotonous after a suspenseful beginning. Corruption rules supreme among every social strata. Infidelity becomes the order of the day. Casino manager, corporate chiefs as well as writers live a life of bluffs and lust camouflaged by their wealth and cunning. But with materials like these the story spends much time in exploring the characters and so the excitement is only at the final chapters. The piece is thus more of a study of how corruption plays the pivotal role of shaping the character and the future which, looked from another perspective seems so much predictive. This strange yet convincing philosophy is the crux of the prose though it seemed to have lesser effect.

The Fourth K

This isn’t the familiar Mafia routine with treachery and deception at every turn of the page where, presided by the silent but sure law of Omerta, the stories revolve around revenge and the sense of honour that binds syndicates. But this time the story is of politics and dictators.

When the terrorists assassinates the Pope and holds a plane full of travelers including the first daughter of the United States as hostage, it depends on one man and his staff to thwart the ploys of the terror group. Parallel to that is the threat of a mini atom bomb in the heart of the city. With all these difficulties along with the opposition and the influential Socrates club trying to oversee his every move, President Francis Xavier Kennedy finds it the ultimate challenge of his career. To know how the crisis is managed you have to go through the book but two things I can promise, one, the story is superbly orchestrated devoid of undue heroism that makes it more realistic. And two, though this is not about the underworld, but Puzo draws a clear parallel with political maneuvers that shapes nations and creates dictators. With exciting revelations of fictitious political machinery, the only disappointing is occasional lengthy introductions to characters and the subtlety of the multiple climaxes that decelerates the pace a bit.

The Sicilian

The literary sequel to The Godfather, the tale is of romance and betrayal and treachery and bravery that depicts the true Sicily. Set in the years of his exile from America, the story at parts, is set from the perspective of Michael Corleone but the major share goes to the author's romantic narration of the legend of Turi Guiliano. Considered by many as the Sicilian Robinhood, Turi Guiliano's rise to infamy had been through a path of cruelty, deception, betrayal and love. Categorized in various volumes, the story narrates Guiliano life in the hills of Sicily with his band of bandits. Puzo brings the legend to life and narrates the story with his signature style that is devoid of emotions but filled with sentiments so Sicilian that the reader is always on the lookout of treachery within treachery whose final twist comes at the very last chapters. As history is brought to life with fiction mingling with it, the novel becomes unlike Godfather yet so like it in the same way as Guiliano was so unlike Mafiosi but became so like them.

Omerta

Omerta - the code of silence and of honour among the Sicilian Mafia seems to rule at large when the retiring Don Raymonde Aprile is shot in the USA. The FBI and the police department seems clueless about the murder but the motive seems not so difficult to guess. It was the Aprile banks that seemed to be the aim of the perpetrators. Aprile's foster son, Astorre Viola, to protect the Aprile family and banks, silently took charge of the situation and started vengeance in the traditional Mafia style. It took him across the deceptive path of politics and the corruption in the security departments and in the process some hideous truth came to fore. But silence reigned supreme as Astorre Viola, keeping a low profile, struck blow after blow to the heart of the enemies. But secrets from his past could not be hidden and soon he was to know his heritage. Whom to believe and whom to not, seemed a tricky decision and can he meet the ferocity of the rivals seemed to haunt his near ones. Deception and corruption went hand in hand as Omerta prevailed everywhere as the murders piled up.
The book is written in the old style of the Godfather but lost its touch when it came to the climactic ending which seemed a snippet from a Hollywood action piece. When I'd read it years before it seemed fantastic, but when I again went through this time the magic was lost. Godfather will always be a legendary piece whereas this is good but could have been better.

The Last Don

Welcome to the world of deception, lust, hatred and revenge mingled with passion and humanity. The Mafia's rule of terror, primarily based on the love for power and also their family, had always been the central theme of Puzo's novels. So after 27 years of 'The Godfather' Puzo's 'The Last Don', starts with Don Domenico Clericuzio expressing his wish of legalizing the family for the new generations after the recent war with the Santadio that caused too much bloodshed. His wishes were a command to his chief followers comprising of his sons Giorgio, Petie, Vincent and his nephew and the family Hammer, Pippi De Lena. But the seed of evil had already been sown in the past crimes of the family and thus years later Dante, his grandson and Croccifixio (Cross), son to Pippi De Lena seemed to be going opposite to the Don's wishes. The cunning Cross was promoted to the position of the second Hammer and the violent Dante eventually made his way as the primary one. Also Cross, operating in Vegas got involved in Hollywood business and started defying the Family, though slowly. Dante acted in operations under Pippi's guidance but the later complained about his crude techniques that too were not recommended by the family. Curiously, the Don seemed not to take too much offence in these two and thus his behaviours seemed mysterious to Pippi. The shadow of an evil past too seemed to loom at large and a sudden assassination of Pippi worsened the situation. Cross was baffled and silently enraged while oddly it appeared the Don was not interested in deeper investigation of the murder. Thus it was on the hand of Cross to exact revenge and for that he secretly ensambled a crew to punish the murderer. In doing so whether the Don's wishes remains guarded were yet to be seen in the final few pages.
After going through 'The Godfather', my fascination drove me to buy this book but it seemed that the years of his detachment in his writing of the Mafia families infact detached Mario Puzo further from their ways and comparing 'The Godfather', this seemed not so intense. Infact the Hollywood part and the lavish Vegas lifesytle semed to be the primary focus in the long introductory chapters though the final progress and the twist in the story no doubt, reflected ‘The Godfather’ days. Infact the description of the events preceding Pippi's assasination seemed classic to me. Overall a good read but I suggest you not to compare it with the outstanding novel called 'The Godfather'.

The Godfather

As I started reading the novel for the 1st time, I just couldn’t help comparing it with the film version that I had already viewed innumerable times. So everytime I came across the characters of Vito Corleone, Michael Corleone, Tom Hagen, etc. I just couldn’t keep my mind searching for the image as portrayed respectively by Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, etc. This continued till I came to Book III of the novel where I could tear myself from the comparison and could really concentrate on Mario Puzo’s creations.
The story revolves around the family of Vito Corleone, an underworld Don of New York who was forced to escape from his hometown at Sicily at a very young age following the murder of his father. In New York he took refuge in a rented home and started a family of his own. But fortune prevented him from a respectable living as he was forced to leave his job by a local underworld lord. Pretty soon he met the daring Peter Clemenza and the shrewd Sal Tessio and they introduced him to the world of smuggling at a very early age. Vito took the job in a fearless heart and very soon felt that the entire operation lacked proper organization. Meanwhile the local don intervened and tried to put a tax on their earnings. This infuriated Vito and very cleverly he staged the don’s murder and earned the respect of the entire area. This proved to be a turning point in his career as once the murder was committed he automatically managed to instill fear on the minds of his acquaintances. Thus began his illustrated career as Don Corleone in the underworld that culminated in his being held as the undisputed Mafia boss of the New York gambling circuit.
But problems arose in the form of mob war that included the infamous Five (Mafia) Families and the Corleones in their dealings with the upcoming illegal trade of narcotics, the future of smuggling. As Don Corleone refused his help in its introduction, attempt was made on his life that sparked the mob war which led to several members of the Corleone Family including Sonnie, the eldest son of Don Corleone getting killed in the way and Michael, the youngest son, being forced to leave New York. Thus Don Corleone was compelled to come to an agreement on giving security to the narcotic trade and made the return of Michael easy enough though a further attempt on his life could not be prevented that cost Michael to lose his first wife and sealed his destiny to become the next Don, inheriting his father's business. With Michael’s return the Corleone family started consolidating on their massacred empire and in the process many new faces like Rocco Lampone, Al Neri were given more responsibilities. Once the groundwork was done the family planned to move to Nevada and thus the strategist Michael planned for a deathly blow to the enemy. Traitors were identified and killed. The structure of the family was given a new shape. The security was strengthened and Michael was directed by the great Don before he himself passed away. Thus the Corleone family was once again on the verge of supreme power and the readers are kept glued to the words till the very climax.
The author has not only excelled in his description of the operation of the underworld but also the few places where he had detailed the gruesome murders, keep the reader horrified at the brutality of the underworld. But amidst the cruelties of the Mafia world, strangely the Sicilian’s love for their family makes a surprising contrast to this gory atmosphere and I nioticed that families have been given the 1st priority in any dealings. This shows the bondage of the members of the Sicilian Mafia families and their aim of a secured and powerful community for their children.At places, the author has introduced sub-plots involving Johny Fontane and Nino Valenti, Lucy Mancini and Jules Segal, Al Neri, who were closely related to the Corleone family, and in some of these the reader may find a bit disracted. Also portions revealing the more personal life of the characters could have been shortened, if not omitted altogether, that wouldn't have caused any harm to the actual theme.