Review: The Godfather by Mario Puzo

I was expecting something else. People told me, completely straight faced, that Mario Puzo’s The Godfather was a masterpiece. At work, my boss took me aside to tell me – in hushed tones like I was being inducted into the Masons – that it would be the last book I’d ever need to read. Once, an otherwise entirely rational friend, promised me that it would change the way I looked at the world.

Now. I’ve just finished reading the book, and I think they must have watched the film instead.

Instead of the masterpiece I was promised, I found a kind of pulp-fiction criminal epic about the Italian-American experience.

I can’t fault Puzo for choosing to write it like this. He’d already written two books before the Godfather, and both had been well received by the critics without selling in massive quantities: You might say he was a “writer’s writer”.

The Godfather was where Puzo stopped writing for the critics, or himself, and aimed for something popular. He’d figured out that being a “writer’s writer” was in no way superior to being a “reader’s writer”.

It’s one thing to figure this out, but it’s another thing entirely to write a novel that sells twenty million copies. Puzo himself knew it wasn’t his best work: I saw an interview with him on Larry King when he said “If I’d known so many people were going to read it, I’d have written it better.”

“Accidents don’t happen to people who take accidents as a personal insult.”

The Godfather is the story of the rise and fall and rise again of the Corleone crime family. Headed by the lovable but ruthless Don Vito and his three sons (hot headed Sonny, the wobbly Fredo, and the straight-laced Michael), they’ve got every dirty finger in every dirty pie in New York. But this is the criminal underworld we’re talking about, and other criminals want what is his, and they’ll do anything to take it.

It would be a mistake to think its a simple crime novel we’ve got on our hands here. Puzo is more than willing gives you a peak into the psyche of some of the most ruthless villains to stalk the pages of a book, talking you through their motivations and decision making for some horrific acts. At these moments, it becomes a modern version of Macchiavelli’s The Prince, teaching us how to attain and maintain power.

“He had long ago learned that society imposes insults that must be borne, comforted by the knowledge that in this world there comes a time when the most humble of men, if he keeps his eyes open, can take his revenge on the most powerful.”

I suppose that might explain why people love it – it’s not like you have to work hard to decipher it: it’s a thrilling tale, packed with brilliant characters, and the lessons that are always relevant. Sure it reads like pulp fiction at times, and the writing is never going to light your fire, but it’s a good tale well told with themes that will stick in your mind long after you’ve finished it.

Pick a night when there’s nothing on the telly, and you’ll come out on top.

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So what do you think? Have you read it? Did you like it? Would you recommend it?
Let me know in the comments!

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Looking for more books with insights into criminal masterminds? Then why not check out one of these:

Review: World Chase Me Down by Andrew Hilleman - Andrew Hilleman's debut novel is the story of Pat Crowe. Part God's honest truth, part pack of lies, all wild fun. I read this grinning from ear to ear.

Review: His Bloody project by Graeme Macrae Burnet - I loved this novel about a triple murder in the Scottish highlands - I think you'll love it too.