Pardon me if this sounds disrespectful, for I know how much the book I am about to write about is worshipped globally. But I did not enjoy Mario Puzo’s ‘The Godfather’.
There. I said it. Whew!

The Godfather by Mario Puzi

I took it from my library, no doubt because of its reputation as everyone’s favorite. Such books, I should learn from experience do not work on me somehow. Paulo Coelho’s Alchemist and Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead had similar effects on me. Not that I am proud of it.

There are two ways to enjoy a book. One, you never drop the book down cause it is an absolute thriller and you can’t wait to see what happens in each page. Two, you just want to enjoy the language, the author’s genius in developing the plot, in which case you take your own time to finish the book.

The Godfather, I should say, definitely had a mix of both. So my taking almost 2 weeks to finish the book has nothing to do with its being distasteful. I believe most enthusiastic readers, once they embark on the book, would take it all the way to the end without much effort.
So when I say mix of both, I mean there is enough happening to hold on to the book tight plus the author works magic in building an amazing characterization.

The story is centered around the underworld, the Mafia; around the Dons in New York; and one particular Family among them forming the cast and crew. The Corleone Family. The book doesn’t stall on and introduces the reader right away, to the man who breathed power so gracefully he’d command respect effortlessly. Vito Corleone who was known as Don Corleone or the Godfather to many, was looked upon equal to God by the masses that ran to him at the time of need and was never let down.

The people who worked in and around the Don were not cast off as insignificant helpers or sidekicks in the background. Each had a character of his own, build from the paths he grows up from and into. Be it the Don’s sons or his consigliere or caporegimes, they all had a story to tell, that rooted them to the Don and had his powers reflected on them. Tom Hagen and Luca Brasi, Clamenza and Tassio all had long and strong backgrounds that drew some respect from the reader in spite of the deeds they were destined to do. Destiny, according to the Don was decided for a man and he had to come to it sooner or later “Every man has only one destiny”.

So it was no surprise when the seemingly softest among the three sons finally emerges to qualify to be the next in line in the Family business. Michael Corleone, youngest and the one whom the Don looked up on as the one to be, was averse to what his Father and two elder brothers did. He stayed away from it all. He joined the army and later a college in New Hampshire. His two brothers, the strong and rash Sonny and the bold Freddie had meanwhile joined their Father, despite the Don’s protests.

The female characters in the book did not impress me. They played passive “understanding” characters that were loved and respected and kept out of the Family business and dangers by the men. I could not appreciate their part in the story and felt it’d have been better if they were wholly left out. Even the young and smart Kay Adams was an utter disappointment. Connie Corleone, the youngest and only daughter of the Don was a messy mix of sincere affection and undue emotionalism.
The author connects the men to humanity and such human feelings as love and passion through the women. Yet I felt averse to those parts, and had to run through the pages to get it over with. I don’t know if my being a female had anything to do with it. I did not mind reading a story about strong and powerful men but I did not like women treated with a kind of uncalled sympathy and unnatural affection to justify their human and moral sides.

Attention to detail and covering every character thoroughly are two other points that was commendable. The stories of Johnny Fortane, Nino Valentini, Lucy Mancini and Jules Segal, while not coming right into the Mafia world was given the right amount of attention and place to fit in that one does not feel sidetracked. Characters like Lucy’s or Paulie Gatto’s that one may overlook in the first pages as insignificant extras, were taken up later to paint a full picture of. No character in the book should feel like a neglected child. Everyone and everything had a place. Nothing was left incomplete.

The book with 443 pages moves very fast, and having established the power of Don Corleone, goes on to grip an average readers’ complete admiration for the old man and his impeccable reasonableness. So much that, while it takes one through the Don’s history, the growth and fate of the other men around him, the reader feels a total loss, upon the fall of the Don towards the middle.

The book is certainly interesting and happening, no denying that. I could not totally connect with what was happening and how it was told. It was probably told in the best way possible but I guess maybe I preferred a less-than-best way sometimes to feel more comfortable with a book.
Having said all, I’d still recommend the book to an enthusiastic book-collector or a newly started reader. It has all the qualities to be the master book, the teacher of fiction to young readers which could introduce them to the wonderful world of ingenious creativity and characterization.