"The Godfather" follows events in the lives of a prominent Sicilian Mafia family of New York City during the mid 1940s and early 1950s. At the head of this family is Don Vito Corleone. The novel flashes back to Corleone's childhood and the intervening years.
The fictitious Corleone family rose to become a major power in the American Mafia with Don Vito Corleone becoming head of the business. His power and influence extend throughout American society, even to the point of rigging the Academy Awards in favor of Johnny Fontane, an event not covered in the film adaptation of the novel.
Corleone creates an organized crime team with memorable characters and relationships both within and outside the family.
Filled with suspense, the Godfather's army includes a counselor-adviser as well as multiple Capo-Regimes, or subordinates, who each supervise various teams underneath them. This crime organization is a master study in organization for running a business empire.
The novel remains one of the best-selling books of all time.
Fans can fill in the gaps, or begin the saga anew, from their car, their kitchen or from a lounging spot on the sofa by listening to the story of Don Vito Corleon in audiobook format.
Italian-American author Mario Puzo was born in New York City in 1920. He is most famous for his novel, "The Godfather," which became a blockbuster screenplay directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
Puzo attended the New School at Columbia University and studied writing. "The Godfather" was his first hit. He followed the novel with two sequels and continued to write both novels and screenplays. His work won Academy Awards in 1972 and 1974.
"LOVED this book, but I also love the movie. I could watch it 100 times and not get tired of it. I do think that I may have become bored with the book had I not seen the movie first. The book goes to the extreme with the details, but you gain insight into the minds of the characters and their reasoning for the things they do. The book had a few more characters than the movie AND, best of all, had an ending that I did NOT expect, but LIKED! The movie changed that detail."
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melody (5 out of 5 stars)