Introduction
After reading a lot of popcorn fiction over the last few months, I wanted to read something a bit more compelling. So I turned from the Ludlum's and the Sheldon's to Mario Puzo. Puzo's GodFather was a master act and his detailed account of the life of a underworld don was excellent. So when I got a chance to grab at Puzo's The Family, I expected another mob family story. I was wrong!!
The Plot
The book set in the 15th century, is the story of a Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia and the fortunes of his family that he set to plan. Rodrigo Borgia was a cardinal of spanish origin who dreamt of becoming The Pope someday despite his spanish origins. His chance comes when the current pope breathes his last. Borgia goes on to become a Pope by pulling some strings in the voting for the new pope. He rechristens himself as Alexander.
Suddenly, he is the most powerful man of the Roman Papacy and his words are the dictums for the common man on the street. As soon as he becomes the pope, Borgia has just two visions, to lead a crusade and to make his family the most powerful family in Italy. To this end, Borgia starts planning beginning by making his elder son, Cesare, a cardinal and thus paving his way to become the next Pope after him. He then goes on to make his younger son, Juan, the leader of the papal armies to lead them to unite all the papal states of Italy. His youngest son, Jofre, is a disgrace to the family in the sense that he is neither charming like Cesare nor is he cunning like Juan and is a total waste as far as the family is concerned. So he is married away to a spanish princess for some political gains.
His biggest weapon is his intelligent daughter Lucrezia who he wants to use as a wild card to get strong ties with the strong kingdoms of Europe. Everything seems to be going to plan. Cesare becomes the cardinal, Juan, the leader of the army and Jofre is married to a princess and Lucrezia is married to the nephew of a Italian Duke.
The problem then begins when the children start getting a bit older and start thinking independently. Cesare has no inclination in being a cardinal or pope. His only dream is to lead armies to war. He is a master strategist as far as wars are concerned and he is unhappy at being used as a pawn in the big game by his father.
Juan knows nothing about leading armies and is too devious to be given Cardinal duties. He ends up having an affair with Jofre's wife, his own sister-in-law. To add to this he keeps insulting everybody in sight as often as possible. No wonder one fine day he suddenly disappears and appears only as a dead. The first chink in Alexander's armory appears.
Lucrezia's love life is a mess. She is forced to marry a duke for political gains, when the gains are over, the marriage is annulled, then she marries someone else for more political gains and the saga continues. To add to this she is having an torrid affair with her own brother, Cesare. All this makes her love life a mess and she starts to feel whether she is just a pawn.
The only person who seems to be untouched by all this is Jofre. He continues living his life, following the instructions of the elders, without worrying too much.
Alexander has a lot more to content than just these. In his drive to make his family all powerful, he has upset a lot of people and people with power and prestige and following. Everybody is just waiting for the right chance to pounce on him and to bring his family to ground.
So who wins the rat race and what happens in the cat and mouse game? Check it out in this novel.
Critical Summary
The book is divided into three portions. The first portion deals with the rise of Rodrigo Borgia (Alexander) and his inception into the role of the Pope. It is in this portion where he goes about laying his set pieces to establish his family as the greatest ever.
The second portion deals with the things that start going against the master plan, the things that threaten to spoil Alexander's master plan. All the treachery, the incest, the lust and greed are glorified in this portion of story.
The third portion is the fallout of the things which start panning in the second portion. The final destiny of the Borgia family and that of Rodrigo Borgia, The Pope Alexander.
My first reaction when I reached half way through the novel was how was this book allowed to publish. The way it talks of the misuse of the power by the highest epitome of religion, the dastardly levels to which the Pope is shown to stoop, I was really amazed. Here the Pope goes on a killing spree, killing all those he deems to be enemies of his family, in the name of god. The Pope goes on a incest journey, having illicit relationships with whichever female he laid his eyes on. The Pope goes on to dictate the destiny of people's life to suit his wishes. It's unbelievable as to how much misuse has been shown in this novel.
I really liked Puzo's writing in the novel Godfather, where again the theme was a family of underworld, The Corleons. Puzo again shows that he has the skills of writing the knit family gender of novels, but what shocked me was the focus on all the relations in the novel. There was not a single female character who had not slept with at least two men!! There was no man who had not bedded a lot of females in the novel. That makes this novel highly insuitable for all age groups!! Also at times the writing is plain vulgar.
The highpoint of the novel though is that Puzo manages to mingle in the big names of the 15th century into the novel. So we have little cameos from the likes of Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Machiavelli, all giants of 15th century. The writing maintains a frantic pace, with one event following another. The strategies and alliances explored in the novel is excellent and are worth the salt.
Another excellent point is the conflict in views by the ones for whom all the good is being done and the one who is doing the good. In this case, Rodrigo's children for whom he was doing everything, they had a conflict in views with him. This was beautifully explored, though in a restricted manner.
A low point in the novel is that though Borgia's dream is professed as leading a crusade, this topic is lost in his ideal to do most good to his family.
Cost
The edition of the novel that I bought was an Indian Edition which cost me roughly around $3.
Summary
The novel has all the makings of a classic, but Puzo has got a bit carried away by incest in this novel. So the gory details of affairs of each and every character. Also the character assasination of the Pope to stoop to the lowest possible levels is a contentious issue.
But based simply on the writing of the novel and plot that is explored, I would give it a 4 star rating.
PS: Taken from my review published at https://epinions.com/content_171638689412
