Nov 13, 2003 05:41 PM
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(Updated Nov 13, 2003 06:06 PM)
Puzo is back to write on the subject he prefers the most - THE MAFIA. The book turned out to be the last he wrote before he passed away at the age of 78. Might be he never got to edit or polish this book as the standard of the book suggests. Even then if U just forget, that this book was written by the man who wrote GODFATHERit will be much better than any of the other books about the mafia. The problem is after U write a book like GODFATHER its very tough to emulate that. It's like climbing the Mt.everest and then trying to climb another peak. U can, but all the other peaks are not as high as the Everest and nothing compares to the heights U previously scaled.
The story begins in Sicily in Italy where a Don nearing the end of his life hands over his son to another Sicilian who is a Don himself in America.The boy grows up in America almost like a son to Don Aprille. The Don has had a successful career and has escaped from the FBI dragnet for long and now he wants to settle down . He has 2 sons and a daughter who are well settled in thier respective professions. The boy from Sicily has grown up into Astorre Villa, and he too runs a small macroni business. The Don has invested his money in his own banks and has planned everything, to live the rest of his life peacefully and die a natural death. But fate strikes and the Don is killed. The police say it's just a case of homicide. The sons and daughter too try to forget it, thinking that thier father deserved it, but not Astorre Villa, for the Don had trained him for all this. The Don knew he had true Sicilian blood flowing in his viens.
''A true mafioso was strong enough in his will to avenge any insult to his person or his Cosca. He could never submit to the will of another person or government agency. And in this lay his power''. This is what Mario puzo has to say about the character of a true Mafioso. He has tried to shape up the lead character of OMERTA along these lines but somewhere along u get a feeling that hez more like a Hero in a commercial movie, too soft, too sentimentalistic.
After 5 months of collecting information Astorre is convinced that a lot of people and money had gone into the Don's killing. Even the FBI Agent Clike is on his suspect list. He comes to know that a cartel of druglords and diplomatic brokers are after the Don's bank to launder money for thier illegal operations. Astorre starts to move the pawns and the Don's children get to see a flash of the real Astorre. How he makes the reluctant children to rally behind him and how he saves the banks and the Don's children from them forms the rest of the story.
As usual Puzo has mixed up a lot of his own brand of philosophy along with the narrative and the short incidents he incorporates within the
story are worthwhile as ever.''Do not count on the gratitude of deeds done for people in the past. You must make them grateful for things you will do for them in the future'' is one among the gems.
Overall its worth reading but its not a Classic!!
