The Godfather

About the Author

In a note from his son, Anthony Puzo, preceding the book in my version of The Godfather, it is revealed that the inspiration for the Don was Mario Puzo's mother. Mario called himself a romantic writer with sympathy for the devil. He felt businessmen were far more criminal than the Mafia, especially the Hollywood moguls.

Coppola on Puzo in his Introduction to the book:

As much as I admired his talent, his way of expressing himself on and off the page, I just loved to be around him. I loved him like a favorite uncle. He was so much fun to be with, so warm and wise, funny and affectionate. You would see it in the way he spoke of his wife of many years, the fact that he made his home in Bay Short, Long Island, and the way he spoke of his kids.

Thoughts on the Book

I hadn't seen in the Godfather movie until about 2 years ago. After finally giving in and watching it, I found that I actually really liked it and ended up watching the other two movies in the trilogy. The book has the same main plot as the movies, but it goes more in depth into everything and has some side-plots that are left out of the movie; most of the information on Johnny Fontane is left out of the movies, and I think that Michael's activities in Sicily are less well described in the movies versus the book. The characters are also more fully fleshed out in the book than the movies. The book contains the plots from the first movie and the beginning of the second movie.

Reading the Afterword to the book by Robert J. Thompson was pretty interesting. Thompson goes into how [t]he Western has been replaced by the mob story as the central epic of America, and how the events of the late 60s in America inspired that change:

America seemed ready for a new type of protagonist, one who embodied the ambiguities of the times.

Reading the book was ultimately a fine waste of time. I had the book, so I decided to read it and it was fine. I probably could have read something better and more significant (which is what I am trying to do), but reading too much 18th century political writing convinced me to read something else for a while. In my mind, short breaks from work are better spent reading something for a few minutes than scrolling on your phone, but I think I will try to find something more significant than The Godfather to read in these moments in the future.

Some of my favorite quotes from the book (that are not repeated too much):

He [Don Corleone] 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.

Accidents don't happen to people who take accidents as a personal insult.

A doctor thinks he's God, he's the high priest in modern society, that's one of is rewards.