“Great men are not born great, they grow great, and so it was with Vito Corleone It did not happen in a day, it did not happen in a year, but by the end of the Prohibition period and the start of the Great Depression, Vito Corleone had become the Godfather, the Don, Don Corleone.”
Perhaps the two most famous sentences of the literary world, the sentences that make up the essence of Mario Puzo’s epic The Godfather.
Don Corleone is a study in paradox. Ruthless yet compassionate, ready to lay down his life for a friend but does not hesitate to wipe off the same friends at the slightest hint of treachery, fiercely protective yet liberal. The list could go on yet it would be difficult to sum up the Godfather’s character. However, one thing is guaranteed.
As the New York Magazine aptly puts it- “You can’t stop reading it, and you’ll find it hard to stop dreaming about it!”
Godfather stayed on or near the top of the New York Times bestseller list for 69 weeks. It has also won the award for being the most copied movie in Hollywood history. The story of Godfather is on every child’s lips.
But for the uninitiated, the book details the life of the people primarily on Manhattan’s West Side circa the World War. It traces the rise of the Mafia in the USA and how it became the unofficial government of USA.
From age twelve Vito Corleone lived in the shadow of death ever since his father was gunned down by the Mafia in Sicily and he was shipped to New York in a freighter. How he used his intelligence and limited resources to form one of the most powerful underworld empires makes up the crux of the novel. Along the way, he helps out many families and fosters many godsons albeit in return of an unwritten promise that they would help the Godfather whenever he needs their aid. Ironically, his son, Michael (the character rendered memorable by Al Pacino in the movie) who hated his father’s ‘job’ and tried his best to stay away from it all is lured into the Mafia world and much against his will, begins to enjoy the thrill that power gives. When his elder brother, Santino gets killed he vows revenge and plunges into the underworld with full force. He exhibits his father’s cool headedness and sound judgment eventually inherits the empire.
What makes Godfather so absorbing is the fact that it is almost impossible to classify it under a single genre. It has generous doses of crime, passion, love, lust, treachery and all possible human emotions. Mario exploits his experience of his stay at West Side’s Hell’s Kitchen to the fullest to create the right atmosphere needed for this potboiler. The novel can best be summed up as a thriller. And no character in the novel is insignificant. Each has a story of his own, separate from the other yet joined together by one common factor, the Godfather.
The novel moves at a breakneck speed holding the reader’s interest throughout the 400 odd pages. The simple yet effective language helps the reader to visualise America as it was then. It is ‘the splendid and distinguished blood saga of the American Mafia’. (Sunday Times) and a sensational success (Sunday Express).
No bibliophile’s collection is complete without this literary Bible.