I haven’t read’The God father’ so I won’t compare the two books. "The last don" gives a real insight into how the mafia works. It gives a great sense of power that the Don had earned to come to a position where he is respected by everyone, even after coming to an age of 80.
What I liked about the novel is how one can make things happen by not only shear force, but by adopting a good strategy. The Don is a great strategist. The Don, in spite of having all the power, is never overwhelmed by it. Don always talks sensibly. He is always fair to everyone. Power can make one take wrong steps and become careless, something that never happened to the Don. Don Clericuzio is a level headed person who doesn’t take any decision based on emotion but based on circumstance and his position. There is no sign of arrogance in the Don’s character. He is a humble person who talks with lot of respect to his counterpart. By now you must be thinking that I worship the Don(notice how I write Don, with the first letter "D" capitalized, like how we write "God". But that’s only for the respect I have for the Don). What I didn’t like about the mafia world is how they kill people to finish their task and earn money. Somehow this doesn’t make sense to me. I just cannot justify killing for gain, but then, that’s just me!
The novel gives a real picture of how people fight to survive. Puzo, the author, has written a lot about how the "movie business" works. There was a time while reading about the "movie business" in the book I suddenly felt that the book has too much of sex. Puzo describes how the actors have to "sell their ass" to make into the "movie business". It gives an impression that the only people who get in Hollywood, are the ones who are the ones ready to do anything for money. I just hope Indian movie scene is not this bad:-).
The passion scenes aren’t described as passionately as I had expected, but may be it wasn’t necessary. All the while reading the book one can feel that there is something missing in the story, I felt maybe it was the flavour. **The story line is very dry. Many of my friends couldn’t go past the first chapter.** "The last don" has an in-depth description of each character. This goes on for almost half the book from the beginning, which, I believe, is the most boring part of the book. It is after this "boring part" that story gets interesting and fills you with suspense.
In the later part you can see how the mafia plan their operations and how the Don reasons out the killing of people. I wasn’t very impressed by the ending of the story. I won’t reveal what happens but the last plot looked too obvious.
Would I recommend this book to my friends?
Yes, you learn something new from every book you read. I am sure this will be useful in the same way to you too!