Once the reputation of an author precedes his books the living mortals tend to judge any other book by the author to be in the same vein. Never mind if the paperback does not list it as a New York Times best seller. Mario Puzo’s rise to fame is ofcourse with the renowned Godfather which he penned in 1969. The Fourth K was penned much later. Hence anything he penned after 1969 was grabbed with much excitement and fanfare. Afterall he was the mafia specialist, The Don of such stories and others like Fools Die, The Sicilian and a few others.
The Fourth K is all about power and absolute power. Power which intoxicates a human, the power which amazes the people surrounding the human, the power which instigates other humans to grab it, to snatch it. The Fourth K is not set in any particular era.
The only assumption the reader can make is that it is after the era of one of USA’s famous president JFK. The Fourth K is all about a dashing nephew of JFK and Robert Kennedy, Francis Xavier Kennedy. Francis Kennedy is the all assuming, dashing, handsome, intelligent and charismatic Persident of the most powerful nation in the world, USA.
Already into the 3rd year of his term as the President, FXK is a tired and a lost soul. His lofty ideas to ease the burden on the American common man, to provide better ameneties, a better life and lots of idealistic things are very often vetoed by his own congress.
His extradonarily mesmerising on screen appearance is what keeps him going in the public’s affection. His fleet of staff, is his four man army of Personal Staff (who are also his closest friends too) and a charming, beautiful and an intelligent Vice President, Helen DuPray.
FXK is highly unlikely to run for a second term and even unlikely to be voted again. Far away from the US, a crazy maniac has hatched a sinister plot capable of rousing international hatred and far reaching ramifications. The plot is to assasinate the Pope and simultaneously kidnap FXK’s liberal daughter Theresa Kennedy.
How does this maniac hope to gain from this event ? International recognition apart his main goal is to pull down America from its pedestal of world power, to bring it down on its knees, to make it beg and cry. Both the sinister plans succeed and the ball in the cat and mouse game is at the White House now. Faced with a crisis of magnanimous proportions FXK turns to his trusted four for their insightful ideas.
This is where Puzo excels in doing a terrific job on mind reading of these people. These people whose prime job is to aid the President with their valuable ideas, stand by the man in his greatest hour of grief and tragedy. The characters of each of these four are neatly laid out. All of them stand by the President in the most tumultous times of their lives.
The story from here is how the President deals with his personal tragedy, how he handles his staff, how he overcomes personal griefs and turns his attention towards the Nation, how he controls things the way he wants without letting it be known as his i>vengeance, how politics rises its ugly head in the most dark hours of crisis, how one man tries to fit it all and still stay afloat. Puzo has described the plot well and it gives an insight into what absolute power leads to in a human.
Amidst this multi-country chaos, the President also has to deal with an atom bomb threat from two genius minds who threaten to blow up the bomb in New York city, unless the US stops building nuclear weapons. Also included are certain other characters purely for making the story grow.
There’s a hundred year old wily man whose advices and instructions are heeded upon by one and all; there’s this all powerful club called The Socrates Club which comprises the richest men in the US and whose aim is to control who ascends to the prime throne, so that their interests are safeguarded. Hmmm...so what’s new in this book. Well nothing’s new in my opinion. The only point carried across is that absolute power can wreak havoc and as well bring about the best from within .
The multiple ramblings about FXK’s line of birth, his magnanimous TV personality, the 100 year old man’s power, the stinking rich socrates’ club’s members are often repeated and it gets on the nerves when you expect the story to pick up pace and move along. Alas! my first sojourn with Puzo was a dull drab. You haven’t read this one, then haven’t missed anything. You finish reading this, you have read nothing new.
But for killing time with nothing better to do, for instance while on a flight, read this one if ’kyon’ kind of hindi flicks bore you more. Mario Puzo was born in October 1920 in New York and died in 1999. His last published novel (in 2002) was Omerta.