Personal Review
Mario Puzo’s The Godfather was an engaging novel to read because of its complicated, recurring subplots and complex familial relationships, in the context of an Italian crime family. The fact that the novel took place with the multiple settings of New York, Hollywood, and Italy kept things interesting as I belive that to have the entire novel solely in the crime center of New York would have caused the novel to loose depth, as many of the various subplots, such as that of Johnny Fontaine occurred in these non central locations. I enjoyed the tale of Michaels adventures and love affair, which lead to his marriage, in his home country of Italy. Although, I thought it was somewhat distasteful of him to marry another women while on exile from America, leaving behind his long term girlfriend, Kay. Kay was never informed of his marriage in Italy, as his Italian wife was killed in a car bombing in the driveway of his residence. Immediately upon his return, Michael married Kay, which I found to be a rather accurate characterization of his slimy character. It was sad to see Michael trasition from the once non criminally involved, politically destined military man, to one of New York’s most ruthless crime bosses, personally commiting the murder of the city’s police commander. I also found it somewhat shocking that the long time Consigliere, Tom Hagen, was replaced upon Michael’s ascention to the position of Don in the Corleone family. Considering that his replacement was Vito himself, this makes some sense, yet I still feel it unecessaray to remove him from the family entirely. Aside from the complex family relationships of the family, one aspect of the book I found particularly deplorable was the scenes of intense violence during the novels many killing scenes. Despite the violence, I found the novel overall pleasant. I enjoyed the complexity of the characters, and their development, as well as the interesting setting in the criminal underworld
Although I agree with you about Michael's actions in regard to his marriage to Apollonia and his subsequent re-involvement with Kay, I think it is a bit far to describe Michael's character as 'slimy'. I see it more as him coming to his senses and realizing that although he had been hit by the "thunderbolt", his relationship with Kay was much deeper and she was a woman he could count on to support him in his family affairs.
ReplyDeleteAs for his transformation from civilian to Don, I saw this as a product of his duty to his family, a responsibility that he had to fulfill no matter his personal qualms. Puzo foreshadows this during the wedding scene at the beginning of the book, so I believe that Don Vito intended for Michael to succeed him all along.
I found your analysis very intriguing. I too enjoyed reading about the family's ongoing struggles. The violence of the novel added to the novel's success in my eyes. It did not shelter the reader from the reality of the mob yet immerse the reader into the lives of a mob family. The violence however wasn't my favorite part either.
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