Mario Puzo
1969
Around 450 pages
Hot take: I actually enjoyed the book version of this way more than the movie version. Al Pacino just sucks a lot of my life energy. And in the book, we get to dive into Sonny's anatomy, which is...interesting for everybody.
The movies are faithful to book, and there are no major deviations, except for the film cutting some backstories that weren't necessary to the plot of the movie. It was long enough already. So this is a delightful read for fans of the film, who want to delve deeper into these characters' lives.
Puzo is a great storyteller who is clearly a huge reader. The novel had a similar structure to The Brothers Karamozov, and Puzo even paraphrased Balzac for some of his most famous lines. In this way, this story is really a timeless meditation on power and family, even when dealing with such trendy topics as Mafia organizations and movie stars.
A fun read. I wish all film adaptations complemented their source material this well.
RATING: *****
Interesting Facts:
Interesting Facts:
The character of Vito Corleone was a composite of real-life organized crime bosses Frank Costello and Carlo Gambino.
Sold over nine million copies in two years.
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