The Godfather
1969
- detective and mystery stories
- organized crime
- criminals
- italian americans
- mafia
- fiction
- criminals in fiction
- drama
- italian americans in fiction
- mafia in fiction
The story
The Godfather is a crime novel by American author Mario Puzo. Originally published in 1969 by G. P. Putnam's Sons, the novel details the story of a fictional Mafia family in New York City (and Long Beach, New York), headed by Vito Corleone. Puzo's dedication for The Godfather is "For Anthony Cleri". The novel's epigraph is by the French author Honoré de Balzac: "Behind every great fortune there is a crime." The novel covers the years 1945 to 1955 and includes the back story of Vito Corleone from early childhood to adulthood. ---------- Also contained in: - [The Godfather / The Fortunate Pilgrim](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL7920005W) - [The Godfather / The Last Don](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1673242W)
What it’s like
Dense, unhurried prose with a clipped, matter-of-fact narrative voice that shifts between wedding-feast sprawl and sudden stillness, so the book reads like a long evening of dim rooms, cigar smoke, espresso and heavy wine in mid-century New York and the Long Island shore. The sensory world is domestic and tactile: stucco houses, shuttered offices, the smell of olive oil and gun oil, sunlight falling across a garden table, rain on a car window at night. Its vibe is brooding, patient and quietly ominous, a slow-burn saga of loyalty and power that suits a rainy weekend, a late-night read with the lamp low, or a long train journey where you can sink into a big, old-fashioned story. Pacing is measured, with long chapters of conversation and ceremony punctuated by brief, sharp bursts of brutal violence, which lands hard and without relish. Emotionally it is cold and tense, though the family's rituals and tenderness give it weight. Its people's arcs trace a gentle young man slowly drawn into the family's dark machinery, and an aging patriarch weighing mercy against ruthlessness. Violence is frequent and graphic, sexual content is present and frank, and there is strong profanity. This suits readers who want a serious, immersive crime epic with moral weight, not something gentle.
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