The Godfather Returns

 

The Godfather Returns – Mark Winegardner

This was my second “extra” Godfather book, for lack of a better description.  Original author Mario Puzo wrote a trilogy (in a very loose sense), yet there have been a few other authors that have joined in with tales of their own. When a movie becomes such a pop culture phenomenon and continues to reign as one of the best movies ever (along with the first sequel), it should be expected that greedy individuals will want to somehow “continue” the story.  I mean, the only reason the film Godfather III was made was that both Paramount Pictures and Francis Ford Coppola needed money.  Plus, the fact that the original story was told many years ago, with gaps in the timeline makes such a product even more appealing.

Purists will scoff at such an endeavor. There are those who consider the original nothing short of holy, and for anyone who may come along and try to stain the precious grail will be looked at with scorn and ridicule.  As someone who doesn’t necessarily feel such a serious attachment to the original story, I must say that I found this book entertaining overall and the author did a credible job. I would speculate he handled such a task much better than most could.  Sure, we can split hairs about the characters and how liberties may have been taken with some of the personalities featured in the pages, but I mainly read fiction to be entertained. It’s not supposed to be an exercise in research and close attention to meticulous detail.

Now, if you know the first two Godfather movies well, you know the approximate timeframe of the three different stories. We go from 1891-1920, 1945-1954, and 1958-1960.  Those dates are close enough anyway.  So what author Winegardner does in this book is fill in some gaps during the missing time periods. There are some minor instances where this book overlaps with the times in the movies to expand on particulars, but mostly the author is providing us with more meat and gives us insights to why things happened in the movies the way that they did.

Notice that I am referring to the movies, not the Godfather novel. It’s been a while since I read the Puzo bestseller, but it’s safe to say that this book is modeled on the story featured in the first two movies, and if there are differences, the author rightly realizes most of his audience is more familiar with the films.  The main focus of this book is to “fill the gaps” between the first and second film.  Example: In the second movie, we learn about Michael’s descent into psychosis, we learn about the failed investment in Cuba, and most importantly, we learn about Fredo’s betrayal.  This book tends to dive deeper into events that made all of this happen. We read a lot about Fredo, and his portrayal is never pleasant.  The author takes some liberties with some of these attributes which I won’t go into here as I think they’re irrelevant, but everything we read seems to cement how we’re supposed to feel about Fredo as we watch him fall apart in the second film. 

My major complaint about this book is that it did seem to take the author quite a long time to establish where he eventually would take the reader in many instances.  One main character in this book is Sonny’s eldest daughter Francesca (a twin) and we read an awful lot of her early days away at college and her dating life.  You have to ask yourself if all of this is necessary, but the author does finally reveal the point of Francesca’s place in the scope of the story.  It all made sense in the end, but it seemed to take a bit long as we read through a lot of somewhat trivial details of her life.  There are a lot of instances like that in this book, and I would kindly suggest to the reader to not give up, but rather persevere through the slow bits as it all eventually does come to fruition. 

We also get to read about a year or so after the conclusion of Godfather Part II.  It was all good, but it almost warranted an entirely different book.  The focus during this time period mirrors so much of the real-life conflict between the mafia and high-level politics of the early 1960s, that it almost feels like lazy writing.  We have a fictitous president named Daniel Shay who is such an obvious replica of John F. Kennedy that you’d have to be awfully dumb not to perform the calculus in one’s head.  Of course, Shay has an “Ambassador” father, and his brother is the United States Attorney General just in case any of the readers can’t make the obvious connection.  It’s all mildly interesting, but again, it almost seems a forced direction.  I should point out that the author has another Godfather book that follows this one that I haven’t read.  Maybe we read more about the history through fiction of the time period in that book?

There’s also one portion of the book that heavily focuses on Michael’s heroic part in the second World War.  We never really learned much about his Pacific adventures, but we read some brutal stories that emphasize that war is, indeed, hell.  It’s a bit easier to see how Michael eventually becomes such a monster.  War will do that to the best of people, and it really did help to make some connections.

Overall this book was a satisfying read if not a tad too long and drawn out.  A good story, but the reader needs to make sure they’re familiar with the first two movies, otherwise you won’t be able to make a lot of linkages and exclaim a lot of “ah-ha’s”.  It’s the “connection” to the two films that make this book such a good read, so that really can’t be lost in order to achieve maximum enjoyment.

Scattershot

 

Scattershot – Bernie Taupin

Well I have to honestly say that I was a bit disappointed with this one.  After further reflection, though, I’m not entirely sure my sentiments are completely fair.  A bit of background is in order.

Bernie Taupin is mostly known as Elton John’s writing partner. Elton writes the music and Bernie writes the lyrics.  And Bernie is brilliant at what he does.  No one, in my opinion, does a better job of capturing the various personas and feelings of imaginary characters in songs quite like Bernie Taupin.  Every time a new Elton John album is released, I become highly excited when I know that the album is a collaboration with Taupin.   Also, Taupin is a joy to read when he is just writing, or even speaking.  He has such an amazing craft with the written and spoken word that I feel such strong emotion just by digesting his prose, regardless of whether or not he’s crafting actual lyrics to a song.  Several years ago, he had a blog, and I loved simply reading his periodic observations of whatever was going on in the world.  To read reflections by Bernie Taupin was akin to watching Fred Astaire dance.

So what could possibly be better than an autobiography by the man? Especially since he is Elton John’s writing partner and even best friend?  Well, this is where close examination of the life of Bernie Taupin is warranted.  Although the two were musical partners, you get the feeling that these two never were really joined at the hip.  So after Bernie hands the lyrics off to Elton, his work on the forthcoming album that Elton was writing was pretty much done.   Yes, sometimes Bernie would go in the recording studio with him, and yes, he would often go on tour with him, but the hard work for Taupin was pretty much done at this point.  Whereas Elton would collaborate with others in the actual process of making the records and tour the world by playing upwards of 3 hours per show, Bernie wasn’t really much a part of the creative endeavors.  Therefore the man had a lot of free time on his hands.  This “free time” is what we read an awful lot about in this autobiography. Sadly, it isn’t exactly engrossing.

Now, to be fair, Taupin basically alludes to this in the introduction of this volume. In fact, this is probably why he named this reflection “Scattershot”.  This isn’t a linear recollection of his life being Elton’s partner in the crime of music.  Instead Taupin writes about…well….just about everything.  The sad fact is that many of his personal stories really aren’t terribly interesting.  When one reads a biography (or autobiography) of a well-known person, we want to read about the elements of the encounters that we’re already somewhat familiar with; and learn about the behind-the-scenes tidbits of people and events that we, as fans, know.  There’s too few of this here.

We read a lot about Bernie’s neighbors, chauffeurs, musical idols that he meets (most are somewhat obscure), favorite bars, eclectic hobbies, and wives and girlfriends.  The man has had more wives and girlfriends than Elton has had hits.  So most of this just doesn’t interest us; or me at least.  I was wanting to read more about the albums, the meanings of the lyrics, the interactions with Elton and the band, and his reflections on the 50+-year cyclone that began when the two were oddly paired to complement each other in the songwriting department.  Yes, all of that is here to an extent, but not an awful lot.

Many albums in Elton’s catalog are skipped over entirely or very lightly brushed. The one we read the most about is 2010’s “The Union”.  Why? Well, that one heavily featured Leon Russell. And since Leon Russell is one of Bernie’s idols, it’s talked about in significant detail.  It would have been nice if all of Elton’s releases would have been as prominently featured, but again, we have to conclude that maybe Bernie simply wasn’t around that much once he handed Elton a manilla envelope packed with lyrics for potential tunes.

There were many times, I confess, where I lost patience and went into “book skimming” mode – scanning the laborious stories of minimal interest until I came to something “Elton” related.  I remember reading the bit about the re-recording of “Candle in the Wind” after the tragic death of Princess Diana.  It was quite interesting, but Bernie devoted only about 2 pages to the details, and then right after that, he spent twice that long on the details surrounding a chance meeting with (another one of) his idol(s) Leonard Cohen at a chance meeting in a coffee shop.  Yawn.

So, yes, the writing here is excellent.  Taupin, as I mentioned, never disappoints in this area.  I often steal many of his musings since they’re quite moving, well-crafted, and many times laugh-out-loud entertaining.   I would recommend this book on those merits alone.  The reader just needs to be aware that there isn’t much around Elton’s albums, the writing process, nor the meanings of the masses of brilliant tunes that Taupin co-authored.  I must state again, I don’t fault the author for this.  It’s HIS life, and it was an overall enjoyable read.

The Family Corleone

 

The Family Corleone - Ed Falco

The first two Godfather movies are often referred to as two of the very best movies ever made.  Back in the day, the original novel by Mario Puzo was widely heralded as well.  Anytime you have something as impactful as the Godfather movies seen and studied by masses of people, you can always expect others to somehow “acquire” the rights to the completed works and then try to keep the story alive.  I mean, just look at all of the “Star Wars” movies, books, and television shows that are out there even though if we’re completely honest, the original trilogy was enough.  So what we have here is an original story about the Corleone family that covers a period of time not covered in any of the 3 movies.

Now, this book claims that it’s “based” on a screenplay by the author of the novel, Mario Puzo.  I did an internet search and I really couldn’t find much to back this up, but readers can assume that this is probably true.  I bring this up because anytime such an endeavor is tried, multitudes of grouchy fans will queue online discussion forums and gripe about how this offering isn’t “as good” as the original, or originals.  Whatever.  I found this story to be very good, and with the right care, I can see how a future film could be made by someone who gives the story the proper care, pacing, and attention it deserves. This book helps flesh out the characters and provides a lot of new insights and backgrounds as well.

The story takes place in 1933.  This is about 12 years before original story started, and about the same amount of time after the “early” scenes occurred in the second movie.  Vito Corleone is smart, powerful, and has his own “family”, yet he isn’t quite top dog yet.  There are an awful lot of other mafia families out there vying for a stake in whatever turf they can conquer, and none of these individuals play well in the sandbox with others.  Vito, as we all know however, is a very smart and patient man, and knows how to use every setback and every gain to his ultimate advantage.

For those who don’t know their history, 1933 was right around the time the Volsted Act ended, repealing prohibition that went into effect 13 years earlier.   With alcohol once again legal, this meant a massive amount of ill-gotten cash that was coming in for the various crime families is now about to get a lot smaller.  Those on the wrong side of the law need to figure out a way to keep the coffers filled by other means.  So a lot of chaos ensues, and a lot of people are rubbed out (of course it’s nothing personal, it’s only business) and there are lot of loyalties being shifted among the rival factions. Things get uglier than normal. It turns out that the Italians aren’t the only bad guys in the big cities, the Irish also have a very tarnished reputation during prohibition, and a lot of key players in this book belong to this faction.

Most of the characters from the original book and first two movies are present here, yet the two characters who get the most space are Santio Corleone and Luca Brasi.  Santino’s story is a bit expected.  We all know him as Vito’s hot-headed first born, and nothing that Santino does as a defiant violent 18-year-old surprises us here.  The Luca Brasi story, though, is the one that’s the most interesting, and it is so on multiple levels.  Without going too far off on a tangent, I always thought that the character of Luca Brasi was underutilized in the film, and even though we got a taste of what the man was capable of, it was a rather small taste before his character is eliminated rather early in the story.  This book gives us much more and it helps hammer out the fact that none of these people are nice people; especially Luca Brasi.

This was one of the minor sins of the first movie. When we watched the movie, we “rooted” for the Corleone family and we kind of got the impression that Vito wasn’t really that bad of a guy since he seemed to only hurt “other” bad guys.  I mean, he was such a nice family man etc.   Well, reading this book may give you a different impression of Vito.  True, we still admire him because of his smarts, but when one really reads between the lines, we can see he’s far from innocent regardless of how well he treats his wife and kids.  The Luca Brasi story here helps get this point across.

A minor gripe I had with this novel is that even though we read about a lot of familiar faces from the novel/movies, there are an awful lot of new, minor characters in this book and it’s hard to keep all of the names straight.  Most of these minor characters serve in the exact same role; they’re all soldiers for the various crime families. It’s awfully hard to keep track with who is who, especially since in many cases these individuals shift loyalties in various parts of the story.  I seem to recall having to distinguish between a “Cork” and a “Corr”, a “JoJo” and a “Joey” (it didn’t help when the author also referred to the “Joey” guy by his last name), and in one scene we have two characters that both have the name “Anthony”.  Now, I get that this may mimic real life, but for the sake of writing a novel, it’s probably best to give characters more distinct names; especially when they aren’t major players.  Better yet, there were many times when we really didn’t need to know the names of these individuals at all.  It would have been fine to say something like “Clemenza was in the car with two of his men….” as opposed to the author actually giving these two inconsequential characters names.  Too much to juggle.

This wasn’t too much of a hindrance though and it really didn’t hamper the story at all.  This was a great story. It was far from simple, and it helped fill in a lot of gaps and explained a lot of motivations that we saw in the original novel and two movies.   For me anyway, this story was a welcome addition to the Corleone family.