Book Review Number 4 The Godfather's Revenge

"The Godfather's Revenge"Mark Weingardner 496 (unnecessary) Pages


“Leave the gun, take the canolis.” Clemenza

Worst book ever? Possibly. I mean... this book, they are selling the shit out of it and as far as I can tell that is due solely to the beautiful and perfect franchise that they are...bastardizing. I mean Mario Puzo has to be rolling over in his grave. Not that the Godfather books were great literature but...they were good books with real characters and real stories. Granted they were eclipsed by the movies. One of the important things I have tried to teach my children is that ALL of life’s important lessons can be gleaned from the Godfather Movies (1 and 2...although 3 has the young, hot if slightly chunky Sophia Coppola). Those two movies are likely 2 of the best 7 movies of all time and that is high praise indeed.

But this book. This book is putrid drivel. It could not be worse. They develop this whole sad stupid plot with some of the same characters and other then that just stupid sad cousins and other made up characters. 496 pages of nothing. There is a tie in between the Corleone family and the Kennedy assassination? There are convoluted plots but more importantly this Weingardner guy just steps all over and rewrites the history established in the first books. He tells us that all the people that Michael had killed in Godfather II was a mistake contrived by some guy named Nick Geraci. Even worse...they try and base the whole book around Michael’s dream that Fredo keeps coming back.... dressed in a tux. Explaining he doesn’t blame Michael.... ooooh it is just the most contrived, stupid stuff...ever.

Cut and paste this into your browser. It expresses my feelings for my own children.
jahozafat.com/0028375953/MP3S/Movies/Godfather/spoil.mp3

Even worse...every character he introduces he gives us a long, convoluted history which he eventually, tortuously and irritatingly ties it into characters in the original book. He tells you all about a some gumba and then tells us it is Barzinis nephew. He does it with each character....and it could not be more annoying. I have a great deal of love and patience for books. Even poorly written books. But to take a franchise and so abuse it is an abomination. Inexcusable...the worse kind of putrid stuff.

Hyman Roth: "This is the business we chose."

This from From Publishers Weekly

In Winegardner's mediocre second sequel to Mario Puzo's classic (after 2004's bestselling The Godfather Returns), La Cosa Nostra gets involved in a plot in the early 1960s to assassinate a JFK-like U.S. president, Jimmy Shea. Instead of building on the fascinating characters Puzo created, such as Michael Corleone, the reluctant successor to his father's Mafia empire, Winegardner dwells on the machinations of Michael's main rival, Nick Geraci. When Geraci mysteriously disappears and eludes capture by the authorities, the reader learns in a jarring nod to Osama bin Laden that "the most powerful nation on earth had deployed skilled intelligence and law enforcement personnel to conduct a gigantic manhunt for a powerful and resourceful leader of a secret criminal society—a tall, imposing, bearded man with a chronic, withering disease—and somehow failed to find the cave where he was hiding." Godfather fans might prefer getting reacquainted with the original novel and the two better of the three films it inspired. (Nov.)

If the book had exercised that type of brevity I might have enjoyed it. Don’t buy this book. Don’t pay homage or dollars to this continuing debacle. 1 Slinger on the 10 scale.