Just wondering how far out of the family loop he was kept?

Yes, he was at Connie's wedding. He was in a scene where he danced with some little girl.

I remember that. She was standing on his feet as they danced.

But we're talking about the novel here, right?

In the book there is no mention of Tessio at the wedding.

Because at the point, he wasn't relavent. You have to assume that Tessio as a capo would not be excluded.

Barzini's presence at the wedding was added in by FFC though wasn't it

I asked the question because, on the movie side, I was wondering a while ago why Michael designated Clemenza as the one who should hide the gun for him.

In the book, the narrative of Vito's life says that, when he appointed Tessio and Clemenza as capos, he told them not to associate with each other, even socially. Tessio operated largely indepndently, while Clemenza was kept in the Don's chain of command.

I wonder how far that went. There is not even mention of Tessio at the wedding, but from his childhood Mike remembers Clemenza as someone who would take him somewhere when the Don was too busy. I think that had a lot to do with why Michael chose Clemenza -- he just knew and trusted him.

Tessio first enters the story when he is called by Sonny after Vito is shot. Some of the language in the conversation is pretty interesting (I don't have the book in front of me, so I'll paraphrase). At one point, Sonny tells Tessio about "My kid brother Mike", and he tells Tessio that Mike is in college in Hanover, New Hampshire. That's not the sort of detail that you usually have to give someone who's known and done business with your family for thirty years, especially considering that Mike had made a big stir at the wedding just a couple of months before.

Also, when they arrange for Tessio to send men to guard the Don and the mall, Tessio ends the exchange by asking, "You know my boys, right?" Sonny says sure, but again it seems like these guys aren't completely familiarized with each other.

I tend to be on Vito's side in the great Vito/Michael debate, but in this instance, I think that Vito made a mistake by keeping Tessio's regime so isolated from the rest of the family. I think that a lot of trouble somehow could have been avoided, if Vito had just invited Tessio to the wedding.

Maybe Tessio wasn't aware of Michael going back to college after The War?

I really don't think Tessio wasn't at the wedding, it just wasn't necessary to mention him at that point, he was a character to bring in a bit later. Puzo did that all the time, introduced new characters every so often, to give the book a new direction and the current characters new impetus. Ie, Rocco, Neri, Jules Segal.

When it came to doing the movie it was pretty clear that they couldnt have Clemenza at the wedding and not Tessio...as it might give us an indication that possibly Tessio isn't in favour and allow us to predict his 'heel turn' later in the film. In the book, there's so much going on, you don't even consider it

As a longtime friend, business partner and capo of Vito Corleone, Tessio would've most certainlhy been a guest at Connie's wedding whether or not his presence was specified in the novel.

He also would've been a guest at Santino's wedding which would have taken place several years earlier.

So would have Barzini, Clemenza, and anyone else not mentioned in the novel but seen in the movie.

Apple

But if I had read the book, I'd know that Tessio eventually does the heel turn anyway. If I hadn't read the book, I'd have never heard of Tessio, so I'd have had to be pretty sharp to recall that he wasn't dancing with the little girl at the wedding.

This is presuming you read the book before the movie, as people did do as the book came first. But they had to tweak the book when it came to the film and actually show Tessio there, rather than naturally assuming he must be there, which he must