I'm probably in the minority here, but I don't want to see The Godfather resurrected by another writer.

Why? First, it seems like literary necrophilia, like a greedy publishing company trying to milk Puzo's legacy.

Second, the author is the only person who completely understands the world he or she creates in a novel. Not even Coppola understood the Godfather characters as well as Puzo.

Third, an author's work is a reflection of his or her personality and life experiences. This cannot be duplicated. It would be like trying to clone Elvis. A "sharecropping" writer might do a great job in mimicking Puzo's style and in recreating the Corelones' world. But it won't be The Godfather.

I realized this when I read one of John Gardiner's James Bond novels. Good writing, but Gardiner cannot fully recreate Ian Fleming's Bond, because he's not Fleming.

So what's the alternative? Take comic books. Superman and Batman have been through generations of writers. Each writer has a unique interpretation of these timeless characters. They're still not the Siegel/Schuster Superman or the Kane/Finger Batman, of course. The writers know that and the fans know that. Also, superhero characters are much less fleshed out than the Corelones, so new writers have more room for interpretation.

With that in mind, I think there's room for writers to experiment with new Godfather stories without billing the stories as "authorized sequels." How about a collection of short stories about the Corelones or the supporting characters?