I have this posted elsewhere but it bears repeating. The "author" of this disaster is the head of the creative writing department at Florida State University. Don't look for that department to turn out any Pulitzer Prize winners as long as he is there.

I don't think that's really fair. The guy tried, he failed. That doesn't mean he can't write nor does it mean he can't teach.

I still havent read the book, I cannot find anyone who says it is good!

His writing is not what has been criticized, as the writing itself was good. The content and failure to connect his book with the original GF events are what has ben criticized. He shoul have done a much better job with timelines and continuity! Also his interpertations of Michael's character were not accurate at all!

Don Cardi

What? Are you saying the writing was ok, but the continuity, plot, character development and similarities with the original were missing? Thats like saying someone is a good golfer except that he cant drive, chip or putt.

...not quite - the intent is that someone who has good skills produced a poor piece of work. For example, a baseball player can get 3 at bats in a game and strike out two of the three times (66% failure rate). Yet a 33% success rate (i.e., a .333 average) over the course of his career is enough to get into the Hall of Fame. Likewise, Winegardner may be a good writer, but this time he struck out.

Thank you Don Provalone! I have read many books in my life and several by a specific author, and not everyone of that authors books were good! If I read all of Puzo's books and don't specifiaclly care for one of them, it does not mean that Puzo was not a good writer! :rolleyes:


Don Cardi

yah, but have you even heard of another book but winegarnder, much less read it :p

but that aside at least he tried, and he does appear to be an above average writer

Then, what do you consider average?

well, lets just say the book kept me readying, it was deffinetly not the worst book I've ever read, but it's not the best. People probably would have been dissapointed with anything that Winegardner or anyone else wrote.

I just finished this book. I have to agree, it kept me reading, but I found the originality of the book lacking. Basically he took real-life mobsters and situations and changed their names. Puzo had some similarities with real-life mobsters but the situations were not almost verbatim to real-life.

Forgive me if I sound like an ass, but I think Puzo's Godfather is vastly over-rated when it comes to the writing. Don't get me wrong, the story is fantastic, but the writing was not that great. Thus I don't think it's really fair to criticize MW's writing as compared to Puzo's.

Even if in his later days, when Winegardner Retires to london to finish his memoires and he is a celebrated Author, will people still be on this board tearing apart his writing, more likely than not, having never rewad a single shread of anything else he had ever done.

Why is it not fair? If Winegardner’s writing loses in comparison with Puzo’s not even at his best, something’s wrong with Winegardner.
And I cannot agree with you about Puzo. His writing in GF is rather very uneven. In some parts of the story it’s fantastic, so elaborate, without a single unmeaning word and with so much sense between the lines!
And in other parts it seems that he was just filling pages with whatever crap came to his head, maybe not even spending a second thought on them… As Turnbull once surmised, and I agree with him totally, Puzo wished to write a bestseller, and he wrote those chapters because sex and Hollywood stars were exactly what could make the book sell. What an irony – now we are skipping those very parts as crap, to read the main story, which is written brilliantly!
As to your surmise that If MW couldn’t write it good, it doesn’t mean that he can't teach… Musicians have a good saying: Who cannot play, becomes a teacher. Who cannot teach, becomes a methodologist... :rolleyes:

If you think that Puzo isn't that great of a writer, read "The Fortunate Pilgrim," which I'm reading now. It's a lot different than the mainstream books he wrote after it. It's filled with perfect sentences... it's music to my ears... I want to leave work and read it now!

Sorry, I cant go along with that. I thought the Fortunate Pilgrim was a decent story, and it has a loveliness to it lacking in the GF, but it is hardly great literature.

I agree that the GF is an uneven book, and there is way too much crap about sex and vegas that has nothing to do with the story. If you read all the stuff about how Sonny's girlfriend went to Vegas and bla bla bla it is very dated.

But if you don't read all that, you cannot but marvel at the quality of writing. Not any abstract beautiful style, but the exact words necessary to convey the sense and feeling at this moment, and for this character. And every word on right place - nothing to change!