Today's Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on the novel's 40th anniversary:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204886304574308603266273652.html

Pretty interesting take on how a mediocre genre novel unexpectedly took off 40 years ago.

I know the book sold millions of copies prior to the films, BUT I still say it would be long forgotten without them, and probably out of print by now.

"The Godfather" was the rarest phenomenon in the book to film world. The adaptation actually improved upon the book.

I would not say that the book was better or necessarily worse than the film. They both compliment each other great, because they are so similar you can use the book as a guide for insights into various parts of the movie and you can use the movie to get a visual sense of what Puzo was trying to convey.

IMO, the novel had the details and "backstories" that the film was missing. But the film had the polish that the novel was missing.

I think that the article once more underrates the novel. It's true, some of the memorable lines like the cannoli-phrase were added (the first one improvised by Ms. Sheridan-Castellano, the latter added in the studio), but the novel contains some strong lines too which provide a certain drive to the story. For example: "A man has but one destiny."
This line makes the story look like an ancient tragedy: The young hero struggles hard to not become like his father. But the more he tries to escape his fate, the more he is drawn into it. No-one can escape: Sonny, Fredo, Kay.

I just read something very interesting that I'd never heard before. When reading the novel, have you ever seen the dedication prior to Chapter One? It reads "For Anthony Cleri."

I always wondered about this and now I know. Anthony Cleri was Puzo's half brother. Mama Puzo was married twice, so Mario had a pretty big family (later fictionalized in "The Fortunate Pilgrim").

The thing is, Cleri wasn't actually his brother's last name. He shortened it from Clericuzio, which Puzo later used as the name of the family in "The Last Don."

Art imitates life. Fun fact.

I always wondered where he came up with those Last Don names. They aren't the usual Italian names used which flow rather easily off the tongue.

Great point. It really isnt a well written book by any means. Puzo himself made it clear that it was written for money.
But Puzo was always a fascinating story teller, and that really transends on th book. While its certainly not very well written, its a good read ad a great piece of fiction.