Just finished the Winegardner novel...dull, dull, dull!
I wasn't expecting Puzo obviously, but I was expecting something interesting at the very least. Puzo's prose may have been lurid and sensational, occasionally bordering on sleazy, but at least it kept your interest. Things happened and from time to time, you were shocked, saddened and perhaps even titillated.
But with Winegardner's novel, I got nothing like that. Nothing close to that, really. I mean, Clemenza dies...of natural causes, not like the foul play that was intimated by Pentangeli in
The Godfather Part II movie. We are introduced to Geraci, who's supposed to be a major character, but although there's an attempt on his life, we have no attachment to him and don't really care if he lives or dies.
Also, Winegardner is supposed to have written around the events in both movies and the novel, yet Francesca marries a man named Van Arsdale. In the omnibus
Godfather Trilogy video, there's a restored scene where Francesca seeks the approval of Michael so she can marry Gardner Shaw. What happened to that?? One could argue that since it was not part of the movies, it didn't happen, but still...
As for Fredo being gay, that's certainly plausible and would fit in with his disrupted psyche. Not completely off the mark...however, Fredo being a TV talk show host is a little off the mark fo me.
Overall, I was very underwhelmed with
Godfather Returns. If Winegardner is given a second shot, hopefully he'll inject a little life and sensationalism into the prose. Until then, thumbs down.
