God, this is such crap. I haven't even really read the book yet, but now I am not so sure I even want to. I open to a random page in the book and read this; wtf. This guy has payed almost no attention to continuity at all. Fredo bisexual? Completely not true.

One of my favorite parts in The Godfather Part II was when Vito came back from Fanucci's murder and said, "Michael your father loves you very much"; guess that never happened!

Actually, this is one of the times that Weingardner got it right. Most of his references to the story came from the novel, and its in the novel that Vito killed Fanucci before Mike was born (its explained that Vito sent his wife and two children - Santino and Fredo - down to the street as he prepared for his hit on Fanucci).

Weingardner chose to disregard many of the more accurate events from the movie and chose to get his background only from the novel. One glaring error from the novel, and somewhat related to Fanucci's killing is Sonny's admission (to Vito) that he witnessed the killing. This was in 1933, when Sonny should have been 23 years old, but the book explains that he was only 16. (The book's beginning described the 35 year old Santino at his sister's wedding in 1945. We, therefore know that Santino was born in 1910 - according to the novel).

Regardless of this mistake by Puzo, Weingardner knows more about "The Godfather" than anyone else alive. If you don't believe me just ask him. (He stated that in a press release before his book went on sale). :rolleyes:

But stating that he gets background only from the novel, he still picked many inaccurate things from movies, like massacre in 1955 etc. By the way, how many children has Mike in GFR?

I got the Godfather Returns the first day it came out an i was really upset that the Mark W. isnt even Itilian, thats stupid. Michael is barrly in the novel as much as Fredo or even Johnny F. and making Fredo a man lover was a dumb move on Marks part. I do think that if Mario Puzo was alive he wouldn't have liked the book.

This book should have been written by Turnbull.

You got that right, NGE. I've read some of his writings, and aside from being a genius he's also got a pleasant writing style.

BTW, since the visitation of sins on children's heads is an obvious theme in GF, I find it an intresting nuance - Sonny and Fredo are born before Fanucci's murder, but Michael is already the son of murderer, by birth.

The Writers ethnic background has absolutely nothing to do with the failure of this book! There are MANY MANY non-Italians right on these boards that, in my opinion, would have done a superb job in writing this book instead of Winegardner! It was a question of knowledge of the characters and continuity of the events that this Winegardner screwed up! Nothing to do with the ethnicity or traditions of the characters backgrounds. Jewish, Italian, Irish, Klingon, Vulcan, etc. is not the issue. The guy did not do his homework, that's the bottom line.


Don Cardi

Oh yeah right. I totally forgot about that. We should track him down on the basis of seeing if he still believes that.

I couldn't agree more, but frankly I'm surprised that it took so long before I heard someone blaming the failure on the book on the fact that MW isn't Italian. There's a lot of the "you can only write what you know" mentality here that I think is really off base.

My problem with the book is that he basically wrapped real-life events in a "Godfather" wrapper. Where's the originality?

the fact of the matter is, if the author had been italian the book would have been able to stick to it's roots. You never see a German write about life in India, or a Greek writing about a terriost groupd in Iraq, just doesnt happen

The writers Ethinicity has nothing to do with the way the book turned out. We arent saying it sucked becuse it has no or false Italian festivities celebrations etc. We are saying it sucked becuse the writer, be he Italian or not, did not bother to crack open the orginal book more that a quick run through.

"I'm sorry sir, but you are not of Italian background. I cannot let you research anything about The Godfather becuase of this." :rolleyes:

:rolleyes: Have you guys met Signore Sole Aumentante? He started an interesting topic back in December....

I know 10 Italians personally who haven't a clue about "Italian Roots" so then you'd have to change your post to "if the author had been an italian who understands his roots"
:rolleyes:

Also if you turn on a TV (it can be made in Italy or the USA it still works the same) you will find reports and experts on TERRORIST GROUPS in IRAQ that AREN'T FROM IRAQ..... but don't worry, I don't listen to anything those people say. They only spent their entire lives researching those groups, and since they aren't Iraqi they have no credibility whatsoever. :rolleyes: