I borrowed this book from the public library. Though I hated the first one, I decided to give this one a try.

I put it down after about 150 pages into it because of reference made to the actual Frank Sinatra while talking about Johnny Fontane.

Does anybody else see this as tacky?

That does seem retarded. I sort-of enjoyed the first book (I think I may have reviewed it here, actually ), but this seems retarded, given that Johnny Fontane was clearly analogous to Frank Sinatra in The Godfather.

Although she didn't directly compare the two, she said something about seeing other performers in concert (including Frank Sinatra), and saying Johnny Fontane was the best.

The GF story (the original Puzo novel, the movies, and even the Winegartner books) exist in a weird amalgam of reality and alternate reality.

WWII, the Cuban revolution and the death of Pope John Paul I took place in about the time they really did in real life -- but not exactly.

I believe in "Revenge", they discuss the Cuban revolution and the guy who takes over is not named Castro. Plus you have the charismatic young Irish president who is assassinated, his name is Shea, not Kennedy.

Guess Windegardner couldn't come up with anything better than copying the events of history? The whole Shea thing was a cheap rip off of the Kennedys. It wasn't even done well

But that was the point; he was using the Godfather scenario to comment on other, larger issues. Coppola did the same thing. In this case, Winegardner was commenting on the Mafia's alleged role in soke of America's greatest mishaps - Cuba, the Bay of Pigs, JFK's assassination. Coppola commented on the Mafia's alleged role in the P2/Michele Sindona scandals of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Even Puzo himself considered the Corleones to be, at least in part, inspired as much by the Kennedys as any Mafia family. And in order to copmment on such issues, one has to include those events, or at least fictitious versions of those events.

Enzo is quite right: The Godfather saga and its spinoffs actually have a long history of moving dates to suit the story, not the other way around. In the book The Sicilian, the massacre at Portella Della Ginestra took place in May 1948, not May 1947 as in real history. In the film The Godfather Part III, Pope Paul VI’s death – and the brief reign of Pope John Paul I – took place in 1980, not 1978 as in real history. In the book The Godfather Returns, the Apalachin conference (the book never gives the name Apalachin), in which many Mafia bosses were arrested, occurred in spring 1958, not November 1957. In the book The Godfather’s Revenge, the assassination of the United States president (whose name is James Shea, not John Kennedy) took place in Miami in October 1964, not Dallas in November 1963. So it may not have been done ACCURATELY, but I wouldn't say it wasn't done WELL.

I didn't have a problem with social commentary, it's the fact that is is so horribly done that the fact that it is such a rip off of what really happened that I can't even begin to think about what the commentary was.

Don't waste your breath, Longneck. Erik Pflueger's a weenie.

Hey TL its been awhile since we've spoken and I usually agree with you, but my opinion on the spinoffs has changed. I liked GF Returns much more than I liked Revenge, but only because of how short I felt the book felt. I really liked the whole mixing the Kennedy assination thing in with a GF Storyline although I say GF revenges biggest problem is its lack of Michael it seemed like this book was less about Michael and more about Geraci then anyone else.

Oh come on. Do you honestly think this wasn't intentional?
Winegardner realizes the connection b/w the Kennedys and Sinatra and he did a pretty good job novelizing it, just as Puzo started the From Here To Eternity connection in the original novel.

He did this intentionally to probably throw off the people who criticize the novels for lampooning the life of Sinatra, and to reemphasize the weird parallel universe/reality that the Godfather universe exists in.

You have to hate how he changed Kays abortion to a miscarriage, what a joke!

Yeah, I started off liking these books but my intersted evaporated when Tom shot someone and then got drowned by Geraci, I mean WTF? I just like to consider then non-canon to the GF story

I do think Joe Lucadello was pretty cool though.