Yeah dude, totally Puzo. 100%. its funny how people percieve the same things
differently. I figure it as classic Puzo (well, maybe not classic, since he's
not writing about the mafia, but its definitely at least decent Puzo).
Sure its a little schlocky, but so what? Puzo can be a little schlocky if he wanted.
In my own experience, i've found the stories feel to differ based on the genre.
GodFather, Omerta, Last Don, they all have their respective families and their
patriarchs, the awe-inspiring GodFathers. I feel warm and cosy reading Puzo like
this, its what we love. So when Puzo gets all left-wing and decides to write a
politically charged story about a Kennedy, woman president and a Bin Laden type,
it just feels different. There's that classic Puzo device where the seperate
plotlines and characters begin to converge and crescendo, and he still gives nearly
every character at least a few lines of backstory. But instead of an all powerful
don and his family to root for and the little italianita's Puzo would insert, we
have a President Kennedy (traces of the don's here, with his advisors), the support
characters and their plot-lines (again, though in very different social spheres and terms
then the casts of the Family stories) dealing with a stern character as
Yabril (one of my favorite Puzo characters) in a completely different scope.
I picked up the Dark Arena a while back figuring i love GF so id have to like this,
right? Anyway, i just couldnt get in to that book, no matter how many times i tried
to pick it up. I force read a few chapters but i couldnt hook in. I know some people
really like it though.
The GF thing kinda ruined "The Sicilian" for me aswell; i thought the Sicilian in
question was a reference to Michael Corleone, instead of Turi Guiliano. Not that his isnt an interesting story,
but i was so geared up for a Puzo gangster story that i couldnt get into the Sicilian
in a big way. Nor the Borgia family saga he did. But The Fourth K? I like for some
reason.
Last Don? Awesome. Omerta? Awesome (although i still see Astorre a kind of a pussy)
