That Vito calls his oldest son Santino while everyone else call him Sonny is Puzo's excellent way of characterizing Vito. Vito is more reserved and formal than the others around him. And I do have Vito almost always refer to Sonny as Santino, but I didn't see it as some kind of rule that could never be broken. In a tender moment between Vito and his wife, he might refer to Santino the same way his wife does, as Sonny. I was trying for a moment of tenderness between Vito and his wife.

Here are a couple of particularly good reviews of the novel that came out last week.

George De Stefano is the author of An Offer We Can’t Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America (Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus, Giroux). He is also a member of the National Book Critics Circle. From The New York Journal of Books:

http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/review/family-corleone

Jon Jordan is ex-cop/detective turned novelist from Milwaukee. From Crimespree:

http://crimespreemag.com/blog/?s=The+Family+Corleone