For me, it's a very rare instance where a good book was raised to the level of a masterful movie. The book gives significant space to the experiences of Johnny Fontaine in Hollywood and other stuff that really reflected what was trendy in the 60s. Coppola cut out all of the trendy stuff, and kept and tightened most of the timeless stuff. And most of the good stuff that Coppola left out of the Godfather, he was able to work into GF2.

To repeat: it's a good book, and just about perfect "summer reading."