I hardly ever read a novel, any novel. It's much easier for me to watch a film, especially a well made film like The Godfather.

But, I happened upon the "audio" verson of the The Godfather novel on you tube. Upon listening to about 5 hours of the book, I must say, that to have brought the full Johnny Fontane part of the story to the movie, would have gotten an NC-17 rating, and would have been better directed by Russ Meyer. It's that sexual.

The Hollywood backstory is fascinating in it's own right. But, I agree with the decision to cut that out of the movie, and just cover Johnny as a very minor part of the plot. All of that is just not needed or necessary in the great gangster movie that The Godfather turned out to be.

But, I would recommend to anyone that loves The Godfather movie, to at least listen to the non-Johnny Fontane parts, to get the juicy details and backstory about the other characters.

It's easy now to attribute the detailed descriptions of characters like Sonny, to the movie. That gives watching the movie an added dimension.