Book 4 Project

This weekend, I will try to continue The Godfather series by Puzo. I will start with the next book in line: "The Sicilian". This novel goes into more detail on Michael Corleones exile to Sicily. Michael meets a local Don near his exile town. This Don's son carries the majority of the novel and tells his story, giving us more of a story from a true sicilian family.

Book Talk

Book 3 Book Review "The Godfather" by: Maro Puzo

The Godfather

The Godfather, a novel by Mario Puzo, tells the story of an Italian crime family. It is necessary to stress “the novel” because this book is a good example of one that gets overshadowed by its movie, including the fact that this movie is hailed as one of the greatest of all time. But why is it the case? The novel is the original storyline with more detail on characters and plot. Without this book there would be no movie. The Godfather is a book about loyalty, about respect, and about the importance of family. It is centered around The Corleone family but more specifically: Vito Corleone “The Godfather”, Carmela the “loyal wife”, their four children, and their adopted son. The family is also extended to loyal friends under the name Caporegime or captain, and goes all the way down to soldiers who work for the family. This set up creates the foundation for their mafia regime. The story is mainly set in New York during the late 1940’s and captures the underground mafia world of that time, as the Corleone family takes on the other so called “5 Families” of New York.

                The best part of the book is the story of the direct members of the Corleone’s or an explanation of a character involved directly to the family. In these scenes it gives you a glimpse of the family, its dynamics, its relationships, and its foes. The novel consists of mostly back stories for characters and where it gets slow and almost unnecessary is when it focuses on side characters or characters that do not help the plot or directly impact the Corleone family. It seems with a story so focused on one family and what happens to them, when a character who doesn’t impact the Corleone’s gets their own decent sized chapter, the book gets off track. This happens a few times, with the likes of Johnny Fontane and Lucy Mancini. These characters had a chunk of the book that in the end seems pointless because they don’t enhance the plot in any way. But I guess that is the magic of the book, it is all about characters. There is an entire backstory behind every character introduced whether it is someone as important as Vito himself, or a no name soldier in the family who dies in the next scene. The books main plot is about the characters, with a side plot of the crumbling of each character. What makes this book so great is that it is focused on the family rather than the plot (even with an outstanding plot to begin with) it is one of the few times in literature that you care more about the characters back stories then you do what happens to them. The novel is told by a third person limited narrator who gives you everything there is to know about each character. Reading the book you know so much about the characters that you feel like a distant relative of the family. Like a third cousin who shows up to a family gathering to learn about all of his distant family, he knew little about.

                The novel may be over looked because of the success of the movies, but by itself I would give the novel a 9/10. It was one of my favorite books, but I don’t know if that was because of the magic of the movie or not. I saw the movie first, and the characters are so well done that you don’t want your own image of them. The beauty of reading is to make your own image of the characters, but I enjoyed reading the book and picturing the characters from the movie. So although it does get over shadowed by the movie, the book is also enhanced by it. Now after reading the book and going back to watch the movie again, I have more of a respect for it, and the book returns the favor by enhancing the movie. Whether you have read the book, seen the movie, or done both I think you could agree that the story of the Corleone family is one that you will never forget and one you almost wished you were really a part of; wished that you really were the third cousin at a family gathering.

 

Post #9

The interesting thing I have noticed from reading The Godfather by Mario Puzo is the characters. This pretty much makes up the entire book; it is all about characters, entire chapters devoted to them, and different sections focusing on a range of characters. The description of them and their characteristics is what makes up the book. From someone as important as the Godfather himself, or a minor character that hardly enhances the plot, there are full out descriptions of all of the characters in this novel.

This is a major difference between the movie and the novel, in the novel there are a lot more side stories and side plots going into details of supporting characters. Whereas in the movie that has a time limit, not as many characters can be introduced to have such an influence on the plot. With that being said another major difference is the main character itself. In the movie it is clear that the third son in the Corleone family is the main character and it follows his life mainly. In the book, there doesn’t seem to be a main character, like I said it jumps around from person to person throughout the book. It is told through a third person limited narrator so you get to know about the characters, who they are, were, and what they are thinking. Vito Corleone or “The Godfather” I would say is more of a main character then the other characters in the book but like I said there is not a distinct one. This book makes you really appreciate the characters and the family. Even the movie does a great job with characters and I would recommend seeing the movie first, to understand the plot and to visualize the characters and setting because it is so well done. Then going back and reading the novel to get more of an understanding of each character. Then re watching the movie with all the new details you learned from the book. (The route I am taking!)

Post #8

For me memoirs can hold any truth’s they want.  As long as a memoir has some truth, I don’t think a percent of truth really does it justice but I would say 50-95% would have to be true for me to call it a memoir. Anything below 50% you would call fiction or based on a true story. And for anything above 95% true/accurate would be called an autobiography. I say this because some fibbing for the stories overall plot and quality is good. If a good and realistic stretch helps the plot or have us understand the characters more, then it is a good detail. If you want to read a full tale of one’s life and it be factually accurate I say you read an autobiography by the author.  With details like location and names and things that don’t directly influence the plot of the book then who cares if they are made up. 

I have often thought about writing a memoir, I mean my life isn’t extremely exciting but some of my ideals and some funny/unlucky things have happened. I would definitely need a major thing to happen in my life to make it more interesting though. Perhaps something that goes off of something that has happened to me. Something realistic to the situation and a little far-fetched, just to add to the plot of my story. I obviously joke about it and wouldn’t write it anytime soon, but years from now when I am the only one to remember certain things I would probably add some interesting fake details to my life. 

Post #7 Shutter Island Movie Trailer

Post #6 Readicide

I agreed with a lot of what Gallagher said about "Readicide" and I believe it's a problem in schools today. I am a big fan in classic novels/plays, I like reading Shakespeare, I love classics like Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird, and I like the discussions that go with them. I use it as a defense in my music choice: The reason we read Shakespeare in High School is because it can tell us something about ourselves and we can relate to the tragedy and deepness. We stop reading books like Go Dog Go because they are simply written and are made to make a buck. This in comparison to listening to Bob Dylan over Justin Beiber or something. With that being said though; I understand what Gallagher means by not understanding today's world. Perhaps reading Hamlet will give you self-awareness but it doesn't tell you of anything going on today in the world. So that’s why I propose what Gallagher already has: the 50/50 plan, read a classic like Catcher and discuss it. Then read something from this era about our modern lives and what is taking place.

For me Literary Fiction does prepare us, it prepares us to look at morals and personal events on who we are and who we want to become. While a genre fiction could probably prepare us for the real world a little bit better. I would be outraged if we had to read Twilight over Of Mice and Men because Twilight doesn't do anything for me, and it probably was influenced by books like Of Mice and men. Twilight might as well be Go Dog Go because it is just a crap teen novel that made a lot of money. But that is probably just the Bob Dylan fan in me, the original; the classic artist who influenced so many others should be listened to before you listen to something like Justin Beiber. So don’t read something like Twilight because it was written today, only if it is giving us an example of what is happening today.