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The Godfather Mario Puzo Anthony Puzo Francis Ford Coppola Robert J Thompson Books

Download As PDF : The Godfather Mario Puzo Anthony Puzo Francis Ford Coppola Robert J Thompson Books

The Godfather Mario Puzo Anthony Puzo Francis Ford Coppola Robert J Thompson Books

"Wrong Narrator For This Classic"
What disappointed you about The Godfather?
I bought this version over the one narrated by Joe Mantegna because this one had a full cast voicing the various characters. What I didn't know when I purchased this book was that the narration and prose is much greater than the character dialogue. Characters don't speak as much as Puzo tells you what they are thinking.

The narrator is just a wrong match for this material. He sounds like he's narrating a National Geographic documentary. The way he reads is informative but not engaging. He doesn't pull you into the story. What you really want is a narrator that sounds like an aging goodfellla that is recollecting his thoughts, telling them to you, over a pint in a tavern. Instead, what you get is a very clean, sanitized narrator telling you the story as a newscaster reads the local news.

The difference in a narrator can make or break an audiobook, and in this case, I found myself wishing the book would end. I just didn't enjoy the book with this narrator. I bet I would have loved it with a different narrator.

What did you like best about this story?
In contrast to the narrator, all the voiced character parts were top notch and really added to the experience. I wish all audiobooks had different voice actors for the different characters. I can't stand it when an adult male narrator tries to make his voice sound like a female or a child. This book shows how much good character acting can add to the experience.

How could the performance have been better?
The narrator should be engaging. He should draw you in. He should sound like he's telling you a story--like one of those joes at the local pub who can tell a hell of a story. I think a narrator that could sound as if he was an old goodfella retelling events that he lived through would be best for this book. I haven't listened to it, but I bet Joe Mantegna's narration on this same book would be pretty good. I should have bought that version.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
It's the Godfather! Great classic story (ruined for me by the narrator).

Any additional comments?


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The Godfather Mario Puzo Anthony Puzo Francis Ford Coppola Robert J Thompson Books Reviews

I first read this wonderful book when I was 13. That was 1972 and the movie was out and playing to full houses. I wasn't old enough to see the movie so I read the book. The book made me want to see the movie even more than I already did. Being turned away from my local movie theater for being underage, I sat on the steps of the theater moping. The theater owner eventually, after everyone else was already in, called me in and told me to sit in the back row and keep my mouth shut. I spent the next 3 hours with my mouth wide open marvelling at an awesome movie which I still love to this day.

This is a wonderful book from Mario Puzo detailing the complex and secretive lives of one New York Mafia famiy in the 1940's. Very complex characters make up the family with Don Corleone the patriarchal figure through whom all decisions are made. Allegience first and foremost is to the family. Any devience from that rule will be dealt with harshly.

Mario Puzo's writing is crisp, colorful and moves along at a pace most readers will find enjoyable. Each character is developed with enough clarity that you'll be able to understand their motivation and maybe even predict their actions somewhat.

Such power comes at a price and the sword of Damocles hangs over the Don. He gets gunned down early on due to his refusal to partake in an emerging industry called narcotics. He survives and seeks to re-establish himself as head of the most powerful of the New York families. It's hard to do justice to such a wonderful book in a review.

Based purely on the writing style, this book is as good as any you will read. Based on the content this book is a cut above most due to the complexity and the codes these people live by. You will learn things as you wade through their lives and their circumstances.

It's a long book but you wont notice. You'll read, absorb and want more once you're done.
I read “The Godfather” many, many years ago and thought it would be a nice change to pick it up again. It’s very interesting that I seem to have memorized the movie somehow, and, just like the first time I read it, I seem to have liked the movie better than the book. This is a rarity! It’s also a rarity that the movie follows the book so precisely—until I realized that Puzo also wrote the screenplay. Of course, having seen the film first probably influenced me; after all, how can you beat that incredible cast? This doesn’t mean I enjoyed the book any less; really, I think it was flawless in its execution (oops—pardon the pun). The characters were well drawn and each stood out in his or her own way. I found the book hard to put down even though I knew what was going to happen.

Is there anybody who doesn’t know the story? Interestingly, the early life of Don Corleone was inserted into the middle of the book (wasn’t this from movie number two?). It helped a lot and made the Don more approachable to the reader, I think. Also, we do get a deeper insight into the private life of Johnny the singer, for instance, and even Tom—as well as an explanation of why Tom was removed as Consigliere at the end. We get a better understanding of Kay, and why she stuck around after Michael cleaned house, so to speak. So in many ways, the book really did enhance the movie experience and certainly would have stood the test of time all by itself. It was well worth reading again.
"Wrong Narrator For This Classic"
What disappointed you about The Godfather?
I bought this version over the one narrated by Joe Mantegna because this one had a full cast voicing the various characters. What I didn't know when I purchased this book was that the narration and prose is much greater than the character dialogue. Characters don't speak as much as Puzo tells you what they are thinking.

The narrator is just a wrong match for this material. He sounds like he's narrating a National Geographic documentary. The way he reads is informative but not engaging. He doesn't pull you into the story. What you really want is a narrator that sounds like an aging goodfellla that is recollecting his thoughts, telling them to you, over a pint in a tavern. Instead, what you get is a very clean, sanitized narrator telling you the story as a newscaster reads the local news.

The difference in a narrator can make or break an audiobook, and in this case, I found myself wishing the book would end. I just didn't enjoy the book with this narrator. I bet I would have loved it with a different narrator.

What did you like best about this story?
In contrast to the narrator, all the voiced character parts were top notch and really added to the experience. I wish all audiobooks had different voice actors for the different characters. I can't stand it when an adult male narrator tries to make his voice sound like a female or a child. This book shows how much good character acting can add to the experience.

How could the performance have been better?
The narrator should be engaging. He should draw you in. He should sound like he's telling you a story--like one of those joes at the local pub who can tell a hell of a story. I think a narrator that could sound as if he was an old goodfella retelling events that he lived through would be best for this book. I haven't listened to it, but I bet Joe Mantegna's narration on this same book would be pretty good. I should have bought that version.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
It's the Godfather! Great classic story (ruined for me by the narrator).

Any additional comments?