The Family Corleone
The Family Corleone book cover

The Family Corleone

Hardcover – Bargain Price, May 8, 2012

by
Price
$8.95
Format
Hardcover
Pages
448
Publisher
Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date
Dimensions
6.5 x 1.63 x 9.5 inches
Weight
1.5 pounds

Description

"Channels the original so well that readers will be vividly reminded of Puzo's strengths...His moments of blam-blam-blam are ace. Best of all, he supplies a grand set-piece finale--a parade--that will have readers dreaming of just one more movie." ( Booklist )"If you have any knowledge of The Godfather you will love this book. It's a perfect addition to the Corleone saga...When you see this book, buy it. It is written with love for the characters and respect for Puzo. It is also a story that won't quit and I couldn't stop reading. Falco brought me back to a world I love and did it perfectly. As far as I'm concerned this is THE BOOK to buy in 2012." ( Crime Spree Magazine )"A must summer read... Trust me. You'll enjoy." ( New York Post )"What works well is Falco's depiction of Vito Corleone, which captures both the cool reserve of young Vito and the insight he demonstrates as Don....A worthy addition to the lurid world of the Five Families." ( Kirkus )"Falco has captured Puzo's rich prose style and eye for detail...a solid piece of work." ( The Washington Post )"Falco ably exploits the tension between civility and brutality. The result is good, messy fun." ( The Guardian (UK) )"Puzo-worthy." ( New York Daily News )"This early snapshot of the Corleone family is fascinating ...Ed Falco has done yeoman's work in The Family Corleone , meeting the American legend that is its subject matter head-on and creating a tale that demands to be read in one sitting. We already know how it turns out (at least most of it). But it's how Falco and Corleone get from beginning to end that makes this journey a riveting and twisting ride." ( BookReporter.com ) Ed Falco is the author of three novels, four story collections, and numerous plays, poems, essays, and critical reviews. Among his many awards and honors are an NEA fiction fellowship, and the Southern Review 's Robert Penn Warren Prize. He is a professor of English at Virginia Tech, where he directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing.

Features & Highlights

  • New York, 1933. The city and the nation are in the depths of the Great Depression. The crime families of New York have prospered in this time, but with the coming end of Prohibition, a battle is looming that will determine which organizations will rise and which will face a violent end.For Vito Corleone, nothing is more important that his family's future. While his youngest children, Michael, Fredo, and Connie, are in school, unaware of their father's true occupation, and his adopted son Tom Hagen is a college student, he worries most about Sonny, his eldest child. Vito pushes Sonny to be a businessman, but Sonny-17 years-old, impatient and reckless-wants something else: To follow in his father's footsteps and become a part of the real family business.An exhilarating and profound novel of tradition and violence, of loyalty and betrayal,
  • The Family Corleone
  • will appeal to the legions of fans who can never get enough of
  • The Godfather
  • , as well as introduce it to a whole new generation.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(566)
★★★★
25%
(472)
★★★
15%
(283)
★★
7%
(132)
★
23%
(434)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

Buy it, read it, love it.

This is the movie you always wanted! It's the prequel story that should be made into a major motion picture yesterday. It's so much fun to read if you're already a Godfather fan you will finish it in one sitting. Yes it's that good!
1 people found this helpful
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M. Anthony. March 20, 2014

I have read all the Godfather books, the "Godfather" by Puzo, the "Godfather returns" and "the Godfather's revenge" by weingarten, and now "the family corleone" by Ed falco. Nothing is going to be as good as the original, but I didn't think that the 2 other authors needed to try and invent the wheel.
Weingarten wants to expand on know characters, and fredo is gay. A man named garci is stronger than all of Michael's soldiers, and smarter than michael all together always staying 1 step ahead of him.
"The family Corleone", has what will become the head of the strongest mafia family in new york, marching in a parade. Maybe because I'm from n.y. do I find this so freakishly stupid. The author must have never heard of old time mobsters like a Carlo Gambino, who look like a nice old man who lives next door. No, this author writes about men, who at this time in the history of the mafia, considered themselves "men of honor" and would never have been caught dead in a parade. Granted, Falco takes on a daunted task, because to do a prequel to Puzo's book, you would have to write a 10,000 page tomb to get all the characters developed properly.
As for both authors, they did not need to try too hard, but no one wants to be 2nd string, and although I feel weingarten's efforts were better than Falco's, both authors should have stayed more along Puzo's story lines, or just write their own mob fiction books.
I couldn't put any of them down because I wanted to see what, and how bad they screwed the next part of Puzo's efforts up.
1 people found this helpful
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Not Essential but Worth Reading

The Family Corleone is a very readable but not essential Godfather book.

It tells the story of the rise of the Corleone crime family in the 1930s and serves as a prequel to the movies.
Based on a screenplay by Puzo it does feel like part of the same world but the writing is quite different to Puzo's. Not to say it is bad it just is trying to be closer to the films than to the original book.

I love the films and the book and so really wanted to read this. It is interesting to see the Corleone family operating in the 30s and great to see Sonny get caught up in the family business for the first time.

Sometimes the book nods to the films slightly too much. The dialogue between Michael and Fredo as children feels a little forced. Michael talking about wanting to be a politician and Fredo being irritating and jealous of Michael feels too obvious. As if the two boys had always had the same relationship. I would have found it more powerful if they got on well and so knowing how their relationship ends would have brought a real sense of tragedy.

There are also some odd inclusions in the novel. Some moments with Luca Brasi are something closer to a horror story rather than a mafia one.

My other problem is the character of Vito Corleone. He just doesn't have the presence he had in Puzo's book or indeed the presence brought to him by Brando and De Niro. We don't get a sense of how wise and powerful he is.

This said the book is really worth reading and has some great moments. Any fan of the films should read it, for it does fill in the gap between the prequel moments in Godfather part II and the first film.

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