The 3 best books by the exceptional Mario Puzo

The surprising Mario Puzo he was one of those great writers capable of turning evil and anti-heroes on stage and protagonists respectively of stories that ended up being shockingly empathetic. Evil is human and its organization for crime ends up being a reflection of intelligence for crime as a modus vivendi.

The Corleone family, born from the imaginary Puzo, came to fictionalize circumstances quite similar to the reality of a time in which the mafia made and unmade, composed and decomposed the social and political intricacies of entire cities of the United States as relevant as New York itself, where mainly the saga of The Godfather. Although it is true that in other large cities such as Chicago, Cosa Nostra also extended in the management of very different spheres of power.

Before the literary and cinematographic outbreak of The Godfather, and even after it, Puzo wrote some more novels with a police or espionage setting, mostly around the Second World War. But once raised to resounding success for his narrative about the mafia, the most demanded of his handwriting was always what he developed new Corleone fringes.

Clearly Mario Puzo I just had to evoke his childhood in Hell's Kitchen to place his characters in that little Italy turned into the dark heart of Manhattan.

Many current writers take up the literary plot of the mafia as part of their plots. From John Grisham but also Petros markaris, to James Ellroy, Don winslow o Jens lapidus…, But nobody has dared to treat the mafia as a fictional plot completely, not at least like Mario Puzo.

Top 3 recommended novels by Mario Puzo

The Godfather

How not to quote this great novel in the first position of the podium? The representation of that mafia turned into a criminal system capable of the most violent acts to defend its territory sounded stark reality.

A mafia that linked with the highest spheres of power and organized itself like a pyramid at the top of which Don Vito Corleone flashed like a tough and tender character one second and the next, a capo with his particular ethical code and his principles hovering over him. gambling, weapons or alcohol, shady businesses in which money was converted into summary justice and debts were charged default interest in kind.

Don Vito Corleone knew in which world he moved and his bastion of humanity was focused on the family, that only nuclear entity to protect.

A novel about not so distant times in which the underworld moved shamelessly under its own rules, without any legal subterfuge (perhaps what is happening now with unbridled capitalism ...) a vibrant story that introduces us to the particular culture of the Italian mafias and of its emigrants who arrived in America for the new dorado ...

The Godfather

The last gift

There is something enigmatic that I already mentioned at the beginning of this post about antiheroes turned into admired protagonists. Something has to have a very bad bad to end up approaching the role of the classic hero.

It is always a point of Robin Hood, of doing the wrong thing to improve something else, of principles at the bottom of each action, no matter how perverse it may be.

And aspects around this idea is this novel. Because the Clericuzio are a powerful clan ruled by Don Clericuzio, who understands that perhaps it is time to give way to his offspring, recycling them from their natural underworld to turn them into rich citizens and freed from having to defend shady businesses.

Only in the intention of signing that kind of armistice, Clericuzio will discover that the most murky businesses, precisely, are not among the mafia but have been institutionalized to the top of ordinary power.

The last gift

The Borgias. The first crime family

From Borja, province of Zaragoza, to the world. That Mario Puzo himself found the beginnings of the mafia as an institution in the rise to power of this family of Aragonese origin, is certainly fascinating.

Of course, knowing the untimely Aragonese character, it can also be understood that its greatest glory was the imminent prelude to its resounding fall. In the meantime we discover the first capos (if you can say so) in the middle of the Renaissance.

The Borgias achieved unimaginable levels of power by intertwining their contacts and favoring all kinds of businesses sponsored by their growing power, for whose defense crime also became arguments for negotiation. A mafia novel when the mafia didn't exist yet ...

The Borgias. The first crime family
5/5 - (5 votes)

2 comments on “The 3 best books by the exceptional Mario Puzo”

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.