Omerta

Rating:
Summary: Mario Puzo- Omerta
Review: Mario Puzo's last book "Omerta" starts off with Don Raymond Aprile an old mafia leader, who has had his children brought up to be good citizens, and has retired himself from his old life, to seek legitimacy. When Aprile, is assasinated after coming out from his grandsons confirmation, his children are left his inhertiance, with his adopted nephew Astorre Viola getting majority share in his banks, unlike his real children however, Aprile has had Viola trained, and he is much more then a simple macaroni dealer with a love for horses. Now Viola must protect his family, from the FBI, rival mobsters, and renegade cops. Thats a very brief description of book, as it has been reviewed many times I thought it would best now to talk about how I feel about it. Some of other reviewers have mentioned that they dont feel its vintage Puzo, and some even feel he did not write this book fully. Personally I think he wrote majority of it, but its simply just not one of his better books, Puzo has written many excellent novels, it makes sense that some will not be as good as others. However I still feel that it was an entertaining read, and that Puzo added some new elements by going into different perspectives, whether it be the Sturzo brothers, Don Aprile, or FBI agent Kurt Clike, the reader gets different views. "Omerta" to me will not rank among Puzos best books but even an average Puzo novel is good compared to alot of the reading material out nowadays. 3.5

Rating:
Summary: Did Puzo really write this novel?
Review: If you're a writer and release a novel such as "The Godfather" you know you've set the standarts very high, and everything you may write afterwards is condemned to be compared to it.
With "Omerta" the problem of comparison to other works doesn't even exist, since it is far inferior to almost everything the great novelist had written before. I suspect Puzo hasn't really written this novel, or at least, he hasn't written the whole novel: was he feeling too sick during the last three-four years of his life to write another novel, not necessarily outstanding, but at least as good as the most part of his prior works? Did someone else give him a hand to finish it? Or was this last work intended to be a script? If so, why do they call it a novel? It seemed too hollywoodish to me to be a Mario Puzo work, especially the happy ending. There's no deep character development, no vibrant, poignant dialogues, and the plot itself it's not as hypnotic or riveting as you expect it to be. I wasn't captivated by any of the characters of this book, although (believe me!) I desperately wanted to: the author never forgets to remind the reader how charming Don Aprile and how cunning and power-radiating Astorre viola is, but you never really, naturally feel it the way you do while reading about Michael Corleone, Salvatore Giuliano or Don Clericuzio.If only Mario Puzo had really written this novel...

Rating:
Summary: Did Puzo really write this novel?
Review: If you're a writer and release a novel such as "The Godfather" you know you've set the standarts very high, and everything you may write afterwards is condemned to be compared to it. That's what happened to Puzo in the seventies and eighties: after having written his true masterpiece he went on writting novels such as "Fools die", "The sicilian" and "The last Don", very, very good ones, but not as beautiful, magnificient and wonderfully written as "The Godfather".
With "Omerta" the problem of comparison to other works doesn't even exist, since it is far inferior to almost everything the great novelist had written before. I suspect Puzo hasn't really written this novel, or at least, he hasn't written the whole novel: was he feeling too sick during the last three-four years of his life to write another novel, not necessarily outstanding, but at least as good as the most part of his prior works? Did someone else give him a hand to finish it? Or was this last work intended to be a script? If so, why do they call it a novel? It seemed too hollywoodish to me to be a Mario Puzo work, especially the happy ending. There's no deep character development, no vibrant, poignant dialogues, and the plot itself it's not as hypnotic or riveting as you expect it to be. I wasn't captivated by any of the characters of this book, although (believe me!) I desperately wanted to: the author never forgets to remind the reader how charming Don Aprile and how cunning and power-radiating Astorre viola is, but you never really, naturally feel it the way you do while reading about Michael Corleone, Salvatore Giuliano or Don Clericuzio.If only Mario Puzo had really written this novel...

Rating:
Summary: My hero, the true Mafioso
Review: Mario Puzo must really love those Sicilian guys. They can do no wrong in his eyes. This book is a fast read, kept my interest. But the ethical conclusions are that "true" Mafioso are somehow blessed (by God?), maybe by the Virgin Mary, because Christ, being after all a man, cannot be fully trusted (op. cit.). Astorre Viola, the product of a union between a 78 year old Sicilian "Don" and his last lover, who dies right away, is destined to become a "man of respect." Yes, he shoots people in the head, and orders his henchmen to do the same. But so what. He also shows mercy to people who catch his fancy. What a great guy! Just about all the other characters surrounding Astorre are murdered before the end of the book, including an FBI agent. But he lives happily ever after in Sicily, on an estate left him by his father, married to the woman who lured two of his victims (hit men) to their final bunkers. It was obvious, from the beginning, who was going to survive and who was not going to survive. Idealizing the Mafia seems wrong, somehow. Astorre is the hero of this book, but people who take him as a hero are likely to condone killing, as long as said killing demonstrates "loyalty" and "keeping your word." Youth gangs come to mind. Mike Davis in City of Quartz noted that the gangs of Los Angeles resembled "proto-Mafia" assemblages, and no doubt such gang leaders admire the Mafia. Puzo does the world a disservice in making Astorre an enchanted hero. But the world is fascinated by evil (cf. the local daily newspaper) so Puzo only complies with the world's wishes. What other entertainer, who wants to please his public and make money, has not done the same? (They're all sellouts!) In that respect, he does a good job. It is a fascinating account of evil overcoming evil. Diximus.

Rating:
Summary: disappointed
Review: To start off, this book falls way below the mark established by Puzo in the Godfather, Fools Die & the Sicilian (even The Last Don was a better read) in fact I found myself checking the cover of the book several times just to assure myself that this was indeed a Mario Puzo novel.

With the exception of Asstore Viola the characters in this book were extremely flimsy, the ending was predictable and the entire book just had a "thrown together at the last minute" feel to it ,more like a novelization of a TV movie than a novel.

Rating:
Summary: Comes close to equaling the classic
Review: One cannot write a review on a Mario Puzo novel without referring to The Godfather, which is arguably one of the greatest classics of all time. Omerta comes close to indulging the reader into the suspense of the underworld. However, the indulgence is short lived due to many twists in the story that can confuse some readers, not only that but the twists themselves seem too coincidental that it degrades the overall "underworld mystery" that is taking place. Overall, however, I really enjoyed the story, it keeps you on the edge of your seat one minute while describing a romantic love scene the next. The feel of the story as a whole felt very much like a combined Godfather and Last Don. This story makes a decent ending to a wonderful series.

Rating:
Summary: The Last book of a great Author
Review: I loved the book don't get me wrong and I love Puzo so I gave this book 4 stars for that reason.
Puzo didn't have much time left and I guess he knew it because this one can't hold a candle to his other books. However this may just be the irate whining of a fan that has lost an icon. To me this book seemed like a mixture of "The Godfather", "Fools Die" with a little of "The Sicilian" thrown in for good measure.

That doesn't mean that its a bad book just that it doesn't measure up to his others.

Rating:
Summary: Good one-time read
Review: Mario Puzo wrote Omerta two years before he expired. Dubbed as the last in his series of Mafia novels, Omerta is quite an interesting read. The plot is simple - a New York Don gets killed, and his 'nephew' tries to pin down the killers. How he does it despite everyone's silence is the story. Since I have already said that it is makes a good reading, let's see the downsides of the book:

There is too much use of sex and women in the novel that makes one wonder what the real crime we are investigating.

And to describe every woman that we come across in the book as a true Mafioso was downright nauseating. I never thought men sat down to speak about a woman, only to describe her in every second sentence as a true Mafioso - you say that once, it's fine; but more of the same stuff is utterly obnoxious!

But the more important factor about the book is this: people always tend to judge an author by his best work - his magnum opus. So every other novel is compared with his best work. And there can be no questioning the fact that The Godfather is Puzo's best work. I would say that when compared to Omerta, The Godfather was a work that cut very deep. It was definitely a more powerful novel. Omerta on the other hand seems a bit predictable.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: I don't understand people who use terms such as "disaster" and "disappointment" to describe Omerta. I have read all of Puzo's novels and Omerta is an excellent book, not a disaster.

It was written as a movie script. That is what people have to understand before they go nuts criticizing the book. However the format of the book is not distracting due to the sheer excitment generated by Puzo page after page. In fact, I think Omerta is his best 'page-turner' novel. Yes a few of his other works, such as The Godfather, The Sicilian and Fools Die are written better and with more flair. However, none of Puzo's works even come close to Omerta in terms of the suspense it builds.

Its a very fitting novel for the modern era of organized crime. Its a sort of Godfather for the 21st century. And I can guarantee that there are tons of twists and turns that you won't see coming...

The ending was incredible. You'll either love it or hate it. Typical Puzo...

Rating:
Summary: a great story.
Review: a great story from the author of Godfather. A tremendous piece of work. Loved the way he staged the characters so well.