Rating: 
Summary: Puzo?
Review: I'll never believe Mario Puzo wrote this story. I know he was severly ill for months before he died. I tend to think someone else wrote this story from Puzo's outline and drafts. The story is so weak, it's just not Puzo. I'm upset that I paid $25 for it! I kept reading and saying to myself that it was going to get better, but it never did.
Rating:
Summary: Puzo?
Review: I'm totally shocked that this book carries Mario Puzo's name. $25 for this? What a huge disappointment. Since Mr. Puzo was so severly ill before his death, I tend to think someone elso wrote this from his outline and draft. This story is so weak, that I just can't believe Puzo wrote it.
Rating: 
Summary: Vendetta!
Review: This novel of a current-day criminal family, the Apriles, spans the range between the old Sicilian model and the modern world of big money from high finance. Don Aprile correctly anticipates that the legitimate world will be more profitable and safer. To prepare, his children are launched into totally legitimate activities (the army, television, and law) from birth and protected from knowing about Don Aprile's activities. But as a favor to an old friend, Don Aprile has become the sponsor of a young man who he treats as a nephew and prepares to become a man of honor in the Sicilian tradition. All proceeds according to plan until three years after Don Aprile's retirement from crime when he struck down by assassins while leaving the confirmation of his grandchild.Astorre Viola, the nephew, has promised to protect the Don's family and to keep the family's legitimate banking business from being sold. The plot that causes the Don's death is related to a rival faction wanting the banks to launder drug and other sources of illegal money. The plot centers around Astorre's emergence as a leader of the vendetta, protector of the family, and as a man finding his purpose in life. To do so, he has to find the killers and unwind the hidden path to those who hired them. Aided by the Don's old friends to help run the bank and give him advice on the vendetta, he grows in stature and confidence. Having unraveled the mystery, he then sets the jackels at each other's throats in a fascinatingly Machiavellian way. The characters are rich and complex. Although this is a novel about crime, Puzo inserted fascinating personal quirks in almost every character. Astorre finds himself irresistibly attracted to the Don's daughter as a teenager and is sent off to Sicily by the Don to separate them. Later, he falls in love with a woman who can perfectly feign being in love with rich men who give her presents. At other times, Astorre acts against the code of the crime family by sparing lives. He is keeping a promise throughout, rather than acting out of personal conviction. His joys are simple ones, and he seeks ways to recapture them in the fullness of his maturity. Eventually, he learns of his own patrimony as the son of another Don in Sicily. The "good guys" are hopelessly conflicted and seriously compromised either by their own greed or by the slippery morals of their superiors. Even those who don't make it through the book provide lots of interesting characterizations, including the twin brother hit men and the broker who hires them. But, best of all, Puzo has a sense of humor and he uses it to create contradictions that can only be resolved in unusual and humorous ways. Every scene in this book has amazingly visual qualities, and should translate well into the promised movie based on this book. Puzo deftly moves back and forth between the United States and Sicily to draw the contrast between the old and the new. It turns out that some of the key people in the new world have ties to the old, as well. This is also an attractive connection to the prior two books. Other than enjoying a fast-paced story, what can one learn here? The continuing lesson for me was how people create problems for themselves by imagining that things are different then they are: our familiar old friend, the misconception stall. If they had taken the time to investigate more carefully before leaping, their lives would all have been simpler and happier. Puzo is warning us to look at ourselves and our ideas objectively if we are to achieve what we really want. Otherwise, we are doomed to act like robots, responding foolishly in knee-jerk fashion to the environment around us, rather than being the independent people we can be in creating our own futures. As such, we only provide amusement for objective observers.
Rating:
Summary: Astorre replaces Michael Corleone
Review: I loved it! Astorre, the new young Don reminds me of Michael Corleone because he lives in Sicily where he learns to be a Mafioso. It reminds me of when Michael had to hide in Sicily after he killed Solozzo. Astorre comes across as a mindless singer, but most don't know that he is a trained killer. I couldn't put the book down and read it 3 days. If you loved the Godfather and The Last Don, you must read this.
Rating: 
Summary: Very hip and happening
Review: Alright I hate the comparisons to Godfather, and the way that people keep rating Omerta against. Thats almost, well is, unfair to this last book by Puzo. Now we have all seen the punches that Puzo can pull with the Godfather, and he pulls quite a few of them here. I will tell you right now, its not as good as Godfather, but its pretty damn good. I am rating it on its integrity as if it was a stand alone novel, and its good very nicely done. Check it out, in the very least for the people who don't like it, its a fast read, and yes I did find some of the sections boring and long-written, but hey its a novel and well just push through and you'll find the meat of this book. I do miss the Godfather, and Mike and Sonny and all them, and I am saddened now that we will truly never hear from them again (I know Sonny died, but take it all lighthearted) I am also sad at the loss of such a fine other, Mr Mario Puzo. May you find peace in the great beyond, you truly have affected me and entertained me well in the night with your talents. May I someday return the favor. Check the book out though, its worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Been there, done that!
Review: It isn't that the book Omerta by Mario Puzo won't hold your interest, becaue it will. And it isn't that its not a fast paced read, filled with what Puzo fans have come to expect, because it is. And it isn't that I didn't enjoy this title, because there were parts that I did. It's just that Mr. Puzo did this before, and much better at that, in The Godfather.
Billed as the third and last book in a trilogy devoted to the Mafia which includes The Godfather and The Last Don, Omerta tells the story of the Aprile family. Once the head of this Mafia organization, Don Raymonde worked hard to see that his three children and adopted son have hardly ever been involved in the family business. But when he's killed gangland style in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral, it is up to his adopted son to avenge his murder and bring the family legitimately into the 21st century. Since Mr. Puzo died in 1999, unles he left some unpublished manuscripts, this will be his last book. And while this is an enjoyable read, I think his loyal fans may prefer to reread better books like The Godfather anbd The Last Don, two of my favoties.
Rating:
Summary: The Last Piece of Puzo's Triangular Mafia Puzzle
Review: This story of the destiny, deceit and double edged sword of one man's soul is a fabulous ending to Mario Puzo's powerful literary career. For readers who are looking for the next Godfather, they could be seriously disappointed. Though the novel's plot is quite unpredictable, it is as if Puzo didn't have the time to add the neverending descriptive detail that makes his sagas so unique. Nevertheless, the story and characters, that only a visionary such as Mario Puzo could create, are still everpresent and as powerful as any others of his novels.
Rating: 
Summary: The Godfather reigns supreme over Omerta
Review: After reading the reviews on this site I feel I must be reading a different book. Omerta is in no way comparable to The Godfather, a true masterpiece on the families of the Mafia. I have read about one-half of this book and have yet to find anything exciting in it comparable to the true Godfather novel. I have been unable to put faces on any of the characters, all of whom seem shallow and one-dimensional. In many cases the dialogue feels forced and trite. Chronology is out of sync, and inconsistencies abound. Example:On page 72 FBI agent Cilke says he ordered "electronic surveillance" on the homes of Nicole and Astorre. On page 73 Cilke and his associate listen to the "tapes" he had planted in Astorre's house. I didn't know that tapes were planted in suspect's homes, which would mean that tape recorders also had to be planted. Bugs are usually planted in phones, behind mirrors, etc., aren't they? And what Cilke hears sounds like a family gathering of Don Aprile's children and adopted nephew, not a four-way phone conversation. Then on page 77 Cilke orders all "phone taps" cancelled.Confusing indeed and a very poor read.Appafrently Puzo had only one really good novel in him about the Mafia, The Godfather,but his estate will still profit to the tune of several million dollars for book and movie rights to Omerta. I will read it to the end but am not enjoying it.
Rating:
Summary: AN OFFER YOU CAN REFUSE
Review: WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT! THE GODFATHER WAS A MASTERPIECE, THE LAST DON WAS JUST SO-SO, BUT OMERTA IS SIMPLY AWFUL. NONE OF THE CHARACTERS SEEM TO BE WORTH CARING ABOUT AND THE DIALOGUE IS AWKWARD AND UNBELIEVABLE. IT'S ALMOST AS IF THE PUBLISHER IS TRYING TO MAKE A FEW BUCKS OFF OF PUZOS' NAME. PUZO IS A GREAT WRITER, BUT I'LL HAVE TO RE-READ THE GODFATHER TO REMIND ME.
Rating:
Summary: Puzo Goes Out With A "Whimper"
Review: While I expect to get all kinds of hate mail over this statement, I feel it necessary to be said. Mario Puzo was NOT a very talented writer. He managed to catch the world's eye with the hugely successful (and very good) "The Godfather," but as this book shows, he wasted his writing grinding the Mafia genre to a flat, tepid pulp. I thoroughly enjoyed "The Godfather," but its immortality lies in the originality and strength of its story rather than its literary quality. This novel, unforunately, has neither. A common rehash of "The Godfather" (as many of his other books have been), this book seems more like it was meant to guarantee Puzo and his family financial stability in the years to come rather than an attempt to solidify his standing as one of the great writers of the last half of the twentieth century. You've read the reviews, you know what the book is about, so I won't presume to waste space repeating them. I will say, however, that instead of plopping down your hard earned money on this, break out your wel-tattered edition of "The Godfather," and if you're still curious wait until the paperback comes out. At least that way you suffer from so much buyer's remorse as I have.
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