The Fortunate Pilgrim (Bookcassette(r) Edition)

Rating:
Summary: A good and worthwhile immigrant piece
Review: Many of you will no doubt be attracted to The Fortunate Pilgrim riding on the fame of Puzo's mafia novels, especially the Godfather. The Fortunate Pilgrim is more of a drama in the traditional sense of the word. It tells the story of Lucia Santa - an immigrant widow living in a small appartment in New York and raising her children. This book exposes the reality of the life of immigrant Italians in all it's harshness, with the very tight budgets and subsistent living, domestic violence, a clash between the traditional Italian values and modern American ones, the generation gap and the temptation of crime.

This is characterized in Lucia's children. The daughter is an assertive, educated type determined to become big in the real world. One of the sons is a womaniser and all-round good guy. The other sons are archetypes of kids growing up during the depression. A moving, though at times slow book.

If you want to see and enjoy a different side of Puzo as a writer, this novel is ideal.

Rating:
Summary: His Mother Took Over
Review: Mario Puzo feels that this novel, written before THE GODFATHER or any of his more popular novels, is superior to them all. In a creative sense, THE FORTUNATE PILGRIM is the parent, and the rest of his books are the offspring.

In the hands of someone like Puzo, the creative process is a wonderful thing to observe. He relates how he set out to write a novel in which he was the hero and the rest of his family were villains who wanted to stifle his writing career; and how, stalwart young man that he was, he succeeded in spite of them and the stumbling blocks they placed in his path. He was unable to write this version of his life, not even as fiction. Truth and the memory of the strength of the woman who reared him wouldn't allow him to deny the impact she had on his life.

Puzo wrote, but not what he had planned, or even what he thought he was writing. At some point he realized that the book wasn't about himself. It was about his mother. THE FORTUNATE PILGRIM's Lucia Santa is the personification of Puzo's mother and this book is her book as surely as if she'd written it herself.

When we read about Lucia Santa's life in Hell's Kitchen, a single mother as we would call her today, as she raises six children, we are constantly amazed at her strength.

Her oldest son becomes a Mafia Union Organizer (read strong arm man and collector of "protection" money) against her will. But Lucia Santa prevails.

Her daughter spends six months in a sanitorium for her lungs and comes home too assimilated for Lucia Santa's taste. But Lucia Santa prevails.

One of her sons commits suicide. But Lucia Santa prevails.

One tragedy follows on the heels of another. But Lucia Santa prevails.

After the death of her son, her neighbors bewail her misfortunes, "First husband dead; second destroyed for life; a grown son, already a breadwinner, struck down. What tragedy, what misfortune!" But how does Lucia Santa look at it? A grown daughter, a forelady with a hard working sober husband. One son who has given her grandchildren and is making a good living. Another son working on the railroad and no longer giving her troubles. Yet another son winning awards in school. Yes, Lucia Santa prevails.

Lucia Santa is, in every way, Puzo's mother. Is it any wonder that she dominates this novel? The choice as to who was the hero (or heroine) was never really Puzo's to make. It's a better novel and a more honest one the way it wrote itself (with a little assist from Puzo).

Puzo says that, not only is this her novel, but so is THE GODFATHER. From his mother's mouth to Puzo's ears, to the written page, we have Lucia Santa to thank for these books. Oh, by the way, Mario, thanks for channeling them for us, the readers.

If you only read one of Puzo's books this probably should be it.

Rating:
Summary: Simply a Masterpeice
Review: The book I am reviewing is "The Fortunate Pilgrim" by Mario Puzo. I chose to read Fortunate Pilgrim because I had heard from numerous sources that this book was actually better than Mario Puzo's most known and best-selling novel, The Godfather, which I had read and enjoyed greatly. I found it hard to believe a book so over-looked from the public could be better than the masterpiece, The Godfather, and decided to read "The Fortunate Pilgrim" myself and draw my own conclusion.

"The Fortunate Pilgrim" tells the story of a single mother, Lucia Santa, holding together her split family of six children and no husband. Lucias every day life is a struggle, to make sure there is enough money to feed her children and prosper during WWI and the Great Depression. Lucia's first husband died in an industrial accident, and her second husband ran away, leaving her with his 3 children. I personally found the Mother-Daughter relationship between Lucia and her oldest daughter, Octivia very sad yet interesting to read. Octivia wants to become a modernized American and schoolteacher, and discourages her mother for "living in the past". I find the dialogue between Lucia and Octivia on page 23-26 an important passage in the book, as Octivia denounces her mother and fiercly tells her "He's not my father!" when Lucia brings up the hard topic of her stepfather.

"The Fortunate Pilgrim" is indeed a great book. I still cannot decide whether the Fortunate Pilgrim is "better" than The Godfather, but they are both great in different ways. The Fortunate Pilgrim really makes you grateful for things over-looked by many, such as shelter, health, life, and most of all family. The Fortunate Pilgrim made myself, being Italian, think about the struggle everyday life was to my great grandparents. It makes you think of how, in the end, Lucia Santa overcomes overwhelming odds, but to much heart ache. It is hard to contemplate now what these people had to go through, the hardship of daily life.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a good, meaningful read. The beginning starts off slow, but by the end of this book you can have a new perspective on some aspects, if not all of life. This is a book I will remember for years.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent novel, well written
Review: The Fortunate Pilgrim By Mario Puzo is an excellent novel to read. The story is about Lusia Santa and her immigration to America from Italy. Throughout the entire book, it talks about the tough times that Lucia Santa and her family endure in America. The family of eight were tenants of a small apartment building in New York. Many of the children had to get jobs to help support the family when they were old enough. The book tells the readers a lot about the American dream and how much of a struggle people had to over come to acheive it. People came to America searching for better lives and freedom. To meet the American dream you had to work hard and you would suceed. Lucia Santa didn't know the price that she would have to pay to meet the American dream. This book shows us what it was like to live in America. It shows us what some of our ancestors went through, and their determination to live in America. I thought that this book was well written and well organized. You got to see, through reading the book, what it was like to immigrate to America and how hard it was to try and start a new life in America.

Rating:
Summary: Reading the Fortunate Pilgrim will make you a Fortunate Read
Review: This book is really anti-Puzo. It doesn?t have much to do with the mob, crime, casinos, or gangsters, and it doesn?t have killings, executions, or any other street warfare. Heck, it doesn?t even have a plot. Instead, it?s about a family living in New York, and how the mother has learned to survive and raise a family alone.

Sounds boring, right? Wrong. This could actually be Puzo?s finest work. From the family?s struggles through poverty and near poverty, to the fights of mother and daughter, to the disobedience of one son, and the suicide of another other, this book is a touching chronicle.

Though not a novel you would expect from Puzo, it?s definitely his most poignant work, and shows that he can live past his Godfather typecast.