Rating: 
Summary: LOOONG TEDIUS READ
Review: This book seemed like it took forever to read.
I bought this book because it claimed to expose the underside of movie making and Las Vegas. There were probably 5 pages all together about runnig a casino and what goes on behind the scenes in Hollywood.
The story itself was very lame. The mafia in this book was just so unbelievably omnipotent. The love interest was also entirely too perfect.
The storytelling method used in this book got old very early. A major plotpoint would happen and one important point would obviously be left out and not addressed for hundred of pages later. An example of this is when the "hero's" father was killed, and the killer was expected by the father and the father even talked to the killer but we are not let in on him for several hundred pages. While this was supposed to make for nail biting suspense I just found it annoying as hell.
Do not waste your time or money on this book, if you must watch the tv movie instead.
Rating: 
Summary: I liked it.
Review: The Last Don by Mario Puzo was, in my opinion, a good book. I liked how Puzo put a lot of detail into his characters. Even the minor characters are given a background and vivid personality. While some other reviewers might consider this to be 'filler' i think it helps the book by giving you insight into their lives to help you understand them a little better. It's allowing you to know things about the minor characters that the major characters know. The only problem i had with the characters was that i think there should have been a little more attention paid to the Don. After all, the book is titled 'The Last Don'. Cross, the main character is the Don's nephew. He proves to be too soft to be a family hammer so he is to run the Xanadu Hotel in Vegas. Somewhere in the book, Cross runs into another main character in the story. Athena Aquatine. She is 'the most beautiful woman in the world' and she needs Cross' help. Dante is Cross' cousin and there is some tension between them that stems from 'The Great War.' The story wasnt exactly realistic but maybe it wasnt meant to be. And just because it's unrealistic doesnt make it a bad story. I love how there are a bunch of sub-plots and how they show you the inside story behind Hollywood, Las Vegas, corrupt politicians, bad cops and the Mafia and how they are all connected to eachother.
Rating: 
Summary: The Last Don
Review: This is the first Mario Puzo book I've read - and I know I'll read more of his! I thought it a great read every step of the way. Although long, every page/chapter moves nicely and it doesn't slow down. This book reminded me of a Sidney Shelton book (or maybe Jackie Collins' Lucky series.) Mario does a great job of detailing the hierarchy in the mafia and the powerplays that go on. Also, this is an epic in the sense it covers many years and many locations (NY, Las Vegas, LA). He intermingles the gambling establishment with Hollywood and the mafia - which makes for an interesting combination of corruption. A fascinating book!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent writing, entertaining, and a ripping good read.
Review: This is an extraordinarily good read by master author Mario Puzo. It is the story of the fictional Clericuzio Family--the last great Mafia family in the United States. The Clericuzios at the height of the powers are dominant in gambling, drugs, and other related rackets. But the family patriarch, Don Clericuzio, sees organized crime for the dead end that it is, and devises a plan for his progeny to eventually transition to, and enter into the "legitimate world." But his plan envisions this transition to occur on his own terms, so that when the Family indeed abandons crime, it will do so from a position of strength, entering the ordinary world with wealth and prestige.There are problems. Some members of the family are less than enthusiastic about abandoning the underworld, and this is the nexus of the story. Nephew Cross De Lena and Grandson Dante Clericuzio fight what amounts to a secret civil war within the Family, even as the legacy of earlier terrible deeds by the great Don himself finally come home to roost. This is an entertaining and insightful story, well-written. It is equally good with beer and chips, or for a more introspective reader. The book is not without faults. As an attorney, I can only say that Puzo's depiction of "California juries" as regards the insanity defense, is simply asinine, and shows either a contempt for the way things really are, or a simple disregard for facts in order to entertain. OK, I guess, authors are entitled to take liberties with the truth in order to entertain us, I just thought that this particular liberty was unnecessary, since the book seems authentic in so many other ways. Whatever. The novel's treatment of Hollywood is hilarious. Basically, Puzo depicts the struggles of competing studios, actors, and actresses in the entertainment world as essentially a legalized mob conflict, without the guns. I don't know much about Hollywood, so I have no comment about this except to say that here Puzo was pretty entertaining. Overall, this was an outstanding book that makes for an excellent read.
Rating: 
Summary: 3 1/2 stars - not bad but not great either
Review: In The Last Don, Puzo again delves into the realm of organized crime families. He spins a tale of the aging Don of a powerful New York crime family who yearns-and plans-for a day when future generations of his family can transition from the world organized crime to that of legitimate enterprise. As the story unfolds, the Don, who is at the same time a strategic thinker and a ruthless tactician, attempts to influence people and events in order to realize his long-term vision. Along the way, Puzo lays out a wide range of colorful, although stereotypical, characters in a story that brings a variety of disparate storylines together as the book progresses. Puzo effectively moved back and forth from the present to the past to provide depth and understanding. In the end though, the book never really grabbed me or prompted any sleep deprivation due to late nights spent reading. The Last Don was definitely not great, but not bad either.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as The Godfather, but it has a similar feel
Review: After reading The Godfather, which I loved, I was eager to read this as well. While it isn't quite as good as The Godfather, which would be pretty hard, it is still very good, and has a similar feel. The story didn't seem as intense as the tale told in The Godfather, but it was engrossing nonetheless. I thought the characters were very well written and I really felt like I knew where they were coming from. After reading this book, I watched the miniseries, which did not nearly live up to the book. If you liked The Godfather, I would recommend reading this as well, but don't expect it to be quite that good.
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