The Family

Rating:
Summary: The original "family"
Review: Though choppy, this fictionalized tale of the Borgias was a quick, satisfying read. Puzo transports the reader to Italy at the time Columbus discovers the New World, to a world where popes have children and mistresses, the cardinal's hat is bought and bartered, sons and daughters are political pawns to be married for gain or connection, the Church is rich, rich, rich and oh so corrupt. Better than any modern soap opera, I understand why Puzo refers to the Borgias as "the first Family." More powerful than any don, Rodrigo Borgia becomes Pope and uses his children to gain alliances and riches. Despite their father's teaching that the family always comes first, the Borgia children have their own alliances and enemies within the family, further adding to the intrigue of the already politically trecherous Rome in the late 1400's. Puzo's focus is on the family--he writes about each Borgia in their turn--but he also does a wonderful job of supplying the historical context of treaties and wars(The map at the beginning of the book doesn't hurt!).
Lucrezia fairs better in this novel than in history, becoming an almost likable character. I enjoyed the richness of this historical novel.