The Godfather at 50 is still a bestseller

The popular classic Godfather written by Mario Puzo turned 50 earlier this month. Puzo, who was neck deep in debt while writing the novel, never thought that he would achieve literary greatness with this one book. He merely wanted to pay off his creditors but ended up becoming an icon. The book’s cinematic outing in a three-part series continues to have a cult following. Puzo had co-written the screenplay with auteur Francis Ford Coppola who also directed the trilogy. At the heart of the book on organised crime is the Corleone family. The films too remain faithful to the masterpiece, though Coppola did take quite a few creative liberties. 

The enduring appeal of both the book and the films cannot be overstated. The Don’s veiled threat — “I’ll make him an offer he cannot refuse”— became a figure of speech. The legendary Marlon Brando who played Vito Corleone, the patriarch of the Corleone family and the original Godfather, inhabited the character. Anyone who first saw the film and then read the book would find it extremely difficult to dissociate the image of Brando from the character. Like Puzo, Brando too was being hounded by creditors when he was offered the titular role. Paramount Pictures, the studio which produced the film, was extremely reluctant to cast Brando, but Coppola held his ground. The rest as they say is history. Puzo got a few things right and a bunch of other things wrong. His portrayal of organised crime where people value their honour is far removed from reality.

In many ways, Puzo gave a huge image lift to the mafia by depicting them in flattering light. It is said that many Mafia bosses chose to emulate the film by dressing and behaving accordingly. Puzo wanted us to believe that the American Mafia’s old-time bosses had qualms about dealing in narcotics. Gangsters were not honourable people. They considered moral scruples to be an unnecessary handicap. They weren’t remotely benevolent, as Puzo had romanticised. The harsh reality was the mafioso made money through extortion and loan-sharking, and kept the poor poor. However, he was bang on in his observation about the subtlety of communication between Sicilians in particular and Italians in general. He was also right about the incorporation, often reluctant, of mobsters from other ethnic backgrounds into the American Mafia. 

Puzo, however, never claimed that his was the most authentic account of the underworld. It was a work of fiction so believable that people regarded it as an authoritative study of shadowy characters who virtually ran a parallel government and dispensed their own medieval justice. Puzo’s Mafia tale had its genesis in the brutal world of Hell’s Kitchen, where Puzo was raised by Italian immigrants. His father worked for the railroad and abandoned the family when Mario was 12. His stern mother forbade him to join gangs that dominated the neighbourhood back then. It’s interesting to note that Puzo didn’t enjoy writing the book, though he spent three years on it. 

The Godfather earned glorious tributes upon its publication. The New York Times wrote: “The Godfather” was “such a compelling story” that it was headed for “the heights of best-sellerdom.” The Godfather was, apparently, the fastest-selling book in history, with 5 million copes flying off the shelves in 1970. The following year, 7 million copies went for print. Puzo could never recreate this sort of magic in his other books. Most people still doesn’t know that he has a body of work as a writer.