The next best mafia novel to the Godfather an enjoyable read. ( )

This book was just so horrible. So horrible in fact that I think it shouldn't have even been written. I've read nothing by Puzo but The Godfather and I should have stopped there. Here a NY crime boss plans decades in advance to have his family go legit. That plan involves using politicians and interests in Las Vegas to influence the legalization of gambling, but that's not really that important to the story. What is important is pointing out the obvious (the Mafia has moral code that's different from yours and mine, boys and girls) and making the broadest generalizations (insecure guys hate it when their women out-achieve them). His characters seem to be satirizing themselves without the author's knowledge. Members of the NY crime family come in The Sensitive One, The Psycho/Heir, The Scheming One, The Crazy Sister and The Dying Don. And in addition, we've got Hollywood characters too: Impossibly Beautiful Actress with a Secret, The Producer (the characters are so broadly written and the stereotype so well-distributed that it would be redundant to add more descriptors), The Soulless Lothario, The Savvy Screenwriter with a Heart of Gold and so on. The sex and the violence seem like the literary version of "phoned in."
Why: Oh, why? Why? I was hanging around the hospice, had to be there for many hours at a time and I wasn't in the mood for my purse paperbacks, so I checked out the in-house book selection. Oh well. And yes, I finished it. And learned that Don knows best and psychos never prosper.
The author: created the Corleones and kept writing anyway.
I know, I know. Way too harsh. Well, I'm in a bad mood. :-( ( )

I've been trying to read this books for a couple of months. I have already read 2 of Mario Puzos books that I loved. This one so far is not up to par. I don't know if I'll go back to it but I'll try. ( )

I gave it my best, and read nearly 200 pages. The plot nor the characters never grabbed me. Try something else, or wait for a rainy day when you have no books, magazines, newspapers, or cartons of food to read.