Remember, in The Godfather, when Michael Corleone had to hide out in Sicily for a while before coming home to start taking over the Corleone empire? Well, Puzo goes back to that point here, to 1950, with Michael about to leave for America. First, however, on orders from his father, Michael must do his best to arrange for the safe escape to the US of Salvatore Giuliano, the real-life Robin Hood of Sicily. And, while Michael meets the fugitive Giuliano's family and friends, trying to win their trust, flashbacks—the bulk of the novel—fill in the history-based tale of the bandit's career, his run-ins with both the authorities and the local Mafia kingpin, Don Croce. The saga begins in 1943, when nice young "Turi"—shot by corrupt earabinieri for smuggling a piece of black-market cheese—kills in anger, instantly becoming a hunted man. With chum Aspanu Pisciotta, he takes to the hills, vowing to "strike for the cause of justice, to help the poor"—attracting a motley band of allies (a professor as well as a few cutthroats), freeing harmless prisoners from jail, stealing a noblewoman's jewelry, etc. And Turi's fearless doings attract the attention of postwar power-broker Don Croce, who's in need of a "warrior chieftain" to supplement his non-violent spread of Mafia control. But Turi, who yearns "to slay the dragon of the Mafia in Sicily," shrugs off Don Croce's offers of alliance; he even kidnaps a Prince who's under the Don's protection; the Don responds with assassination attempts—all foiled. (One super-assassin switches allegiances, becoming a trusted Turi lieutenant.) Eventually, however, with promises of a governmental pardon from the Mafia-linked Christian Democrats, Turi does agree to an anti-Communist alliance with Don Croce. . . only to be doubly betrayed. (Most painfully, Don Croce arranges for Turi to take the blame for a massacre of peasants.) So now, back in 1950, Turi is fed up, eager to leave for the US and publish his "Testament"—with proof of Mafia/government ties. But, before Michael Corleone can assist his escape, Turi is finally killed by Don Croce-thanks to the betrayal of his secretly envious right-hand man. (And, back in America, Michael will learn a lesson in cynicism—when his father decides to keep the Testament under wraps.) Godfather fans may be disappointed that this isn't a sequel, that Michael's role is so peripheral. And the character of noble, vengeful Turi is more cardboard than the chiaroscuro of Puzo at his best. (Cf. Jay Robert Nash's The Mafia Diaries, p. 881, for another interpretation of the bandit—and his Testament.) But, if relatively thin and tame, this episodic morality-play is still vigorous storytelling in the dark, bitter Puzo manner—with twisting loyalties, impassive vendettas, and corruption at every level, from the town barber to the Cardinal of Palermo.
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1984
ISBN: 0345441702
Page Count: 411
Publisher: Linden/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1984
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
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