The godfather door Mario Puzo

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  • 14 november 2002
  • 90 keer beoordeeld
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90 keer beoordeeld

Boek
Vertaald als
De peetvader
Auteur
Mario Puzo
Taal
Engels
Vak
Eerste uitgave
1969
Pagina's
448
Oorspronkelijke taal
Engels
Verfilmd als

Boekcover The godfather
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The godfather door Mario Puzo
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Motto:

¡¥Behind every great fortune there is a crime¡¦ ¡V Balzac

Decication:

For Anthony Cleri

Theme:

The battle of a Maffia family to survive en to become the most powerful family in the whole country.

Summary:

Don Vito Corleone is the head of an American-Italian Mafia family. His family is 1 of the 5 families in NY. These families are the most powerful crime organisations of the USA. Of those 5 has the Corleone family the greatest power.
But, of course, in NY, there is a lot of competition between the families.
It has been 10 years since the lasst war. Since then, het power of Don Corleone was established. Everything stayed quiet and peaceful until a man named Sollozzo came along. He came to the Corleone family with a request. He wanted to sell narcotics in the USA. This market was still untouched and very profitable. He offered the Corleone family a big part of the profits in exchange for financial, legal and political support. But Don Corleone refused ¡¥cause he thought it was too risky.
The Don has 3 sons: Santino, Fredo and Michael. He had also a sort of adopted child, a man called Tom Hageen. He was the acting consigliori, or couseller of the family. Santino and Fredo were both involved in the family business, Michael wasn¡¦t. Santino was also present at the meeting with Sollozzo. When the Don rejected Sollozzo¡¦s offer, he argued with is father because he thought it was a good idea. But his father abruptly showed him his place and Santino agreed. Sollozzo was happy about this: he saw disagreement in the family.
A few weeks later, something happened that no one expected: Don Corleone was shot down in front of his office. The responsible person for this was Sollozzo. The Don survived the shooting but was out for at least a year. Santino had to be the substitute Don and Tom had to fulfil his role as consigliori. After another atempt on the Don¡¦s life that didnit succeed, Sollozzo (supported by the Tagtalia and Barzini families) wanted to make a deal. He wanted Michael to meet him and a corrupt police officer at a restaurant. Michael, who knew that Sollozzo would try to kill his father again, decided with the family that Sollozzo had to be killed. So, when he had the meeting, he shot Sollozzo but made a big mistake with killing also the police officer. By killing the police officer, the Corleone family started a war against the other 4 families. This war lasted a few years. When the Don almost recovered and Santino was killed, Don Corleone wanted to make peace. And peace came. Michael, who had been banned to Sicily for killing a police officer, returned to NY. The prepared him to succeed his father. In the mean time, the other families thought that the Corleones were weak and they started taking over territory and gambling facilities. Then, the old Don Corleone died. Michael had to take over the family and he struck back. A few days after his father¡¦s death, the family rose back to his old level and even succeeded it. The other families became weaker(killed, overpowered,¡K) and the Corleones had come back as the most powerful family in the USA.

Time:

The story begins in 1945, just after WW2, and ends a few years later.

Place:

The story is mostly situated in NY.

Main characters:

- Don Vito Corleone: The head of the Corleone family. A wise and reasonable man who appreciate honesty and dedication. He helps always friends in need, gives them favours¡K but they have to be prepared to do or to give something in exchange for that.
- Michael Corleone: He is the favourite son of Don Corleone and will succeed him als Don. He evolves in the story from someone who doesn¡¦t want to have anything to do with the maffia to the new Don. And even better: he will establish himself as a strond Don and will even become more powerful as his father.
- Santino: The first son of Don Corleone. A smart guy wiht his own ideas. He got killed during the war between the families.
- Luca Brasi: The family¡¦s top hitman. A very brutal person.
- Fredo: The second son of Don Corleone. Has not the capabilities to become a big gangster (too emotional). Stays rather on the background during the story.
- Clemenza and Tessio: Both caporegimes. Tessio becomes a traitor.

Evaluation and apprecation

The book is a pleasure to read. I would say to everybody: ¡¥Go get it, read it, it¡¦s superb!¡¦.
The plot is really fascinating, the writing style is amazing, ¡K
Film or book, The Godfather is a masterpiece!

Note on the author

Mario Puzo was born October 15, 1920 on Manhattan¡¦s (NY) West Side and attended NY¡¦s New School for Social Research and Columbia University. He fought in WW2, worked as a journalist and as an author.
His best-know book is The Godfather(1969). Others are: Tha Dark Arena, Fools Die, The Fortunate Pelgrim, The Sicilian, The Fourth K and the Last Don.
He is also famous for the screenplays of The Godfather movies („³ 2 Academy Awards), Earthquake, Superman,¡K
He died on July 2, 1999.
Afer his death, Omerta was released, completed by a friend named Carol Gino. He completed also the last book of Puzo, called The Family.

Vocabulary extension

- to chastise (p 7.): to punish someone
- to giggle (p.9) : laughing at a ¡¥silly¡¦ way : giechelen
- a groom (p.12) : when a couple gets married, the man is called the groom : bruidegom
greedily (p42.) : wanting something really hard
to nod (p.91) : to go with your head up and donw, like saying ¡¥yes¡¦ : knikken
to daze (p.104): when you make someone loose conscience, with chlorophorm for example,daze someone: verdoven, bedwelmen
to doze (p.113) : to get on the verge of sleeping: suffen, indutten
placatingly (p.153) : something that makes you satisfied is placatingly: bevredigend
an axe (p.222) : a weapon, you can use it also to chop down a tree: een bijl
unmercifully (p.285) : disgracefully: ongenadig
a thigh (p.312) : the upper part of a leg: dijbeen
to murmur (p.313) : to talk very quiet and very hard to understand: murmelen
to encroach (p. 326): to go to far, to exagerate: te ver gaan
to chuckle (p.360) : to laugh modest: grinniken
an indentation (p.400): a dent: een inkeping, een deuk
a vegeance (p. 408) : a revenge
to materialize (p.436) : to realise

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