The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is The Godfather by Mario Puzo. The book can be found on the BBC Book List.
The Godfather is most notably known as the book that the award winning movie is based off of. And while I have seen the movie, and Part 2, I have not seen them in a very long time, and I could not tell you what parts of the book were in the movie, or not, or even if they differed at all. The book though was a lightning fast read. I was dialed in for the whole thing and could not put it down. And while that would seem like an instant recommend, I did have some grave concerns about the book. The story follows the Corleone family, specifically Don Corleone, who is the Godfather to this Sicilian crime family. The story bounces all over the place from Don's early childhood, to his later retirement, and everything in between. We also follow along with some of his children and godchildren, at least when they help propel the story forward. And while I did enjoy the story, I mean who doesn't love a good mafia story every now and again, my biggest gripe is with the women in the story. They were all written to be slapped or beaten around and to obey their husbands without question. When any of them deviated from this narrative, the men were actually forced to account, and they shouldered with the blame of what "their women" did. Most of this treatment though was front loaded in the book, so it felt like a steep drop off into uncomfortable territory. While the women characters mostly vanished later on in the book, with a few notable examples, none escaped the derogatory treatment. And so that is why, despite my generally enjoying the book, and have a nice time reading it, it does not stand up to today's standards, so I can't recommend it. My vague recollection of the movie though is that it generally fixed these problems and so I do want to go back and compare notes between the two.
