Don Vito Corleone continues to be a fictional figurehead of the American mafia’s underworld. He is the portrait of a modern mafia boss, despite being thirty five years old and set in the 1940s. The Godfather is about power. Don Corleone’s insatiable desire for power combined with a total refusal to play by someone else’s rules—i.e. the government, created an amiable but villainous Don in control of the greater part of New York City’s underworld. He is heralded as an angel—granting alms, help, justice, equity, protection, citizenship and whatever else you can imagine. Puzo makes you revere Don Corleone, like all of those poor people whom he has helped over the years of his reign. Granting favors is how he remains with so much power, innumerous people owe him for the “good deeds” he has done them.

Unlike other mafia novels, Puzo ensures that the blood and the gore take second stage to the decision to exercise power. After reading the explanations and unfortunate circumstances that these characters find themselves in, there is no choice but to exercise power by making their enemies “an offer they can’t refuse.” Why and when Corleone exercises power is the interesting point in The Godfather, because it demonstrates how and in what circumstances he loves possessing power.

With all of the talk of Don Vito Corleone, he is not the true protagonist. Michael is. Michael Corleone, the third son and most like his father. The second key theme of the novel is the importance of the family. Michael was an idealist, not interested in working in the “family business.” But after unfortunate circumstances of Don Corleone’s attempted assassination, Michael must step up and fill the vacancy in his father’s war room. He is essentially forced into his crimes through loyalty to his family. This loyalty is instilled in him at an early age by his father, learned as an age-old Sicilian adage and necessity.

Michael’s internal conflict between desiring a legitimate life and following his father’s footsteps is the main conflict of the book. Unfortunately, Puzo does not develop Michael enough to fully leverage this conflict into powerful writing. The plot points which drive Michael to eventually become Don Corleone himself are sufficient to explain why he made the decisions he made. For example, the necessary hit of Sollozzo and the assassination of his new bride drove him deeper into the family business. But Puzo lacks clear manifestations of an ongoing internal struggle that he set up Michael to have: he wants to be legitimate—he wants to live a normal life but can’t because he is a Corleone. Puzo’s only good example of Michael’s desire for legitimacy is how he tries to withdraw the Corleone’s from New York and take them to Las Vegas. But this seems more of an idea of Don Vito’s than Michael’s. Without directly writing Michael’s internal dialogue, Puzo could include more conversations and evidence that he is truly struggling with his decision.

As the all-time bestselling novel in publishing history, The Godfather has an intricate plot with many distinct and intriguing characters that keep you guessing what happens next.