The Godfather / The Fortunate Pilgrim

by Mario Puzo

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Puzo was born in a poor family of Neapolitan immigrants living in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York. Many of his books draw heavily on this heritage. After graduating from the City College of New York, he joined the United States Army Air Forces in World War II. Due to his poor eyesight, the military did not let him undertake combat duties but made him a public relations officer stationed in Germany. In 1950, his first short story, The Last Christmas, was published in American Vanguard. After the war, he wrote his first book, The Dark Arena, which was published in 1955.

At periods in the 1950s and early 1960s, Puzo worked as a writer/editor for publisher Martin Goodman's Magazine Management Company. Puzo, along with other writers like Bruce Jay Friedman, worked for the company line of men's magazines, pulp titles like Male, True Action, and Swank. Under the pseudonym Mario Cleri, Puzo wrote World War II adventure features for True Action.

Puzo's most famous work, The Godfather, was first published in 1969 after he had heard anecdotes about Mafia organizations during his time in pulp journalism. He later said in an interview with Larry King that his principal motivation was to make money. He had already, after all, written two books that had received great reviews, yet had not amounted to much. As a government clerk with five children, he was looking to write something that would appeal to the masses. With a number one bestseller for months on the New York Times Best Seller List, Mario Puzo had found his target audience. The book was later developed into the film The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The movie received 11 Academy Award nominations, winning three, including an Oscar for Puzo for Best Adapted Screenplay. Coppola and Puzo collaborated then to work on sequels to the original film, The Godfather Part II and The Godfather Part III.

Puzo wrote the first draft of the script for the 1974 disaster film Earthquake, which he was unable to continue working on due to his commitment to The Godfather Part II. Puzo also co-wrote Richard Donner's Superman and the original draft for Superman II. He also collaborated on the stories for the 1982 film A Time to Die and the 1984 Francis Ford Coppola film The Cotton Club.

Puzo never saw the publication of his penultimate book, Omertà, but the manuscript was finished before his death, as was the manuscript for The Family. However, in a review originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Jules Siegel, who had worked closely with Puzo at Magazine Management Company, speculated that Omertà may have been completed by "some talentless hack." Siegel also acknowledges the temptation to "rationalize avoiding what is probably the correct analysis -- that [Puzo] wrote it and it is terrible."

Puzo died of heart failure on July 2, 1999 at his home in Bay Shore, Long Island, New York. His family now lives in East Islip, New York.

Reviews

[Maura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give it a 4.5. I love that the book was both historical fiction (my favorite type) and a thriller. It's a fast-paced, suspenseful, exciting page-turner. Because the characters are so well-developed and human, the reader can actually sympathize with the murderous mobster. The reader can understand the mobster's value system--how he justifies brutality while still considering himself religious and moral. Murder is forgiveable; disloyalty is not. Fascinating. The story drew me in immediately and kept my attention throughout. The story seems so unbelievable that it easily could be true.

[FG Castro · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my country, the influence of The Godfather cannot be understated. There are movies that attempted to copy the film's style mostly by replicating the "cool" scenes and big themes. Some books do too, and mostly to poor effect, except maybe for one or two that managed to give it an original twist (ironically, by not trying to duplicate the original).

After reading The Fortunate Pilgrim, I realized that it was mainly because of one thing: They, the copycats, did not have Mario Puzo's heart in the story. Funny thing, "puzo" sounds like "puso" the Filipino word for heart. 

The Godfather has a heart and the characters, while not really relatable per se, have real emotions. The Fortunate Pilgrim doesn't even have a big plot. No wide arc, no grand scheme. Just a heartfelt telling of a story based on the author's experiences and the people close to him. Yet it is so honest, so real, so unpretentious even with the people's weaknesses and unbecoming traits. The author doesn't pull punches and doesn't use cosmetics in delivering truth. They all, the family of Lucia Santa and even their neighbors and relatives near and beyond the sea, have dreams and troubles that are simple everyday matters and so unquestionably humane while noone can say that it's mundane. It's about survival. It's about having and lacking aspirations and how either can both be counterproductive and admirable at the same time. It's about normal people going through a world under the noses and heels of powerful despots and capitalists. It's about why the poor need to do what the poor does things that the well-off do not understand and even look down upon. It's about the pride of the masses and the struggle against the status quo. It's not about heroism in a romantic or grandiose scale, none of that kind of illusion or escapism. It is a fictional story but the story itself is not fictitious.

Lucia Santa and her family could be any reader's close relatives. That's where the story draws its magnetism and gravity. That, I think, is where Mario Puzo draws his power.

No wonder he himself regards this as his best and favorite.

[Stephanie Hutabarat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb! Mario Puzo is a master!

[Vinod · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book!!