Customer Reviews

Fools Die (Signet)

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Godfather is a shallow action thriller compared to Fool's Die. Don't be fooled by the superficially simple title, this tale of a mans life is a modern David Copperfield. At times I consider Fool's Die my favorite book of all time. This seems to be Puzos sleeper novel, I can't believe there are no other reviews for it. The most enjoyable aspect is the main character's realistically flawed choices in life, a man at once both honorable and improvident. This book is required reading to all intelligent men, especially aspiring writers(the main character is a writer), who should relate to the main character's dilemmas and trials.

I first read this book when it was released back in 1979 ( Ah, My Sweet Lost Youth!!!)and I was so impressed by it that I wanted to write a letter to the author teling him how much I enjoyed it. This book has it all. Lust, greed, treachery, deception, sex and violence all the way from the High Roller Gambling Rooms of Las Vegas to the Shores Of Japan. The main character is a guy named Merlyn who somehow believes that he is a type of magician who can control his destiny.Another character worth mentioning is the writer Osano who desperately seeeks refuge from his loneliness in a heady mixture of drugs, casual sex and booze. All of this is deftly handled by Mr. Puzo and the reader is in for one heck of a roller coaster ride!!!

The book starts off with a bang - a distillation so to speak of the work of character in the book.

You can read the first few pages on Amazon. I did and it inspired me to go to the local bookstore and buy the paperback. Well, after the short and introspective "book 1," the scenes shifts to an introduction to the initial characters and the setting is the Xanadu in Las Vegas.

Many cool intricacies of the casino and its management are extra added info as the flow of character development builds nicely.

Of particular interest though throughout is the relationships between men and women. The thinking and vocal great author Osano, he of seven wives, gives some very interesting thoughts concerning this subject!

Gronevelt is brilliant. The tough casino operator who lives and dies by "the percentage." Countdown Cully is memorable, so slick and sharp. Jordan figures heavily in the beginning. Merlyn is mostly the narrator throughout and most things are seen through his eyes and written by his pen. Merlyn himself - a study in contrasts and surprises.

Bisexual Janelle, who loves Merlyn more than any other man is comprehensively explored. Merlyn loves her deeply.

But he also loves his wife who makes him happy. She though, in contrast with other characters, is hardly developed at all.

The hollywood crowd is vistited upon also. Not very nice people those folks, one would think after reading Fools Die!

All in all, this book has plenty of merit even in addition to the fact that it was fun to read.

This book was mixed. The main character, John Merlyn, lacked character. He was a boorish family man flirting with people who have more troubles than him. The story is action packed in the beginning with Jordan playing at the Baccarat tables in Vegas. You don't really need guns and fights to have action in a story, just a page turner that will lead to a climax as Jordan's gambling does in the first fifty pages. Osano is the only character I found to like as a prolific author who is also a chauvinist pig despising feminazis. How would you like to say "I'll fight you or F*** you" in front of a crowded female audience at the Womens Liberation Convention? Good old Osano.

The last 100 pages would lead you to a shocking conclusion only to become a dissapointing thud. This book is a page turner, true to that. However, the middle of the book gets too much detail going behind the scenes of book publishing and movie production and less into the corruption and scemes this book promises between the "golden triangle of corruption." It leaves you with too many questions to ask as if the author forgot he left us the evidence to investigate the deaths of Cully and Janelle or the many flights John took to Los Angeles that would leave his wife questions if he is having an affair. John's wife must be dumb....

At any costs, I'd give "Fools Die" a moderate consideration. This book killed time for me in the Samoan & Australian Afternoons. However, It leaves many questions unanswered with a storyline that looks like it will give you multiple climaxes to conclusions only to resort to an ending that is a whimper.

Positives: Fools Die is a complicated tale of the inner workings/intertwined worlds of Hollywood and Las Vegas. Puzo is a master-story teller (this is an understatment), who develops characters to their fullest, scenes that are rich and robust so as to put the reader "right there," and writes compelling dialogue.

Negatives: Unless you have a fairly good grasp of the arcana of gambling, the novel's plot will be like swiss cheese in many places. While we are on the subject of plot, it is hard to figure out if this is a tale of degenerate gamblers lost in a miasma of winning, losing, and losing and losting..., of hookers, profligate lifestyles and intrigue; or is this a novel about writers who are comtemptuous of Hollywood; the age old argument if novels are the "true art-form" as opposed to movies?

The sex is gratuitous in the extreme, so much so as to be chauvanistic. The dialogue is raw in the extreme. Puzo's view of human nature is cynacal and a tad jaded. In retrospect, I have to question if all of this was necessary in order to tell a great story.

One of the most wonderful and thought provoking books I have ever read. In my opinion, the very best book that Mario Puzo ever wrote.

First dismiss all praising notes in the back of the front cover and in the front of the back cover. It is not an exciting book and it is not only about casinos and gamblers, it is a fiction essay about human weaknesses related to sex, money, greed an corruption. The structure of the book is in disarray, the chapters do not follow a logical sequence and the grotesque characters pop in and out every one of two chapters. Some parts have interesting inside stories and scams but other parts plod along and get very boring when the main character Merlin pulled by the forces of good and evil rambles on. Many times I debated whether to quit but did not. At the ending chapter you get the full sense of the title of the book. If you have another read in mind, go for it

This is one of a handful of books I re-read from time to time, mostly because I get something different out of it each time. I suppose I'm still trying to figure this one out.

Let's start with the title itself: After a lifetime, Merlyn notes "only fools die." Is that Puzo's point? Jordan, Cully, Osano -- were they just fools? They certainly helped do themselves in. But what of Malomar, Artie and Janelle? They didn't ask for death? Were they fools too? What, then, did Merlyn do differently? "Am I a monster that I should live?" Well, is he?

And what of Gronevelt? Aged, infirm, still pushing buttons in his casino -- both literally and figuratively -- controlling the lives and deaths of others. Is he meant to be God? Are we simply gamblers in some univeral casino, and degenerate ones at that, unavoidably subject to some inviolate "per-centage" beyond anyone's mortal control? Is that Puzo's point? Do we kid ourselves to think otherwise? Is life itself made up of those eternal moments the croupier says "A card for the player"?

There is much in this book to keep you fascinated and turning the pages. It's unfortunate, I think, that this book followed "The Godfather" in Puzo's output. The books are totally different, and those seeking a "Godfather" reprise will be dissappointed. (Similarly, I've always thought that silhouette image on the cover of "Fools Die" was a cheap and unnecessary attempt to evoke a "Godfather" connection -- the book is strong enough and deserves to stand on its own.)

After nearly thirty years, however, the book reveals certain flaws. The coarse language -- particularly on the part of the women -- seems unnecessary and distracting. While I've certainly heard real-live women use the same words, they don't seem to use them in quite the same way Puzo writes. Men and women ascribe different meanings to the same words. I doubt Puzo knew or cared about that. Janelle's language in particular seems forced and rather phony. Today I find her language somewhat embarassing.

Nevertheless, this book has a strange appeal for me and has had since I first read it more than 20 years ago. So many lines from the book have meaning for me and have stayed with me for years: "A terrible longshot, but what's that to a gambler? I still have a stack of black chips and an itch for terror." Hate to admit it, but I sometimes think that sums up my life.

I once read that Puzo himself called "Fools Die" his favorite and best work. I don't disagree.

I really enjoyed this introspective, somewhat auto-biographical novel. Puzo draws on his experiences in Vegas, in Hollywood during production of the "Godfather" and in NY, to convey a very realistic writer's life. It doesn't always surprise, it just tells a good story of a not-so-perfect man and his somewhat ordinary existence. Merlyn is no magician, and neither is Puzo, he is just a talented storyteller we know well.

This is near literature -- a spectacular piece of thinking man's commercial fiction obscured by the reputation of the author, Do I sound like a PBS commentator? Sorry if I do. A great book -- as the British say, a great ripping yarn -- classically structured, always entertaining and thought provoking. You wanna know about early Las Vegas? Here it is. You wanna know the heart of a frustrated by confident writer/artist? Here it is. You wanna deal with the best fictional characterization of Norman Mailer every written, here it is. You will be very surprised by the quality of this book, not to mention the author's adherence to classical structure in creating the story and characters. Ah, If I could accomplish what Merlin did....in this book....