Omerta [Import] [Paperback]

Mario Puzo (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345443969
• ISBN-13: 978-0345443960
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (136 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,801,852 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Puzo's last is the best since Godfather., July 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Omerta: A Novel (Hardcover)

I read this book in one night. I am a huge Godfather fan and was really looking forward to reading this. There are some great characters, like two twin hitmen who operate as a team and Astorre, the opera singing, horse riding young Don who knows the old Sicilian ways, like the code of Omerta. It moves back and forth from present day New York to some great early stuff in Sicily. I highly reccomend this to anyone who liked the Godfather. It is the best Puzo since then. I can't wait for the movie.

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's not "the Godfather" but it's pretty good., July 5, 2000

By 

TundraVision (o/~ from the Land of Sky Blue Waters o/~) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Omerta: A Novel (Hardcover)

"You can't go home again" - nor could Mario Puzo - in his last novel, recreate the fascination and absorption I found when I first read "The Godfather." They say this is the 3rd book of "The Godfather" trilogy. That is true only in the sense that this is also a tale of a "Mafia" family - which mentions the Corleones. I found the "fairy tale" tone of this book to be initially off-putting. "And so it grew" "And so it turned out that ..." but the tale and plot - while not "The Godfather," is increasingly engrossing. While not creating the depth of characters as in "the Godfather," (I had to write notes to myself to keep track of who was whom) one does come to care for some of these characters - which propels one to keep turning the pages. There are not the shocks such as that created by awakening in bed with a prized horse's severed head - but there still are some "rude surprises." [I won't ruin the surprise - read the book!] My favorite quote: "I'll go to the Dakotas and they'll never find me."

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A movie treatment, not a novel, May 31, 2001

By 

C. S. Junker "soul_survivor" (Burien, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Omerta (Mass Market Paperback)

Omerta reads more like a synopsis than a fully realized novel. As always, Puzo creates fascinating characters, but this story is so brief that few of these characters have the opportunity to come to life. This book is really a movie treatment, and I won't be surprised if the movie is more enjoyable than the book, which is redeemed only by Puzo's gift for description and his talent for delightfully cynical aphorisms.

We'll never know if Puzo intended to do more with this story. It would be easy to believe that Omerta was a first draft and that if Puzo's health had been better he might have breathed more life into it. As it stands, it's a predictable, fairly bland story, with familiar plot elements that fans of Puzo's earlier Mafia works are accustomed to.

It's become more difficult to believe in Puzo's mythological wiseguys, after films like "Goodfellas", "Donnie Brasco" and the TV series "The Sopranos" have given us a more realistic view of what these people are like. Puzo himself expressed contempt for his own myth, saying of the Godfather, "I made it all up", and "I wrote it to make money." This lack of respect for his own material was evident in The Godfather and even more so in The Last Don; however Puzo's talent for character development and ear for dialogue made these novels compelling in spite of their pulp origins.

However, Omerta didn't have enough substance in it to hold my interest. I enjoyed bits and pieces of it, but I expect the movie will be more fun.