Omerta (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper)) [LARGE PRINT] (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "WHEN THE STURZO twins, Franky and Stace, pulled into Heskow's driveway, they saw four very tall teenagers playing basketball on the small house court..." (more)
Key Phrases: tennis ranch, Don Aprile, New York, Astorre Viola (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Omerta, the third novel in Mario Puzo's Mafia trilogy, is infinitely better than the third Godfather film, and most movies in fact. Besides colorful characters and snappy dialogue, it's got a knotty, gratifying, just-complex-enough plot and plenty of movie-like scenes. The newly retired Mafioso Don Raymonde Aprile attends his grandson's confirmation at St. Patrick's in New York, handing each kid a gold coin. Long shot: "Brilliant sunshine etched the image of that great cathedral into the streets around it." Medium shot: "The girls in frail cobwebby white lace dresses, the boys [with] traditional red neckties knitted at their throats to ward off the Devil." Close-up: "The first bullet hit the Don square in the forehead. The second bullet tore out his throat."

More crucial than the tersely described violence is the emotional setting: a traditional, loving clan menaced by traditional vendettas. With Don Aprile hit, the family's fate lies in the strong hands of his adopted nephew from Sicily, Astorre. The Don kept his own kids sheltered from the Mafia: one son is an army officer; another is a TV exec; his daughter Nicole (the most developed character of the three) is an ace lawyer who liked to debate the Don on the death penalty. "Mercy is a vice, a pretension to powers we do not have ... an unpardonable offense to the victim," the Don maintained. Astorre, a macaroni importer and affable amateur singer, was secretly trained to carry on the Don's work. Now his job is to show no mercy.

But who did the hit? Was it Kurt Cilke, the morally tormented FBI man who recently jailed most of the Mafia bosses? Or Timmona Portella, the Mob boss Cilke still wants to collar? How about Marriano Rubio, the womanizing, epicurean Peruvian diplomat who wants Nicole in bed--did he also want her papa's head?

If you didn't know Puzo wrote Omerta, it would be no mystery. His marks are all over it: lean prose, a romance with the Old Country, a taste for olives in barrels, a jaunty cynicism ("You cannot send six billionaires to prison," says Cilke's boss. "Not in a democracy"), an affection for characters with flawed hearts, like Rudolfo the $1,500-an-hour sexual massage therapist, or his short-tempered client Aspinella, the one-eyed NYPD detective. The simultaneous courtship of cheery Mafia tramp Rosie by identical hit-man twins Frankie and Stace Sturzo makes you fall in love with them all--and feel a genuine pang when blood proves thicker than eros.

This fitting capstone to Puzo's career is optioned for a film, and Michael Imperioli of TV's The Sopranos narrates the audiocassette version of the novel. But why wait for the movie? Omerta is a big, old-fashioned movie in its own right. --Tim Appelo --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

"The dead have no friends," says one gangster to another in Puzo's final novel, as they plot to kill America's top Mafioso. But Puzo, despite his death last year at age 78, should gain many new friends for this operatic thriller, his most absorbing since The Sicilian. The slain mobster is the elderly Don Raymonde Aprile. His heirs, around whom the violent, vastly emotional narrative swirls, are his three children and one nephew. It's the nephew, Astorre Viola, who inherits the Don's legacy and transforms before his cousins' astonished eyes from a foppish playboy into a Man of Honor, as he avenges the Don's death and protects his family from those hungry for its prime possession: banks that will earn legitimate billions in the years ahead. Astorre's change is no surprise to the few aged mobsters who know that, as a youth, he was trained to be a Qualified Man, or to the fewer still who knowDas Astorre does notDthat his real father was a great Sicilian Mafioso. Arrayed against Astorre in his pursuit of cruel justice are some of the sharpest Puzo characters ever, among them a corrupt and beautiful black New York policewoman; assassin twins; wiseguys galore, including a drug lord who seeks his own nuclear weapon; and, drawn in impressive shades of gray, a veteran FBI agent who imperils his family and his soul to destroy Astorre. Despite its familiar subject matter, the novelDwhich shuttles among Sicily, England and AmericaDis unpredictable and bracing, but its greatest strength is Puzo's voice, ripe with age and wisdom, as attentive to the scent of lemons and oranges in a Sicilian garden as to a good man's sudden, bloody death. This is pulp raised to art and a worthy memorial to the author, who one last time makes readers an offer they can't refuse. 500,000 first printing; simultaneous Random House audio and large print editions; to be a film from Miramax. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Random House Large Print; Large Print edition (July 5, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 037543058X
• ISBN-13: 978-0375430589
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (133 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,272,182 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Four stars for Omerta, one for Mr. Puzo., July 9, 2000

By	taking a rest - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

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

One year ago Mr. Puzo left us, but before he did he left his last work "Omerta" for us. This final tale of his is quite good, and when the end comes there is a feeling of closure to the epic he brought us with "The Godfather".

The book is a melancholy reading experience, as you know it is the last work from Mr. Puzo. Do not make the same mistake I did by reading it in one day, make it last. Too much has already been given away about the plot, a trend I will not continue. Suffice to say this is a different type of Mafia that Mr. Puzo brings us; it is quite contemporary with events leading to the mid 1990's.

New York and Sicily feature prominently in the book, and with a style that only Mr. Puzo can bring to the topic. It is clear that he was telling of great change in Organized Crime as we knew it, and it is a shame we will never know where he might have taken this storyline. The book is not a cliffhanger; it merely leaves you to ponder what would come next.

When reading, one of the joys that returns is the memories of the first 2 Godfather Films. How many films brought that much talent to one screen? There were legends as well as legends in the making; Marlon Brando, James Caan, Al Pacino, Robert Dinero, Robert Duvall, Dianne Keaton, and a host of faces we would see in the theaters in the following years.

The jacket of the book says this story will soon be a film. I am probably in the minority but I wish it were not. Mr. Puzo was personally involved in the previous screenplays, and even though this work was written with an eye toward being a movie, without Mr. Puzo it cannot be what we have come to expect.

He created classic literature, and then helped to bring at least 2 movies that already are in the category of "Classic". Our language has become peppered with lines from the movies, even movies carry the spirit, and Tom Hanks recently tutored a business owner with bits and phrases from the Godfather Movies in the film "You've Got Mail".

You cannot help but remember all the original characters and the faces attached to them when this book is read, I just don't see how the Corleones could be brought back to the screen, especially as they are a very small part of this work.

Thank you both for the body of works you left us, and for being a true original, rest in peace Mr. Puzo.

24 of 28 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 (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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."

34 of 41 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.