So I just finished reading The Family Corleone by Ed Falco based on Puzo's unfinished screenplay, and I finished the two Winegardner novels about a year back. I'm wondering if the posters here consider the three non-Puzo novels as canon and general thoughts on them? Of the three, I thought Ed Falco's work was probably the best. Winegardner's sequel novels (to my eyes at least) speak with a much different voice than Puzo's writing, whereas Ed Falco's captures it a bit more accurately.. I suppose having the benefit of a rough guide to follow probably helped in that respect.

On Puzo's novel I'm a bit torn because I feel the movie did a lot of necessary cutting/trimming and a lot of the Fontaine/Lucy Mancini/Jules Segel chapters were mostly irrelevant to the plot. I did enjoy seeing how the Corleone Family's tentacles crept into Hollywood via Johnny and the expanded look into Hagen's role in the family. The "Lucy's Vagina" arc was completely pointless though and I'm left wondering what possessed Puzo to even write it or how his editor didn't make him cut it. My thoughts on it can probably best be summed up by saying that it was an enjoyable read, but FFC did a lot to improve the story and I can't help but feel the novel would not be held in such high esteem if it weren't for Copola's work.

My "canon" is the original novel and the three movies. I've never attempted the other books, due to my own lack of interest.



I've developed the notion that he was trying to sell books to women, with a soap opera-ish, sexual story that's somehow romantic as well.



I think this is true, but I also think that the book's immense popularity "primed the pump" for the movie. A large portion of the audience for the first run of the movie must have been people who had actually read the book.

The novel was on the NYTimes best seller list for over a year before the movie debuted, Interestingly, Paramount had options on the novel and supported Puzo while he wrote it. But the studio still hesitated to make a movie, even after the novel made good, because they were in dire financial straits. They'd also made a Mafia movie in '68, "The Brotherhood," that was a critical success but flopped at the box office.

Lucy and Jules, the gynecological operation, and all the Nino and Hollywood BS, was Puzo showing off what he had learned through his connection to the movie industry. I bet a female friend or relative had had that operation, and Puzo created the Lucy/Jules chapters just so he could write about it. Hollywood BS nearly ruined "The Last Don."