I will be talking to the author of The Godfather Returns in a day or two. Please list any questions you may have here, and I'll try to get to as many (appropriate) ones as I can and report back... if I'm allowed to

You should ask him if he's taked to Paramount about making his story into GF4.

BTW-How the hell do you meet all the authors,DeJohn,Harlen Lebo,Donnie Brasco...

Please wish him well - if the book is not up to par, it will be mentioned in the same breath as New Coke (I hope the book cover is not an indication...)

This is the Don, JG, Geoff and Mr Malta, there's nothing he can't do. Sonny, c'mon, a little more faith for our Don please. :p

First of all congrats on getting to meet him.

Ask him if he was nervous following in Puzo's footsteps.

Oh my! What not to ask him? Is he planning for our Corleone family to continue? Is he thinking of movies in the future? Maybe, even similar storylines like the Sicilian? How does it feel to follow in the footsteps of Puzo, an acknowledged and skillful writer? (Only 7 novels and all are critically acclaimed!)

Hey J Geoff, how did this interview turn out?

I finally talked to Mark Winegardner the other day and here are some tidbits:

He says the synopsis on the Amazon.co.uk site was taken from a proposal before the book was written, so it's not entirely accurate. He does say it takes place between 1955 and 1962, however, so it's not quite a "sequel" to Godfather Part III as much as it's a sequel to the NOVEL itself. He claims it does not interfere with the movies, tho he did take some minor liberties that expands on Puzo -- and wraps up some things that Puzo left out. He says there will be some deep in-jokes for the true fans. The book will start with the murder of Tessio.

I asked about a possible movie, and he said he had no idea what Paramount's plans would be. He's not really interested in the movie-making aspect of it. He just wanted to write a good book, and he says his style evoked the style of Puzo without imitating him.

He said it felt great following in Puzo's footsteps, because Puzo is a wonderful story teller. He wasn't "nervous" about it, but simply wanted to write a book that people would want to read. Like Puzo, Winegardners says he's read about 100 books on the Mafia as research, and really wanted to bring more of the mafia aspect into the story.

Interestingly, he also said it worked out that The Godfather Returns has the same number of books and chapters as Puzo's novel.

Winegardner spent every-other month or so at the Yaddo artists community, where Puzo himself spent some time writing. As the Director of Creative Writing at FSU, Winegardner teaches advanced graduate students. There are 3 televised interviews with him here , near the bottom of the page, that you may find interesting.

It was great speaking with him, and he hopes that everyone enjoys his book!

That's interesting Geoff Thanks! How did you get to interview him?

i bet the meeting was really good.its a pity that he does not knoew about a forth movie

100 books on mafia research?

I'm impressed... The murder of Tessio also sounds cool. I'm curious as to how that actually panned out or if he had any more interesting last words.

This author also seems very accomplished. The video interview with him in his house with the classic music was good.

So this is going to be like a Godfather 2.5? Eh, might as well check it out.

i will be buying that it sound interesting

It looks like it may go anywhere from 1.5 to the beginning of 3, since it starts with Tessio's death. There's just so much material to cover. I'm looking forward to it.

im excited and all about there being a new book,but im a little dissapointed that its not going to start where part 3 left off.oh well,one can only hope.

So, what? is this gunna be a revamped GFII then? That's kind of weak, if they redo anything it should be III (but I'm against that too).

-Zasa

Where exactly did you hear that?

According to JGeoff's interview... "He claims it does not interfere with the movies" and "wraps up some things that Puzo left out."

It's probably going to take place with the GFII general time period but it won't be a revamp...

Well thats interesting.

I acquired a preview copy and started it the other day. So far so good!

To clarify, there is a timeline in the beginning of the book that shows where this book takes place:

The Godfather (1945-1954)
The Godfather Returns (1955-1958)
The Godfather Part II (1958-1959)*
The Godfather Returns (1959-1962)**
The Godfather Part III (1979-1980)

*GF2 also covers early Vito (1910-1939)
**The second half of The Godfather Returns also covers the early life of Michael (1920-1945) in flashback scenes

Hope this helps

sounds good

sounds great.. thanks

Im tring to keep an open mind about this......God I hope he doesnt screw them up.

Just curious, how many pages are there? Will it be just light reading or is there some substance there?


-Zasa

My copy is 430 pages, about the same as Puzo's novel...

It's not "heavy" reading, tho...

Well, if its about the same amount of substance as the original, i should be good. What I'm most looking foreward too are the "deep in-jokes for true fans". I'll be looking, Mr. Winegardner.


Zasa

Well, its been awhile since we've had an update. Hows the book so far JG?

-Zasa

Well, unfortunately I haven't had a ton of spare time lately, but I'm 7 chapters into it and it's been great so far. It's hard to put down, but I have to force myself to get other things done

Is it sold at Walden Books or Borders?

It will be when it's released.

Dammit JG. You get early releases on everything. Will this author be coming to the chat like Dejohn did? -Pat