TIS -
So far I'm 10 chapters into it and I'd give it a B+. It is very entertaining and enjoyable.

I wish I had more free time so that I could really sit down and read it - I haven't been able to read any of it since last Wednesday.

I'll write my own review for you all when I'm done with it.

I'll give my opinion of it when I'm done.

An early impression is Winegardner's style is more difficult to follow (compared to Puzo's), but he is pretty good at setting up the story.

Thanks Rocky, I can't wait to get my copy now.


BTW, what happen to your avator???? I liked that pic.


TIS

Beth,

I dont think Michael was a wimp. He just simply struggled to turn the family into legitmate business. It is not an easy thing to clean up your family bad repuatation and images and transform into clean and role models. It was difficult since Michael didnt have Kay on his side for supports. Michael had to deal problems with the other families which wanted pieces of his new legitmate business. The other "heads of the families" saw Michael making more money and wanted a piece and felt insulted when Michael had to reject them. Look at Joey Zasa, Don Altobello and Don Luchesi. Both guys wanted more power and felt Michael had more power with more money.

As stated above, those are my sister's words, not mine. She is just in love with the character of Michael. She detests Kaye, and always envisions that GFIII was just a dream, that Michael found a real woman who truly appreciated him. I told her about the plot with Fredo and she's outraged. She thinks he was just a wimp and is glad he was "killed". I wonder if Tony should have been sent on a "fishing trip" for saying no to Michael about finishing college. I've always said my sister's obsessed with this. I don't have the heart to tell her that Michael Corleone is just a character in a book.

Frankie 5-angels,

I went to Borders today to glance at the book (still awaiting my order from Amazon) and I jumped ahead to the 1957-59 section to see if your namesake and Willie Cicci were mentioned and I could not find anything. Found a mention for Hymon Roth and Johnny Ola though.

I could not even find Cicci mentioned in the Tessio murder scene in the beginning.

I hope they are in there and I just wasn't looking in the right place. For those two characters, especially Frankie (when he had to be close to Clemenza), to be not even be mentioned would be ridiculous.

gencoimports

Of course, I didn't jump to the part when Clemenza dies. That would have been another obvious place to start looking.