I heard this on my local npr station,

Jim Fleming talks with Mark Winegardner about his new book, "The Godfather Returns," and what it was like to step into Mario Puzo's shoes.

http://www.wpr.org/book/041017a.html

click on listen
need real player
enjoy

Thanks for that link, TF; thats a great first-post!

Welcome to the boards!

Interesting, I'm listening to it now.

Holy hell.Who is this Nick G.......somebody?
"I knowthe novel better than anyone on Earth" Eh, I think Turnbull should take him up on that. :p

Nick Gerasi? That's what it sounds like.

Sounds to me as if he'll be kind of a Luca Brasi clone, a guy who has a reputation of being brutal and fearsome, but probably with some more smarts than Luca.

From the interview, my guess is that he will be written as having been Tessio's main muscle, then when Tessio got whacked, probably Michael brings him into the inner Corleone circle. At this time, Al Neri is becoming more a capo rather than just a street enforcer, plus after Rocco gets it while doing the hit on Hyman Roth, the Corleones need a new main muscle man - this is where Gerasi could fit in.

Because of sheer physical intimidation, Gerasi would gain some "cred" in the Corleone family -- he might develop into a "worthy adversary" for Michael after the events of GF II.

But seriously, the only "worthy adversary" for Michael in the family is Tom Hagen. The most pressing question for the period after GF II and before GF III, was how was the relationship between Michael and Tom resolved?

All we know for sure is that Tom dies sometime before 1978, since B.J. Harrison is fairly well established in the lawyer role, I would guess Tom's death was not real recent - probably took place in the early 1970s.

However Tom's death is handled in any GF-based novel or sequel, how his relationship with Michael played out is still a crucial question that needs to be addressed.

Yeah yeah that was it...Gerasi. Your storyline sounds plausable, but then he would have to get whacked before the time preiod of GF2 comes in.

the novel sounds good.

ganna solve the things we needed to know for so long.

it's posting his interpretation of what happened. puzo, rip, may have had other things in mind.

it's posting his interpretation of what happened. puzo, rip, may have had other things in mind.

I agree with mr. soprano. That's pretty much what I said in another thread:

"The problem here is that any of the answers to these questions will simply be the opinions or interpretations of another author, and are no more valid than those of any of the many experts on the Novel and/or Trilogy who are members here."

Someone else here called it "fan fiction", I think, which is really what it is.