I know that we're supposed to keep these discussions to the movie and not the book, but I can't help myself. In the book, Mama is completely and totally aware of her family's occupation. Not only does she encourage Kay to pray for her husband's soul as she prays for Vito's, but there is a wonderful scene in the book between Mama, Kay and Tom.

In the movie, the scene was shortened to Kay trying to give Tom a letter for Michael, which he refuses. In the book, however, when she comes into the house to call her cab, she meets Mama. Mama insists that she stay for coffee and chats with Kay about her life as a teacher. She accepts the letter from Kay (over Tom's protests) and tells Kay that she's a nice girl and to forget Mikey because he's not the man for her.

Kay cries after leaving the mall, since she feels that Mama has admitted to her that Michael is indeed a murderer.

These little scenes obviously had to be left out in order to have a movie that was viewable by a large audience, but I think that since Mama's character was not fleshed out in the films, we must refer to her as written in the novel.

As for her being clueless during her chat with Michael, I'm not so sure. I believe that Michael is referring to so many things: Fredo's betrayal, the attack on the house, the loss of the baby, the gulf between him and Kay, Anthony's Christmas present abandoned in the snow - I could go on and on (obviously ).

In the context that Michael refers to loss is beyond Mama's comprehension. It was impossible for her to understand that family could ever act that way. To her, family meant unconditional love and loyalty. It was the one thing you could always depend on. The treachery and abandonment that Michael was experiencing was inconceivable to her.