What do You think about The Sicilian (2001)?
4.5 stars. An almost perfect novel for me. Why just 4.5? Well, i hate to spoil you so you got to read the book yourself. The book mentioned my most fave character of all time, Michael Corleone, which made me start to flip the first page. But the story wasn't about him. It wasn't even related to The Godfather novel itself although the Corleone family and Peter Clemenza (who were characters from The Godfather) were mentioned several times. It's about Turi Guiliano who wants to help the poor civilians of Sicily and save Sicily from the corrupt government and selfish Mafia heads where rich becomes richer and poor becomes poorer. With such aspiration, Turi became a well known bandit at his hometown where poor families worship him from his big heart by giving the poor justice while rich men being robbed, kidnapped and/or killed by the young protagonist in which he only does because of his belief of his love for Sicily and his men.A simple yet mind twisting chapters will make you turn each page with such surprise. I myself would recommend this to those who seek Mafia-related genre. It's a light read which you can bring along the beach and finish right away. Enjoy reading! "So die those you betray Guiliano" -Turi Guiliano
—Katherine Co
To my surprise I feel immense contempt for reading a supposedly praised book of Puzo because I actually find it extremely disappointing.The book being nothing exceptional but a painfully exasperating story about the bold Italian Outlaws and the typical Sicilian Mafia/Mob, makes me insolently demean this story because the plot turned out to be almost a mash-up and rip-off of Puzo's other notable books.Moreover, after reading the book, scorned I was as a blacksmith without his tools, I was numb too since the novel had very little material. I recall the days when I almost gave up reading this book because I was tired of forcing myself to turn the pages.Firstly, the feeble plot, as mentioned before turns out to be a brew of Puzo's other books, lacks originality and enthrallment, and is rather repetitive. It also focuses too much on the character development, so much that you are left with a sick feeling of boredom and weariness. The innumerable accounts of the characters' past are definitely a foundation of their role but with these characters Puzo actually overdid it, so much that you feel such elaborate illustrations were unnecessary. The characters were lush and deep but not captivating enough to make me dive into their lives.The book might have flourished if it were made into two parts, because since the real story is so limited, Puzo could have glorified it by dividing it into two parts by focusing the drama on the first and the tragedy/thrills on the latter, but that's just how I feel. Sadly, thriving on unwanted details and a vain story, this book also features folly and unintelligent writing. For example, the execution of the main character absolutely made no sense at all, the weak writing left readers in utter dismay and confusion such as, "Why kill him NOW?", "without a motive why would THAT person betray?", etc.Moving on, the theme of the book is somewhat ambiguous yet the countless incidents of the story surely amplified aspects of Loyalty and Pride. And the message of the book might have been somewhat enlightening but I remain unsatisfied with this desultory tale of how two young innocent boys grew up to be bandits and embraced their fateful retribution.
—Toufiq
Definitely not as good as "the Godfather." One thing that annoyed me in particular was that he seemed to recycle some scenes, for instance the marriage to Justina was way too similar to Michael Corleone's marriage to Apollonia in "the Godfather." I also found this book romanticized the violence of Sicilian society to a distasteful level. Also, one thing which was good about "the Godfather" was that the point of view changed at different points in the story so you saw different people whose lives were affected by the Godfather and that kept the story interesting and made it move along swiftly. However, this was because the characters it focused on were very different from each other. This one did change points of view a few times but since the characters were all very similar this wasn't very interesting, it kind of just drew the story out to be longer. I didn't find this book very exciting or well-written. I probably would not recommend it, even to a Mafia buff. A few of the tricks Guiliano plays are clever but aside from that it was boring. Also, why did he bother changing Giuliano's name to Guiliano when literally every other detail is the same as Giuliano's actual life? The name Guiliano is really awkward to pronounce and I feel like he could've just put a disclaimer that it was historical fiction and he could've left the name as Giuliano.
—Camille Mccarthy
