Mario Puzo's 1969 novel — following the Corleone crime family across a generation — the best-selling American crime novel and the basis for the most acclaimed American film franchise.
Creates the definitive American organized crime narrative — The Godfather reframes the Mafia as a perverse mirror of American capitalism (the Corleones operate by the same rules as legitimate business — loyalty, contracts, violence as a last resort) and makes the organized crime family the vehicle for exploring immigrant assimilation, loyalty, and moral compromise.
No recorded contemporaries.
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