The Godfather's Revenge

by Mark Winegardner

Overview

The original 1969 bestseller that became a landmark event in American popular culture.

An American crime boss pursuing the mantle of legitimacy...A former top man on the run...The ambitious brother of a galvanizing young President...A New Orleans capo out for revenge...An Irish consigliere plunged into mortal peril. Five lives on a collision course with tragedy that will make history and shock the world-an unforgettable capstone to Mario Puzo's great American epic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101211298
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/06/2007
Series:	The Godfather Series
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	624
Sales rank:	120,811
File size:	672 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mark Winegardner is a celebrated novelist who was handpicked by Mario Puzo's estate to write The Godfather Returns, an instant New York Times bestseller. Winegardner's previous books, including the novels Crooked River Burning and The Veracruz Blues, have been chosen as among the best of the year by The New York Times Book Review, Chicago Sun-Times, Los Angeles Times, the New York Public Library, and USA Today. He is a professor (and former director) at the creative writing program at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.

Hometown:

Tallahassee, Florida

Date of Birth:

November 24, 1961

Place of Birth:

Bryan, Ohio

Education:

B.A., Miami University, 1983; M.F.A., George Mason University, 1987

Website:

http://www.markwinegardner.com

Editorial Reviews

… The Godfather's Revenge is popular fiction at its best and arguably offers more depth and realism than Puzo's original.
— The Washington Post

Patrick Anderson

In Winegardner's mediocre second sequel to Mario Puzo's classic (after 2004's bestselling The Godfather Returns), La Cosa Nostra gets involved in a plot in the early 1960s to assassinate a JFK-like U.S. president, Jimmy Shea. Instead of building on the fascinating characters Puzo created, such as Michael Corleone, the reluctant successor to his father's Mafia empire, Winegardner dwells on the machinations of Michael's main rival, Nick Geraci. When Geraci mysteriously disappears and eludes capture by the authorities, the reader learns in a jarring nod to Osama bin Laden that "the most powerful nation on earth had deployed skilled intelligence and law enforcement personnel to conduct a gigantic manhunt for a powerful and resourceful leader of a secret criminal society-a tall, imposing, bearded man with a chronic, withering disease-and somehow failed to find the cave where he was hiding." Godfather fans might prefer getting reacquainted with the original novel and the two better of the three films it inspired. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

When one of Michael Corleone's underlings is deported to Colombia by order of the attorney general (brother of the President), he sneaks back to retaliate-and ends up changing the course of U.S. politics. With a five-city tour. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Faux Kennedy brothers, elaborate detailings of byzantine Cosa Nostra politics, steamy pulp-fiction prose, a hot murder mystery and a cartoonishly epic cast make this Godfather installment a worthy addition to the chronicle of la famigilia Corleone. They're baaaaack-dour Machiavellian Michael and long-suffering Connie, tight-lipped, anxiety-prone Irish consigliere Tom Hagen, even poor Michael-murdered Fredo, appearing now as a tuxedo-wearing ghost bearing a fishing rod and squeezing a naked dame. Winegardner (That's True of Everybody, 2002, etc.) breathlessly re-animates these archetypes even more effectively than he did in 2004's The Godfather Returns. Revenge pits Nick Gerasi, turncoat former Corleone caporegime emerging from exile in a bomb shelter beneath Lake Erie, against Michael in a mano-a-mano bloodfeud. Gerasi's an old-school gangster, miffed at the Godfather's efforts to go legit. And Michael has other hellhounds on his trail. There's Attorney General Danny Shea, kid brother of philandering Jimmy, the U.S. president Michael finagled into office by means of Hagen's chicanery and a charm offensive by Sinatra-like Corleone flunky Johnny Fontane. Danny's dream is to enter history as the Mob-slayer, and while Michael merely wants to neutralize the threat, rival crime boss Carlo Tramonti, Don of the Big Easy, aims at actually offing Jimmy. At a pasta-mad powwow for the head honchos of all the underworld's Five Families, Carlo advances the assassination plot, only to be interrupted as police crash in to nab Tom Hagen. Turns out his mistress, hard-case blonde bombshell Judy Buchanan, has been shot in the head and Hagen's soon held for questioning. Winegardner's deft plot-spinning isrivaled only by his sure grasp of Goodfella mise-en-scene, the profanity-laced witticisms, the fashion fetishizing, the cool, long, dark '60s Chevy Biscaynes. Minor characters, from upstart Eddie Paradise to the musically monickered Ottilio Cuneo and Osvaldo Atobello, add varnish to inch-thick operatic mobster atmosphere. Bloody and bombastic-a top-notch addition to the saga.

Kirkus Reviews

Winegardner’s novel is like an Italian feast—the food is plentiful and tasty, but it takes a long time to get to the main course. Still, Winegardner’s writing will keep you listening. His twists and turns are expert, and he never does the obvious. Scott Brick’s performance never gets tiresome, though it does take a while to get to the inevitable clash between Godfather Michael Corleone and Nick Geraci, the scheming Cleveland criminal who wants it all. Brick makes the hours slide on by. Listeners love his flourishes, like the way he ends his sentences with a little upturn. Yeah, Brick’s got style. He makes a great book even better. M.S. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

APR/MAY 07 - AudioFile