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This book, written by Mario Puzo, describes the life of a Don of the Mafia, how the Mafia proceeds and which influence and powers they have.
Don Vito Corleone, is also known as "the Godfather" and even called this way by most people. He is known as a very just and reasonable man, very affectionate and helping everyone who asks him a favour.
When someone asks him a favour because he has no chance to straighten his problems out within the existing political, social or economic system, he can be sure to be supported help from the very generous old man. After the years the Don has many people who own him a favour and them has always options open.
The Godfather is the boss of one of the leading Mafiosi Families during and after the second World War. He has three sons, Santino, Frederico and Michael and one daughter Constanzia. Then there is also Tom Hagen, who has grown up in the family's house since the age of eleven, that was when his mother died. He is of the same age as Santino, who mostly called Sonny. He was not adopted because Don Corleone wanted him to keep his last name to honour his father. The Corleones saved Tom from death when they took him into their family and he dearly loves all members, especially the Don and Sonny. He become a lawyer after he realised what the Don's business was and wanted to help the family with his profession.
The Don came to America at the age of twelve, after his father was killed because he interfered with the Mafia of Sicily and grew up working in a grocery shop in New York. At this time, during World War I there, were many Italian quarters in New York. He married a girl also from Sicily and had to accept every job he was offered in order to survive. Soon his first two sons, Sonny and Freddo, were born and he had even more problems to feed his growing family. When he met the men Clemenza and Tessio, the three of them found a very lucrative way of making some extra money: they rob cloth transports and sell the things at the black market. Soon the man, a cruel but unimportant little gangster who controlls the quarter finds out about their actions and blackmails them to pay him three thirds their profit. Clemenza and Tessio are scared and agree to pay - only Vito Corleone refuses. He meets with the little gangster, he follows him over the roofs of the houses and kills him. Soon everybody knows about these killings but not even the police ask questions about this dead gangster in the gutter. The young Corleone becomes known as a very scrupulous man and people start coming to ask for his help because everybody in the district, even important people, do not refuse him a favour as soon as they get to know about his reputation. Soon he and a friend start to deal with olive oil, turning out to be a very profitable business. Who wants to push down the price is either simply wiped out or the trucks are burned down. During the years the Godfather is able to build up one of the biggest Mafia empires of America.
It is not quite sure who of his sons is the one to run the family business later. Sonny is a very hot-tempered young fellow, who is very brutal and does not care about losses. Freddo or Freddie is a rather quiet young man who does not have the energy and the ambition to become a Don, and the youngest son, Michael, seems to be the family's black sheep. He went to College and was more interested in books than in the family business during all the time. When he decided to join the army during the Second World War to support the country where he grew up his father considers him unfit to run the family's empire.
Sonny in any case wants to continue in the Mafia business. He supports his father wherever he can and tries to learn and adopt from him as much as possible.
Then one day Sollozzo, a Turk Mafiosi, shows up and asks the Don to become his partner in the narcotic sector, because he would need his connections to the government.
But the Don refuses, having no interest in narcotics. Sonny, however, bursts out during the conversation that maybe they should accept but the Godfather refuses strictly.
A short time after this conversation Don Corleone is gunned down; although five bullets are pumped into his body, he survives. He has to stay in hospital for a long time and therefore is not able to run the family business. Finally Sonny gets into action. He starts a bloody war against the other five families and Sollozzo, who is supported by the Tattaglia family and Buzini, the two most powerful heads of the Mafia. Freddie is sent to a friend to Las Vegas, because he has not yet recovered from the shock of seeing his beloved father being gunned down. Even Michael gets involved. After another attack on his father by Sollozzo and a high police officer, he decides that Sollozzo and this policeman had to die before they could kill the old Don.
So at a meeting where peace should be negotiated he shoots both and has to flee the country, because even for the Mafia it is impossible to shoot policemen without any consequences. So Michael is shipped to Sicily where he stays with an old-fashioned Mafia pardone. There he falls in love with a young Sicilian girl and marries her.
In the meantime, Sonny Corleone is killed in New York by the Tattaglia family, after the Corleone family had killed a son of the Tattaglia family. So the Don has to get into action again, but instead of continuing the war he offers peace to the other families, because he fears for Michael's life. But this decision makes him seem weak to the others, as he is rather supposed to take revenge for his son's life.
And indeed there is an attack on Michael's life, killing Michael's wife.
Two years after leaving the country, Michael returns and starts to take over the family business, though he is considered as incapable and not powerful enough.
He waits for a year and wants to move his operating area to Las Vegas, and shortly after his father death he starts getting accounts with the rival families.
He kills the Don of the Tattaglia family, gets Buzini killed, kills one of his caporegimes, who are his combat leaders, because of lying to him. But he also murders sister's husband because he had sold Sonny to the Tattaglia family.
Within a short time he manages to become the most powerful Mafioso in America. It turns out that, he is a lot colder and even more brutal than his brother Sonny. And that he is as intelligent as his father, but less scrupulous.
The book describes very clearly the way the Mafia works and which methods they use to run their dirty business.
When the Corleone´s discussed about business with others and someone turns out to do what he wants and does not accept their "offers", he soon might be found lying dead in the gutter.
An illustration for that is the handling of Mafia interests in Hollywood:
When a very rich, but rather stupid movie producer, refused to give a part of a film to the Don's Godson he found his beloved racing horse´s head in his bedroom next morning.
When Al Capone decided to send two killers after the Corleone family in order to support a friend, he soon received a parcel with his two killers in pieces.
But when someone offers his friendship to the Don he could ask him for everything he wants, the Don would help him in every situation. As long as you do not betray his friendship he is prepared to help everyone in any situation. On the other hand he will only expect the other person to do him a favour in regard to his profession or abilities. He never asks for something impossible, but he wants to have it done within no time and without any question asked, whenever he calls the person.
That is how Mario Puzo´s Mafia acts.
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