Omerta by Mario Puzo is entertaining during a long airplane ride, even if it falls short as Great Literature. Like The Godfather before it, there is plenty of Machiavellian intrigue to unravel and various betrayals and plot twists to keep your attention. Perhaps more than its predecessor, Omerta suffers from pervasively flat and stereotypical characters drawn variously from 1930s gangster films and 1960s political-doomsday dramas, replete with their now-stilted and anachronistic dialects intact.
The Godfather suffered from these same problems to a lesser extent, not only because its much earlier setting renders the use of Italian immigrant dialect and ’30s gangster slang slightly less archaic and unbelievable, but because there is actually some change in at least a few of the characters over the course of the book. Well, at least Michael Corleone has some interesting internal struggles and dilemmas going on… Which life to choose? The content family man, or the powerful Mafia boss? Is it any different than what Senators and Presidents do every day? Omerta has none of that depth. The characters of Omerta are straightforward and shallow, all motives and desires lying on the surface. The only interest and complexity is in the mechanics of how they try to get to them.
We have Nicole, old Don Aprile’s daughter, a young lawyer who devotes her time to the abolition of the death penalty and pro bono representation of the indigent, to her father’s bemused derision. Echoes of The Sopranos? I thought so, too. Sopranos creator David Chase (born David DeCesare) has repeatedly said he thinks The Godfather was amazing, etc., and The Sopranos is peppered with Godfather references. It seems he also checked out Puzo’s last work, Omerta.
There is the Argentine aristocrat-turned-drug-lord, now based in Colombia, who is trying to build his own personal nuclear weapon. The massively corrupt Peruvian consul, who will do anything for a price. Astorre, the protagonist, is the young scion of two old school Mafia dons, his biological and adoptive fathers; he is the last true Mafioso operating in the world. He is sent to Don Craxxi, an old retired Mafioso at hand to dispense sage advice and Italian-syntax aphorisms when needed. The two of them can summon a cadre of nameless henchmen who instantly appear from Sicily when needed, every one not only an expert in all manner of weapons and fighting but also unquestioningly loyal to and utterly ready to die for a man they haven’t seen in 20 years.
The verdict: Omerta is entertaining if you’re into the Mafia-fiction genre and you set your expectations appropriately. Don’t expect another Godfather and you’ll be fine.
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