Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - El Padrino

Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

El Padrino by Mario Puzo

22 reviews

craftyfairy's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

So many thoughts about this one ranging from critique of prose style, character work, plot arcs, and just general social commentary... suffice to say, the book is by far worse than the movie. And I haven't even seen the movie.
The prose is pulpy at best. Very typical of books in this time I feel, but I don't think that's an excuse. Surely not an excuse for making the book as long as it was. Took me the same amount of time to read this as any graham Greene book from the same time, and I know Mr Greene wouldn't be caught dead describing olive oil as "olive-colored oil".
Characters were unlovable but also not very fascinating. I wanted the book to be about our main character Don Vito Corleone, and yet it took a couple hundred pages to even hear a bit of backstory. When

don corelone was incapacitated and unable to take charge

the other characters were making decisions and it was about

how they would take revenge/solve this conflict

and yet I just didn't care about the other characters or why they did what they did. Boring.
The author has a terrible habit of jumping forward to an upsetting or surprising event, then working backwards to show how it happened. Sometimes he wouldn't even show what happened, just intimating that something bad HAD happened. Very soap opera esque, and also tiresome. I found myself wishing he would just tell the story plainly without trying so hard. Ending was shit, although I could see that coming.

the end is hyped for multiple chapters - oh what will happen?? What will michael do?? Kill people, obviously. How stupid. Who will he kill? Ah perhaps the people who wronger him.

Of course, as to be expected, the author has written this book to include a substantial amount of bigotry of all kinds, across gender and sex, race, religion, and even to gingers. Is this a reflection of how mafiosos would genuinely feel and behave at this time period? Maybe, but in some spots the bigotry seems so vivid and gratuitous, it is as if the author revels in it. Particularly, Puzo spends a lot of time describing domestic violence against women, body/sex shaming of women, assault of women, and any degrading descriptions of sex worker women imaginable. In one memorable scene, Puzo describes a labiaplasty of a girl who is unwanted by most men because she has what is clinically described by the doctor character as "having a big box". Her surgery story is told exclusively from his perspective as he is her boyfriend and crafts the perfect experience for himself with her body. And what does this all have to do with Mafia????? These are acquaintances of side characters for God sake.
I don't know how to conclude this review but I fear I have already written more than it deserves.

Content Warnings

jpolito's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Content Warnings

greenan26's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

meilanon's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Content Warnings

soliasz's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Strangely, I found this book slightly dissapointing. While I enjoyed the main plot, I found myself confused at the uneeded sideplots and details. Why include a side-plot centering around the size of a characters genitals? Why detail a surgery about it? Why emphasize it so much?

Sometimes I feel that the author did not bother with the idea of killing your darlings, and chose to include so much unnecessary content that muddied the story.

But, I do admire Puzo's prose, simple, yet descriptive and captivating. I also have to give it another inch because of the fantastic and revered movie that sprang from it. The movie is great, but the book? Slightly underwhelming and dissapointing. I believe this is one of the very few cases that the movie is better then the book. If you're a fan of the series, perhaps you would get something out of it, but otherwise, you'd be better off watching, or rewatching the movie.

Content Warnings