A review by kandicez
The Family by Mario Puzo
4.0
Mario Puzo has such a knack for putting you "in" the story. You really feel as if you're a fly on the wall. He worked on, and researched this book off and on for twenty years, and as much as it reads as fiction, the research paid off because it's completely believable. Incredibly disturbing, but believable nonetheless. At his death, the novel was not quite finished, so his longtime partner, Carol Gino, finished it. It's a testament to her skill that I could not tell where Puzo left off and Gino began.
The novel follows Pope Alexander VI from his Cardinalship throughout the rest of his life as the most powerful and corrupt Pope the Catholics had ever seen. We've all been made to believe men of the cloth take a vow of chastity that they live up to. According to Puzo- this wasn't always so. In fact, these men of the cloth not only had lovers, but entire families. Sometimes more than one. Not only wa sthis allowed, it seemed to not even be frowned upon. Pope Alexander (through Puzo) even states that he does not feel it possible to experience the true joy God wants all his creatures to experience without physical love, and in turn fathering children. These men used their religious and political clout to further these families, passing out religious and military posts like candy.
Even if you put aside the sexual escapades of the Pope, his actions are so un-Christian-like as to make the reader shudder. THIS is the man in charge of all Catholics? THIS man has the power of excommunication? THIS man was their conduit to God? He was incredibly corrupt, and let nothing stand in his or his childrens' way to incomparable power and wealth. Vow of poverty my foot!
I think Puzo's magic has always been his ability to write these incredible acts of actrocity in such a way that he could be relaying the weather. You are halfway into a sinful sexual encounter before you realize what's happening. He lulls you with his calm and then BAM! you find yourself frantically flipping back the pages, or rewinding the CD, to see where the heck this started! Because the violence and sins were such a matter of fact, everyday occurence to his characters, he writes them that way, which only serves to make them even more sinful and violent. In a sneaky way.
The novel follows Pope Alexander VI from his Cardinalship throughout the rest of his life as the most powerful and corrupt Pope the Catholics had ever seen. We've all been made to believe men of the cloth take a vow of chastity that they live up to. According to Puzo- this wasn't always so. In fact, these men of the cloth not only had lovers, but entire families. Sometimes more than one. Not only wa sthis allowed, it seemed to not even be frowned upon. Pope Alexander (through Puzo) even states that he does not feel it possible to experience the true joy God wants all his creatures to experience without physical love, and in turn fathering children. These men used their religious and political clout to further these families, passing out religious and military posts like candy.
Even if you put aside the sexual escapades of the Pope, his actions are so un-Christian-like as to make the reader shudder. THIS is the man in charge of all Catholics? THIS man has the power of excommunication? THIS man was their conduit to God? He was incredibly corrupt, and let nothing stand in his or his childrens' way to incomparable power and wealth. Vow of poverty my foot!
I think Puzo's magic has always been his ability to write these incredible acts of actrocity in such a way that he could be relaying the weather. You are halfway into a sinful sexual encounter before you realize what's happening. He lulls you with his calm and then BAM! you find yourself frantically flipping back the pages, or rewinding the CD, to see where the heck this started! Because the violence and sins were such a matter of fact, everyday occurence to his characters, he writes them that way, which only serves to make them even more sinful and violent. In a sneaky way.