A thrilling page turner with an elegant, tight narrative. Practically all the female characters are horrendously written, sketched only in relation to other, more consequential, male characters. What could have been a critical exploration of misogyny is neutered by the women’s points of view themselves being totally oriented around the men. Lucy Mancini has potentially the worst character arc to be put to paper. Nevertheless, The Godfather tells a great story with real restraint and suspense — I loved how long Puzo withholds Luca Brasi’s fate from the reader.