The Last Don: A Novel

by Mario Puzo

Book Overview

In a corrupt world where crooked cops and desperate gamblers play dangerous games of betrayal, one man has power over them all The Last Don is Mario Puzo at his finest - a masterful saga of the last... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345412214
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 1.1" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

No Action

I saw the movie on Tv. 6 part mini series years ago. It was right to the point. I enjoyed it. I started reading the book and gave up on it, not enough action for me. I donated to the Vets. I'm reading The Godfather's Revenge and after 380 pages, it too is getting uninteresting. Mafia books I expect non stop action among the Families. I put it aside for now.

Not the Godfather, however still a very engaging and entertaining read.

It is unfair to compare The Last Don with The Godfather because The Godfather was in, and still remains, in a class all by itself in this genre. That being said, The Last Don is still a first-class, engaging and entertaining read. Don Domenico Clericuzio is a sagely, ruthless man in his dotage who is anxious to see his family go "legit," divesting themselves of all of their unsavory holdings in order to establish themselves in society. Not wanting his progeny to continue committing the sins of the fathers, the Don begins to parcel out his empire. As the deus ex machina of the only remaining crime family, he ensures that the Clericuzio beak will still be wet long after the divestiture. His vision for a peaceful transition to legitimate society, however, is endagered when a horrifying family secret threatens to set off a civil war between two blood cousins. Without going into any more details, which would spoil the book's ending and would take away from the engrossing plot structure, The Don has his way in the end and an all-out bloodbath is averted. The Don can goes to the hereafter secure in the knowledge of a "life well lived," and his wishes have been carried out. Mario Puzo weaves a rich tapestry which, of course, contains the main plot and various sub-plots that accent the main storyline giving it a fuller, more robust feel. The same can be said of the major and minor characters. What I loved most about this book is the way Puzo ties everything up at the conclusion of the book, leaving no loose ends. There is a tidy ending that is logical, without being cliche'. You'll finish this book having been totally entertained, suprised, and satisfied. Again...a very engaging, engrossing, and entertaining book. 5+ stars.

The Last Don

I really liked this book. The reason I first got it was because I knew that Mario Puzo wrote the Godfather and I loved that movie. I decided to get the book, and I was not disappointed. This book is about the workings of Cross DE Lena and the Clercuzio family. Cross and Dante are grandsons of the Don and they make a name for themselves. Cross owns a huge casino/hotel in Las Vegas, and Dante is the The number one hitman for the family. But when a family secret that the Don wants know one to know gets out, there becomes a huge war with in the Family. This is a great book for anyone who likes action our who liked the Godfather. This book shows that after all these years Puzo can still write a great mafia story.

Second only to the Godfather

For fans of the Godfather and Puzo, this book was thoroughly enjoyable. It had the same feel and magnitude of that timeless classic. The story centers on a new crime family and their branching into the world of Vegas Gambling and Hollywood. It is more of a West Coast mafia tale, and is pure entertainment. The first 80 pages are a little slow, but by the time you hit 100, you can't put the book down and very well may stay up far later than you had hoped for. Puzo weaves an exciting tale of complexity sure to delight crime family genre lovers...

Puzo knows his writing

Every time I read a book by Mario Puzo, I become more and more impressed with this mans writing style. His books always have a great combination of real world brutality, goodness, sex, and all the other mixes of human experience.His sentences are simplistic and without airs, as are the ideas of the story, and it is this simplicity that gives Puzo's books an elegance that many modern writers lack. Mario is writing about something that is interesting and tells the reader what they need to know when they need to know it. He knows his subject material and creates a world that is interesting as well as believable. Fools die was excellent, and then I read GodFather,and I was very impressed with that book also. I wasn't sure about this book, but I picked it up, and saw that even though it was about the same subject material (I thought it would just be a recounting of the godather), the storyline is fresh, with new characters that become well developmed by the end of the book. Puzo also creates fantastic characters in this book, there is a mold to run by, the old sicilian mafia mold, but the characters in this book are removed by a generation or 2 from this mentality, and it is very interesting to see how Puzo shows their lives as caught in the middle of the mafia life of their parents and grandparents, and the americanized life they lead apart from Quoge LI and the "family".This book was great, and a great read. Any book written by Puzo is worth reading because of his fantastic writing style, this book is no exception.

Very entertaining, but also very believable.

This is actually the first time that I've read a Mario Puzo book. The Last Don proved to be one of those rare books where the reader might think of the characters or the plot during the day at work or school, and gets excited to read home at night. I was sad about what happened to Pippi because not only did I think that he was the most interesting character in the story, but also that the plot revolved around him. But I guess his character had nowhere else to go. To conclude, let me just say that I am looking forward to my next Mario Puzo novel.