Blog 404: A tale of two novels.

"Every man has but one destiny"
-Don Vito Corleone

Read the Godfather and The Da Vinci Code within the last

ten days. Both are masterpieces in their own right...but Dan Brown would easily qualify as Puzo's godfather!
The Da Vinci Code was staggering. The kind of stuff it throws up strikes at the very heart of things half the world has been holding dear to its heart for generations.
The amount of research that Dan Brown did for his novel is astounding. The book sheds light on just soo many things. All those things about PHI, about the sacred feminine, about the priory of sion and the fact that da vinci and newton were members of this organisation, about the holy grail, about da vinci himself...really enlightening! Infact...there has been a body of work and research done on the sacred feminine...check this out. For more on Mary Magdalene, see this.

The end of the novel was a bit of a let down and i was distraught for quite a while abt it...but finally...I guess Dan Brown would have been over-reaching himself if he were to venture an opinion on what was in the holy grail.
How can anyone talk of the da vinci code and not mention the innumerable double entendres. The way Sauniere's final message said so many things in just four lines, the way he hid meanings within meanings ...simply awesome. Its true that these things were probably worked backwards...Sophie's name was kept sophie to go with sofia, P.S. was made to go with princess sophie and priory of sion, the fibonacci numbers had to go with the swiss bank account and so on and so forth...but then...this is the kind of stuff that makes a great writer...the fact that he DID think up these things.

That, I am afraid, is something i cant say for Mario Puzo. The strength of the Godfather lies in its terrific plot. What i disliked was Puzo's lack of subtlety. There are just so many instances in the book where the author could have conveyed a feeling or a reaction or an expression in a subtle way but still he always resorted to plain, prosaic mentioning of events.

As a story, Godfather rocks...but i feel that a better writer could have taken this book to even greater heights.

Also, this is one instance where i felt that a movie was much more effective with an aspect of a person's characterisation than the novel. The movie, Godfather I, left no doubt whatsoever at the end that Mike Corleone had arrived as the next don, the next godfather. The book, however, didnt quite leave that feeling. There were still doubts cast about Mike's authority for example when Clemenza thinks that it was a sign of Mike's weakness that he wanted to hear the confession from Carlo Rizzi before executing him even though the decision had already been made.
Had read Omerta by Puzo earlier and that book sucked in both plot and narration.

A conspicuous difference between both books was the treatment of women. Godfather is set in the mid-twentieth century and the author really paints a bleak picture of how women were considered almost secondary human beings. Da vinci code, of course, is all about the sacred feminine...two novels that really are the two ends of the feminist spectrum!

Personally, the Da Vinci Code replaces Kane and Abel as my favourite book. The Godfather too would be within the top 5.

Don Vito Corleone said," Every man has but one destiny"...i'll extend it..." and so does every novel"!!