OMERTA

OMERTA, a mafia operation..!!

It’s the second novel by Mario Puzo that I have read. The first one was “The Last Don”. Though I read the previous novel a long time ago (probably 5 years) but yes I do remember that the author has good style of writing and has fine ability to present a clear picture of organized crimes.

From both the novels, I could easily conclude that the basic theme or general idea is kept same by Mario throughout all his books. There is a hero (or a Big Mafia Don) who protects his empire by winning over others. But the art by which he creates a different story every time and make us learn how an organized crime works is something to learn.

We do get good management lessons from it. How to protect your own team and to manage various operations simultaneously. We can see a good combination of system driven crime and people driven crime which can be seen as another style of management. Various Mafia Dons are organizing crimes against each other that can seen as system driven game and how one wins over other that can seen as the result system driven + people driven game.

Coming down to synopsis of this book, here’s a guy Astorre Viola who was adopted by Don Raymond’s Aprille from another Big Don of his own times. Don Raymond trains Astorre Viola about the organized crime and finally makes him a protector of his children, who were kept away from Raymond’s crime world and banking business. At the time of retirement Don Raymond was killed by anonymous guys, and that seemed to be the first step towards the end of Raymond’s empire and family. But Astorre Viola, as expected takes the responsibility of protecting Don’s children and the banking business.

The idea is how a new guys works in a preorganized crime world, his strategies and arts of working is something what makes Mario, the author, someone special.

Overall the novel is a good read and a good time pass. One doesn’t get bored at all throughout the complete story. Mario Puzo goes more on detailing of complete event which brings a clearer picture as if we are watching a mafia movie and not reading. If you are opting for this book to read, do realize the fact that it will be a Mafia story similar to any other Mario Puzo’s novel but his style of presenting the complete picture will keep you moving through the pages.

Another good review available is at the following link:
www.sfsite.com/~silverag/omerta.html

Vivek Nagpal
viveknagpal1981@gmail.com / viveknagpal@yahoo.com

The Godfather

By Mario Puzo



What should I say about this legendary novel by Mario Puzo?
I think most of us know about it. But still I will jot down my thoughts.

It was the novel I waited for 2 years to read. It was my father’s favorite and he used to tell me the excerpts from it since childhood. When I got into 11th Standard, the desire of reading became very strong. And to my bad luck, pirated copies were not available in my home city. And I couldn’t afford the original paper print. So, I talked to my dad about my wish. He simply said that wait for your admissions in engineering college, and then he will gift it to me. So, it happened I was gifted this novel by dad after two years of my request. And it was my first novel in life.

I liked the starting line among all the lines in the text. The line is “Behind every great fortune, there is crime”. Well I don’t totally agree to this, but it entices me.

The story revolves around Corleone family, which is strongest among five families controlling mafia of US. All these families belong to migrants from Sicily or better known as Sicilians. Godfather, Vito Corleone is head of Corleone family.

Godfather according to Christianity is the person who is responsible to take care of child next to his/her parents. But, Vito was not only known as Godfather by his godchildren who range from truck driver to movie stars but because of his conduct, his genuineness and balls.

The novel describes in management terms the whole Supply Chain of Crime. One can learn lot of things from it like Manpower Management, SCM, Change Management and what not. It was proper business set up and the only thing missing was legal entity.

Then to most of the youngsters’ page no. 28 will entertain a lot, animal like sex.

Number of movies has been made on this novel -Godfather series in English & Dharmatma, Sarkar, Atank hi Atank, Zulm ki Hukumat and many more in hindi. Recently I saw one real life movie City of Gods. I think it was in Spanish, but again the underlying situation and conduct was similar.

And I have read and heard lot of business tycoons, claiming that this novel is their mentor.

So, its one of the books that I gift to my friends who wanna start reading. And most of the times they don’t leave it till they finish it. But, still there are others who are unable to read it completely. For them, I will just say “If you can’t be interested by this, then you can’t be interested by anything”.

Shantaram

A criminal who escapes from an Australian prison and lands up in Bombay, India finds himself totally in love with this city and its people. This nearly 1000 page story describes the city, its people, its criminal underworld and its places in such excruciating detail that even Bombay dwellers would really appreciate that the author has done his research well. The story is a first person narrative from Lindsay, about his experiences as he surrenders himself to the life and people of Bombay without realising that he himself is actually only a part in a much bigger plan thought by more powerful people. Lindsay (which is not really his "real" name) runs away to India where he comes to be known as "Linbaba". He visits a village of his tour guide/cab driver to be rechristined with the new name "Shantaram". When he is robbed off of all his money, he has no other option but to go and live in the Bombay slums. He then gradually becomes a crucial part of the Bombay mafia by joining in with Khader Khan who is the topmost mafia don at that time. Once in, he is introduced to and trained in all kinds of black market businesses like the fake passport business, foreign currency business and such. The real detail in which the author explains the functioning of each of these underworld transactions is mind boggling. As also is the explanation of all the beatings and tortures endured by the prisoners in Bombay jails. Lin himself has to endure these a couple of times and he narrates at great length the affect of these wounds on his body and moreso on his mind! He is quite a real person, not some random hero who does not crack even under infinite pressure. He does break when he loses his only friends, he does give in to drugs when he loses trust in everyone around him and he does revive himself back to avenge, to fight and to live!

All in all it is an interesting read with a good amount of humour sprinkled all over the narrative derived especially from the broken english dialogues spoken by the local Bombay'ites.