L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2016 www.italoamericano.org 11 L'Italo-Americano The Father of The Godfather: Mario Puzo FRANCESCA BEZZONE A quintessential figure of Italo-american culture, P uzo w as , and s till remains today almost twenty years after his death, the iconic s ymbol of how Italian and American heritage have merged together to create some of the most defining art of the 20th century. Even his career is image to what could only be defined as a post-war, all-american literary dream: from editor for several pulp publications, through ini- tially unsuccessful attempts to independent writing, to final worldwide success, obtained thanks to a mix of real life expe- rience, creativity and hard boiled narrative lines. Puzo was to find true fame thanks to his collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola and the cinematographic version of his masterpiece, The Godfather, but never underestimate his talent as a novelist: Puzo was - and still is - a truly amazing literary talent. Mario, Hell's Kitchen and 1950s America Mario Gianluigi Puzo was born in infamous Hell's Kitchen, to parents of Neapolitan descent. It was 1920, and Puzo's child- hood and adolescence in this notoriously difficult neighbor- hood of New York city shaped the writer's creativity and aes- thetic vision. When the US entered the War in 1941, Puzo joined the United States Army Air Force and was shipped to Germany, where he mostly served as a public rela- tion officer, as his poor eyesight did not allow him to take part to active combat duty. Upon his return home, Puzo completed his studies and began writing. His first effort, the short story The Last Christmas was published in 1950 and his first full length novel, T he D ar k Arena, in 1955. Puzo's talent was obvious, but some time still had to pass before readers truly understood it. In the meanwhile, he w orked as an editor and writer for several publications of Martin Goodman's Magazine Management Company. He col- laborated in particular with the company men 's magazines which, in true 1950s and 1960s style, privileged hard boiled nar- ratives, often featuring gangster or war inspired stories. With the pen name of Mario Cleri, Puzo ended up creating some of the latter for popular magazine True Action. The Godfather and interna- tional Success P uzo's mas terpiece, T he Godfather, was published in 1969: his interest in the world of organized crime was rooted in the many years s pent at Goodman's publishing house, where he had read and enjoyed plenty of journalism and litera- ture on the topic. The great appeal of T he Godfather, though, did not sim- ply come from its plot, but also from its settings and from the fact it made into literature a real- ity, that of Italo-american orga- nized crime, that for decades had been dominating the interest of people. Puzo's own knowledge of the very neighbourhoods were his stories were set, gave to his fictionalized tales a realistic aura typical of well established 1950s american crime literature, some- thing the general audience was bound to notice. And indeed, it was the public Puzo was set to conquer: his first literary efforts, he liked to under- line, had been critically praised but, at the same time, had failed to obtain success among com- mon readers. The author did not only see this as an annoying and somehow depressing factor, but also as a waste of a potentially very lucrative career. Money and mainstream suc- cess were certainly in his mind when he penned The Godfather. What was about to happen, however, went beyond any of P uzo's expectations : w hen approached by F rancis F ord Coppola to turn his novel into a movie script, the Italo-american probably did not think much of it, beside being a good way to cash on the novel. However, thanks to Coppola's own trained cinematographic eye, the three movies ins pired by T he Godfather became some of the mos t s ucces s ful A merican movies of all times, interpreted by actors of immense carature, s uch as M arlon Brando, A l Pacino and Robert de Niro. Puzo collaborated to the cre- ation of all three movie scripts. After The Godfather At the time of his death, in 1999, Puzo had written 10 novels and some literary criticism work. His last two pieces, Omertà and The Family, were criticized for not being of the same quality as his previous production. The Family was, in fact, left unfin- ished and, in a sort of Mozartian twist, was concluded posthu- mously by Puzo's partner, Carol Gino. Mario Puzo's talent, even with the possible decline in style s how n in his later w orks , remains as sheer and clear as crystal: a product of an undis- cussed literary genius, accompa- nied by an aesthetic sense devel- oped through real life experi- ences. Creativity, hardship, hard work: Mario Puzo's production could be well defined in these three words. Three words which, somehow, also characterize the sailing through history of his own people, the Americans and the Italians. LIFE PEOPLE MOVIES MUSIC BOOKS Italian-American writer Mario Puzo , author of the novel The Godfather

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