Helpful Score: 2
This was a pretty neat book. It is supposed to be the original stories that the Brother Grimm's tale came from. Pretty gory if you like that type of thing. It was interesting
Skip to main content
Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!
How To Swap Books
Sign Up
Search 
Kiosk
PBS Market (New Books)
Book Browser
Advanced Search
Books Posted Today
Member Book Reviews
Award Winning Books
NYT Best Sellers
Amazon Best Sellers
Most Traveled Copies
Club Wish List
Login
Community
Discussion Forums
Book Lists
Blog
Donations
Box-O-Books
Maps
The Eclectic Pen
Fun Stuff
Top 100
Pulse of PBS
Spread The Word
Photo Gallery
Recipes
Club Tag Cloud
Member Testimonials
Help Center
Kiosk
PBS Market (New Books)
Go Shopping
Buy Credits
Buy PBS Money
Upgrade Membership
Gift Certificates
Transfer Credits
Search -
Omerta
Omerta
Author:
Although Mario Puzo actually wrote about a great many subjects—gambling, politics, postwar military life, the Italian-American immigrant experience—a single, lucrative obsession surfaced in his fiction again and again: the history and evolution of the Mafia in 20th-century America. His final novel, the posthumously published Omer... more » revisits that obsession and forms the independent third installment in a thematic trilogy that began with The Godfather and continued, in 1995, with The Last Don. In these three novels and in their 1984 sibling, The Sicilian, Puzo created a fictional world with a mythical resonance all its own and invested the realities of organized crime with a lurid, operatic grandeur.
Omerta introduces a new Mafia family worthy of the Corleones and the Clericuzios: the family of Don Raymonde Aprile. Their story begins in Sicily in 1967, when the dying Don Vincenzo Zeno—"the last of the true Mafia chiefs"—entrusts the young Raymonde Aprile with the task of raising his soon-to-be-orphaned two-year-old son, Astorre. Following this brief prologue, the novel moves forward nearly 30 years to the world of contemporary New York. Don Raymonde is now retired and has realized one of the great dreams of the career criminal: He has become legitimate. In the grand tradition of the American robber barons, he has extricated himself from all illegal activities, helped his children establish themselves in safe, prestigious professions, and become "a gentleman banker and pillar of society." Three years after his retirement, he is shot to death on the steps of St. Patrick's Cathedral by a pair of professional hit men.
In the aftermath of the Don's death, Astorre, his adopted son, takes center stage. Astorre, on the surface, is a harmless sort: a wedding singer, horseman, and ladies' man who earns his living by managing the Aprile family's macaroni franchise. He is also a "Qualified Man," trained in the ways of the old Mafiosi and steeped in the Sicilian traditions of honor and vengeance. Astorre attempts to follow his late guardian's instructions by protecting the Aprile heirs and by preserving the integrity of their multibillion dollar banking interests. But at the same time, he follows the dictates of the ancient code of Omerta and ruthlessly pursues the men responsible for Don Raymonde's murder.
Astorre's quest brings him into contact with a vivid, often vile gallery of supporting characters. Among them are a rival Mafia chieftain with his own undisclosed agenda; a South-American drug lord with a demented desire to own and operate his own nuclear arsenal; an FBI agent whose obsessive dedication leads to tragic consequences; two lethal, deeply compromised NYPD homicide detectives; and a pair of charming, athletic fraternal twins who specialize in murder for hire. Astorre's encounters with these and other, violent and corrupt players nearly cost him his life and culminate in a bloody confrontation in which justice—Sicilian style—prevails.
Author:
Although Mario Puzo actually wrote about a great many subjects—gambling, politics, postwar military life, the Italian-American immigrant experience—a single, lucrative obsession surfaced in his fiction again and again: the history and evolution of the Mafia in 20th-century America. His final novel, the posthumously published Omer... more » revisits that obsession and forms the independent third installment in a thematic trilogy that began with The Godfather and continued, in 1995, with The Last Don. In these three novels and in their 1984 sibling, The Sicilian, Puzo created a fictional world with a mythical resonance all its own and invested the realities of organized crime with a lurid, operatic grandeur.
Omerta introduces a new Mafia family worthy of the Corleones and the Clericuzios: the family of Don Raymonde Aprile. Their story begins in Sicily in 1967, when the dying Don Vincenzo Zeno—"the last of the true Mafia chiefs"—entrusts the young Raymonde Aprile with the task of raising his soon-to-be-orphaned two-year-old son, Astorre. Following this brief prologue, the novel moves forward nearly 30 years to the world of contemporary New York. Don Raymonde is now retired and has realized one of the great dreams of the career criminal: He has become legitimate. In the grand tradition of the American robber barons, he has extricated himself from all illegal activities, helped his children establish themselves in safe, prestigious professions, and become "a gentleman banker and pillar of society." Three years after his retirement, he is shot to death on the steps of St. Patrick's Cathedral by a pair of professional hit men.
In the aftermath of the Don's death, Astorre, his adopted son, takes center stage. Astorre, on the surface, is a harmless sort: a wedding singer, horseman, and ladies' man who earns his living by managing the Aprile family's macaroni franchise. He is also a "Qualified Man," trained in the ways of the old Mafiosi and steeped in the Sicilian traditions of honor and vengeance. Astorre attempts to follow his late guardian's instructions by protecting the Aprile heirs and by preserving the integrity of their multibillion dollar banking interests. But at the same time, he follows the dictates of the ancient code of Omerta and ruthlessly pursues the men responsible for Don Raymonde's murder.
Astorre's quest brings him into contact with a vivid, often vile gallery of supporting characters. Among them are a rival Mafia chieftain with his own undisclosed agenda; a South-American drug lord with a demented desire to own and operate his own nuclear arsenal; an FBI agent whose obsessive dedication leads to tragic consequences; two lethal, deeply compromised NYPD homicide detectives; and a pair of charming, athletic fraternal twins who specialize in murder for hire. Astorre's encounters with these and other, violent and corrupt players nearly cost him his life and culminate in a bloody confrontation in which justice—Sicilian style—prevails.
ISBN-13: 9780099296805
ISBN-10: 0099296802
Publication Date: 5/3/2001
Pages: 432
Rating: 2
ISBN-10: 0099296802
Publication Date: 5/3/2001
Pages: 432
Rating: 2
3.3 stars, based on 2 ratings
Publisher: Arrow
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review
Top Member Book Reviews
Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews
Mario Puzo's last book. An excellent book in the tradition of The Godfather and The Last Don. A must read for anyone who enjoyed those books!
The story of a Mafia mole begins with the American Don Raymonde Aprile and his adopted "nephew" from Sicily The story combines the FBI and two crooked NYPD detectives who follow clues to a South American Mob kingpin. A surprising story unfolds as you get sucked into the plot immediately! Never a dull moment!
Classic mafia story read by actor Joe Montegna
Can't get the system to cooperate but this is an Audio book (CD). It's read by Joe Mantegna and is typical Puzo very reminiscent of the Godfather.
Fun "book" great for long commutes.
Fun "book" great for long commutes.
very interesting, grouping of short stories.
Genres:
