Book Review — Mario Puzo’s “The Sicilian”
The other week I finished reading Mario Puzo’s novel, The Sicilian.
As you can probably guess, The Sicilian continues with Puzo’s fascination and brilliant ability to write about the Italian mafia and criminal underworld. Specifically, this involves Sicilians and is set almost entirely on the island of Sicily between 1943 and 1950.
The Sicilian begins in 1950 as Michael Corleone is nearing his temporary exile on the island of Sicily. Remember that in The Godfather, Michael assassinated drug kingpin Virgil Sollozzo and corrupt NYPD Captain McCluskey in an Italian restaurant in New York City. Michael had to flee to Sicily and live with distant relatives for a few years before cool heads would once again prevail in America. In Sicily, Michael Corleone learns of his father’s wishes to bring local Sicilian hero, Salvatore “Turi” Guiliano, back to America with him.
The only catch was that Guiliano was being hunted not only by the local law enforcement and government of Italy, but Don Malo, leader of the mafia in Sicily, was a very real threat to Turi as well. And of course, there may be a traitor or two within Turi’s own band of rebels. As we learn in the novel, gaining the trust of not only a Sicilian, but an “anti-hero” legend to the Sicilians is not an easy task to accomplish.
The novel, The Sicilian, takes us through the history of Salvatore Guiliano and what made him into an outlaw. We learn about how his town was poor and food was scarce during World War 2 as the local mafia chiefs kept most food in storehouses and sold it through the black market. Food had to be smuggled and sometimes stolen for the families to survive. As Turi and his close friend Aspanu Pisciotta were bringing back some food for his sister’s engagement party, they were stopped by two carabinieri (basically a national police force for Italy), and a fight ensued. Turi was hit but shot and killed one of the carabinieri. Thus beginning the hunt for Guiliano.
What sets The Sicilian apart from The Godfather is that while The Godfather focuses on the criminal underworld and battles with rival mafias, The Sicilian is more of a Robin Hood-type story as Guiliano fights against not only the carabinieri, but also the rich people of society. After taking care of his parents and close friends, Guiliano’s financial and material gains are given to the poverty stricken populations in Sicily. In the world of corruption and the elite controlling the masses, here’s this “anti-hero” who hides in the mountains and carries out his vengeance against all those who stand against him, even if it’s his own band of rebels. His men are held to the highest standards, and those who step out of line find themself looking down the barrel of his gun.
The Sicilian has two main plot lines. The first involves Michael Corleone seeking out Salvatore Guiliano and convincing him to flee to America in 1950. The other plot begins in 1943 and follows Guiliano and his life as an outlaw. The main plot with Guiliano is the brunt of the novel, and his living in the mountains and sneaking into town make up the brunt of the story.
As a whole, I felt that The Sicilian was lacking that criminal perspective that made The Godfather such a powerful novel. The book itself was a fairly easy read, and a good deal of it proceeded at a fairly quick pace. Do take note that most of the action takes place in the second half of the novel.
If you would like a great American mafia story by Mario Puzo, I highly recommend The Last Don. It’s a great novel that takes a look at the mafia’s control of Hollywood and Las Vegas.
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These reviews and much more are available at my other website, Chamber of Reviews!