back to Niagara Falls Reporter archive
OMERTA, by Mario Puzo. Random House, New York and Toronto, 2000. 316 pages, $25.95.
There's a scene in the movie Goodfellas where the character played by Robert De Niro tells a young protege about the "two most important things in life."
"Always keep your mouth shut, and never rat on your friends," he says.
That's a pretty fair American translation of the Sicilian word "omerta," which The Godfather author Mario Puzo chose as the title for the third and final installment in his immensely popular Mafia trilogy.
Puzo, who died last year at the age of 78, did for the Mafia what William Peter Blatty did for demonic possession and exorcism -- romanticizing and glamorizing it in a way that fired the imagination of Middle America.
The Godfather remains a massive achievement in American popular culture. Phrases like "He made him an offer he couldn't refuse," "Never go against the family" and "He sleeps with the fishes" have become as well known as anything from Shakespeare or the Bible.
Indeed, the members of the Corleone family are as familiar to many people as members of their own families.
Once he found his formula, Puzo stuck with it. He made millions from The Godfather and, later, from The Last Don.
Omerta already has been named a main selection by the Book of the Month Club and the Literary Guild, and the dust jacket informs us it soon will be made into a major motion picture by Miramax. In a sense, Puzo's imaginary Mafia has been more successful than the real Mafia over the past 30 or so years.
The dysfunction of the traditional Mafia way of life is a central theme of Omerta. Billions of dollars in profits from the smuggling of heroin, cocaine and marijuana have served to severely marginalize more traditional organized crime activities such as bookmaking, loansharking and labor racketeering, making them less attractive to the younger generation of hoodlum.
The book tells the story of aging Don Ramonde Aprile, one of the few New York Mafia chieftains not brought down by the FBI or whacked by ambitious young Turks in the waning years of the 20th century.
The Don divests himself of all his illegal businesses, keeping only his interest in an international banking empire. His three children, who have been raised as solid citizens far removed from the life of crime, finally begin to become acquainted with their father. For his part, Don Aprile comes to enjoy his retirement.
But all around him, danger is lurking. Unscrupulous FBI men, city police on the take, drug-dealing South Americans and former Mafia rivals conspire. The banks are the one thing the Don has that everyone wants, the government to fund further crimefighting activities and the criminals to launder drug money.
When Don Aprile is assassinated -- in a spectacular scene set on the steps of New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral following his granddaughter's Communion -- the family is plunged into a crossfire for which it is seemingly ill-prepared.
An unlikely savior is found in Astorre Viola, raised by the Don as a son and known as a cousin to the rest of the family. A macaroni importer who also is an amateur singer and equestrian, Astorre seems anything but the serious man he actually is. Harboring a dark secret rooted in the danger and beauty of Sicily's Castellammare del Golfo, Astorre takes on the mantle of family protector and avenging angel for the slain Don.
In essence, this is a book about people who don't want to be involved with organized crime but through accident of birth find themselves surrounded by it. Omerta is something of an ironic title in that the Feds, local police and various crime factions are played off against one another in a world where information is a weapon more dangerous than any gun.
Filled with larger-than-life characters and fast-paced action, Puzo's final pot boiler is a real page-turner. Many will read it in a single sitting.
It won't, of course, enjoy the success of The Godfather, but then few 20th century American novels have.