Journeying through the moralistic quandaries of gambling, show business, and modern America, Puzo’s thoughtful story about the life of a writer called Merlyn is at once both beautifully written, and timidly feeble.
Few authors face the same kind of reputation that the man who wrote The Godfather does. Mario Puzo’s legacy within literature will be some outstanding stories about crime figures, and their place in the modern world. However, this deviation from his previous work, whilst admirable, fails to deliver enough punch to make it memorable, and, furthermore, offers weak introspective character development unlike that which made his previous works so cherished.
The story begins well enough, set in Las Vegas, following three characters who are all there for very different reasons. Within a few pages, one of these characters, after winning a substantial amount of money in a casino, proceeds to his hotel room and blows his brains out with a handgun. This exciting and thought-provoking introduction is about as good as it gets for the rest of the novel.
Merlyn, one of the gamblers, becomes the central protagonist, and we see the developments in his life, as he journeys through his career as a writer, into Hollywood films, and how the death of his gambler friend affects him during his life. Several key characters accompany Merlyn, and we see their variations on life perspectives, and how they go about achieving their goals.
Themes which arise during the story are compelling, Puzo tackles misogyny, illegality, the fickle nature of success, as well as the personal relationships which blossom out of these topics. The writer still puts forward his talent for exploring ideas about the nature of American culture, and the darker side of it, just without any action to cement it.
Not worth reading unless you are the hardiest of Puzo fans, it will bore most, and only few will enjoy the literary fruits which come sporadically.
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