Mario Puzo is primarily a novelist, a storyteller of uncommon gifts whose American literary ancestors are the Naturalistic writers who focus on the American "cityscape," on the lower orders of the middle class, the streets, the resourcefulness, the...

MARIO PUZO'S The Godfather at once perpetuated and amended the stereotypical notion that all Italian-Americans are members of the Mafia. Unsurprisingly, many readers of The Godfather assumed Puzo had an insider's knowledge of the people and practices he portrayed with such ostensible authority,...

Chosen by Francine Prose, whose most recent novel is Blue Angel. Not long ago I was asked to write an essay about a film I love, a movie that seemed to me to be one of the most important works of the century....

What rough beast is David Chase riding? He seems to have understood the mood of his nation better than anyone since Mario Puzo and Francis Coppola forecast the fate of the American empire in The Godfather. And he has world leaders mouthing his dialogue, day...

Johnnie To’s Triad Election (2006) and Election (2005), both from screenplays by Nai-Hoi Yau and Tin-Shing Yip (in Cantonese with English subtitles), are receiving their American commercial release at Film Forum on Wednesday, April 25. The 52-year-old Mr. To has been directing, producing and writing...

In the following review, Kingsland approves of Puzo's self-revelatory writings in The Godfather Papers and Other Confessions.