From The Don to The Donald: Author explains our fascination with family sagas from the Trumps to the Corleones

In his classic crime novel The Godfather, author Mario Puzo offered readers a saga of power, corruption, secret, lies and family.

It was an offer, it perhaps goes without saying, we couldn’t refuse.

The movie adaptation, starring Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone and Al Pacino as his son Michael, became a cinema classic. So too did the sequel, starring Robert De Niro as the young Vito.

Michael’s at first reluctant rise to power and all that comes with it has won new generations of fans since the novel’s release in 1969, and the lessons in it still apply today, according to author and journalist Jonathan Freedland.

He has penned a foreword to a new illustrated limited edition of The Godfather released this week by The Folio Society.

“The Godfather teaches almost kind of eternal lessons about politics – about power, trust and loyalty,” says Jonathan. “These are enduring things.

“The story could be set in the Roman forum as much as it could be set in the modern Conservative Party. It’s the same enduring principles about who is going to betray whom, and about who is in charge.

“It happens to be set among the crime families of New York but in terms of sheer power politics – rivalry, ambition, lust for glory and wealth – these are timeless truths.”

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The Corleones’ struggle appeals because it is a family saga which, according to Jonathan, is of the type which has captivated us for much longer than the 50 years since the novel was released.

“Families are almost the most eternal story,” he adds. “We are interested in stories about husbands and wives, and sibling rivalry like Cain and Abel. It’s there in Jacob and Esau as much as it’s there in Sonny, Michael and Fredo.

“There’s something almost biblical about how epic it is. In going for a crime family Mario Puzo really struck gold as it was not just the Mafia but it was family. Both of those things are fascinating.”

In just over two weeks, the most important US election in living memory will be held to find out who will be president for the next four years.

The incumbent is Donald Trump who, like Don Vito Corleone, may be facing the end of his reign. The similarities might not stretch much further, though.

“From what we know Donald Trump doesn’t read anything so it’s fairly unlikely he’s picked up The Godfather,” explains Jonathan, “but I think it’s fairly likely he’s seen the film.

“Trump is an interesting lesson about politics – that a man without shame is tremendously powerful.

“One of the things that really restrains the Corleones in the book is they have notions of honour and shame. There are things that Vito Corleone and Don Corleone won’t do because they would be dishonourable and would bring shame down on the family.

“The Mafia have certain rules they stick to – all of the different rival families do – whereas Trump shows us the power of people who have no shame. He is unembarrassable.

“He doesn’t mind somebody pointing out a contradiction or that he used to say X and now he says Y. He doesn’t care. He’ll just deny it’s true. And so in a strange way, some of the lessons of the Godfather, don’t apply to him.

“He is more shameless than a mafia Don, which is saying something.”

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The Corleones do share some similarities with Trump and his family, however – as well as two families from very different successful modern television shows.

“The idea of a powerful father and a battle for succession is a very enduring theme,” adds Jonathan, who also writes critically-acclaimed thrillers under the name Sam Bourne. “The show Succession starring Brian Cox is about this. It’s also there in The Crown, which I think is a reworking of The Godfather myth and the story of the reluctant heir.

“You see the same thing going on in the Trump family. His kids are vying for succession – there’s a battle between Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka which is like the battle between Sonny and Michael Corleone.

“It’s why people are gripped by the Rupert Murdoch succession story, and why one day they’ll be gripped perhaps by the Trump heirs as they compete to be top.

“The royal family is the ultimate soap opera. And of course soap operas like EastEnders have families in them – family is inherently fascinating.”

Mario Puzo’s book was praised for twisting expectations about heroes. Although they were killers and crooks, they obeyed their own code.

“What Mario Puzo does so successfully is make it clear there is an honour code which they comply with,” says Jonathan. “By the end of the book you do kind of respect the values of Don Corleone – you go even further and start to think that on some level he’s a moral man.

“There is undeniable glamour to these characters and they have become the template for a noble gangster. Apparently Mafia members in New York and New Jersey simulate the language they hear in The Godfather – that’s where they learned to talk like that. They don’t talk like that because their parents and grandparents did, it’s due to Francis Ford Coppola’s movie and The Sopranos.

“He invested that life with an allure and glamour that is unshakeable.”