The Last Don, and business cards pinched by aligator clips

Finished reading Mario Puzo's The Last Don. I picked it up at a Library Used Book Sale [a 4th of July tradition in these parts]. I hadn't read it but brought it to State in hopes of finishing it before exams. Patrick read it since I was too busy to ever get past the first chapter. He highly recommended it. I kept picturing The Godfather scenes, and some of the plotting is remarkably similar to that of the Godfather movies [sending family "hammers" - read assassins - to The Boot for a few years so they don't get arrested; harassment of Hollywood studio owners/producers; the undeniably wise Don] The departure is that here, Puzo spreads his wealth of knowledge slightly beyond the borders of New York's syndicates to the Family operations in Las Vegas and the Western U.S. I loved the conclusion, sweet revenge delivered masterfully. One criticism: way too much detail on minor characters, could be 50-90 pages shorter.