I read Fools Die for the first time when I was sixteen and it was chosen by me because of my desire to learn more about Mario Puzo's work aside from The Godfather. It changed me. Even after five years of college and university, I have yet to find a novel with characters which touched me the way Puzo's did in this novel. I actually miss them to this day and every year or two, I read it again, to remember those characters and the lessons they taught me. If someone was to ask me what it was that Mario Puzo is trying to say in all his novels, I would answer with this one sentence. Life is beautiful. That is it. Fools Die exemplifies that notion in the most profound way possible. Puzo says it over and over again but most people who I have encountered prefer to think of him as a novelist who is trying to promote organized crime. He is everything but that. He is a novelist attempting to promote life. After reading Fools Die I not only had the fascinating experience of feeling that I myself had lived the events of the book or had at least seen them through another's eyes, but I also felt a very strong connection to Mr.Puzo himself. It was only after reading this novel that I began to form the first thoughts in my mind as to what I would do with my life and why. It opened my eyes to philosophy, a philosophy which, is thought out carefully, could lead to the type of happiness that Puzo shows as possible. Sometimes the true path to success is best illustrated by its failures. Learning from other's mistakes enables an individual to be a step ahead of his own possible misfortunes. Mario Puzo, with this novel, prepared me for many of the dangers as well as the pleasures which this world has to offer. I learned some valuable lessons about love as well as about men and women in general. Puzo has a way of showing you the truth of a circumstance as if you yourself had thought it and in so doing so, removes the guilt which you may feel for thinking it. I knew when I read the opening to this novel that I had found something very special. The reason is that I could have written it. For in truth, the story of Fools Die is my story as is The Godfather and The Sicilian. They are tales of the romantics. Those individuals who see things not always as they are but as they should be. Whether it was Vito Corleone, Salvatore Guliano or Merlyn, the individuals whom Puzo has portrayed as the heroes of his novels follow through with that vision of life. One day this author will no longer be around to answer the worlds questions but he will still be speaking. As long as someone, somewhere is hearing his words.

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