(4 of 10)
Puzo's new work is not likely to exceed that figure, though its lure may be enhanced by the autobiographical nature of the novel. Its hero, John ("The Kid") Merlyn, like Puzo, is a formerly impoverished novelist who turns commercial, has intriguing connections in the gambling world of Las Vegas, and spends a good deal of time writing film scripts in Hollywood. Merlyn's unpretentious philosophy and even his tone of voice sound familiarly like the author's. Reflects Merlyn: "I wanted to live an honorable life, that was my big hangup. I prided myself on being a realist, so I didn't expect myself to be perfect. But when I did something shitty, I didn't approve of it or kid myself, and usually I did stop doing the same kind of shitty thing again. But I was often disappointed in myself since there was a great variety of shitty things a person can do, and so I was always caught by surprise."
Fools Die contains the sort of mini-dramas and surprises that keep paperback readers flipping pages; a man wins a small fortune at baccarat and blows his brains out; a straightforward love affair turns baroque with kinky sex; an extremely cautious character makes a stupid and fatal error.
Puzo's descriptions of Las Vegas, its Strip, showgirls, characters, and the variety of ways one can lose money swiftly and painlessly, are carried off with brio. The green baize world of casino management has never seemed more professional, entertaining and lethal.
In Hollywood, Merlyn-Puzo's eyes alternately widen with naive excitement and narrow with humorous contempt. His description of a studio head with the Dickensian name of Wartberg: "He used lawyers as a hood used guns, used affection as a prostitute used sex. He used good works as the Greeks used the Trojan Horse, supported the Will Rogers home for retired actors, Israel, the starving millions of India, Arab refugees from Palestine. It was only personal charity to individual human beings that went against his grain."
Merlyn, as his name implies, thinks of himself as a literary necromancer who can magically make his audience laugh and cry at the same time. Actually, he is an attractive and bittersweet conman, as the last chapter of the novel reveals. The ambiguous hero of the book is a writer named Osano, a ruthless genius who pursues his dreams of potency, fame and fortune by living out his darkest instincts.
Osano is constructed of some cast-off parts of Norman Mailer and some full-blown fantasies of Mario Puzo. The character is a grand fool, but also a brutally honest observer. Says he to Merlyn: "You live in your own world, you do exactly what you want to do. You control your life. You never get into trouble, and when you do, you don't panic; you get out of it. Well, I admire you, but I don't envy you. I've never seen you do or say a really mean thing, but I don't think you really give a shit about anybody. You're just steering your life."