'The Godfather'

The book is a lot like the film(s). Both are really well done -- simplistic and mesmerizing. Both are character driven and Mario Puzo is excellent at giving his characters such vivacious personalities and attitudes.

All is OK except for Puzo's loyalty to the secondary characters like Johnny Fontane, Lucy and Jules. In fact, the Las Vegas stuff should've had more Fredo injected into it and a lot less of those three.

And the vaginal reconstructive surgery was entirely unnecessary.

Yeah, that's one thing Coppola omitted from his film, and he was better off.