for those who don't prefer the addams family

Sarah Vowell goes all Corleone crazy in today's NYT:

I don't know about you, but ''Godfather''-wise, I was good. It's embarrassing how protective I felt toward a bunch of made-up crooks, though that has more to do with Francis Ford Coppola's films than Puzo's purple prose. ''The Godfather'' is not only a perfect movie; it has become one of America's sacred texts; it should be running on a loop at the National Archives between the Declaration of Independence and a first edition of ''Leaves of Grass.'' That ''The Godfather Part III'' was a mess (though an interesting one) sated my hunger for further Corleone family reunions.

It turns out, however, that ''The Godfather Returns'' is not only a real book by a real writer. It's also a real pleasure, a fine, swirling epic -- bitter, touching, funny and true. Like some Corleone button man, the novelist Mark Winegardner ended up as the gun for hire. His book, set between 1955 and 1962, picks up where Puzo's novel left off: Don Vito is dead and Michael has consolidated the family power by offing his rivals in an orgy of death.