by Nancy Ciccone, University of Colorado Denver
Mario Puzo’s little known spy thriller, Six Graves to Munich, wrestles with themes he later develops in his best seller, The Godfather. Among them is the exploration of commensurate and compensatory justice. Set in post-WWII, the novel dramatizes a spy’s revenge against former enemies, whom the US Government now considers friendly. Focusing on issues of identity, the genre furthermore provides subtle pathways for Puzo to incorporate his Italian American heritage. Whatever its literary merits, Six Graves provides an apt framework for Puzo to interrogate justice in relation to criminality.
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