I’m not sure if Mario Puzo’s acclaimed novel qualifies as stellar prose, but for anyone who has seen the films, the terse prose certainly offers insight to the characters and story.

The wedding day of Connie Corleone ended well for her. Carlo performed his duties as a bridegroom with skill and vigor, spurred on by the contents of the bride’s gift purse which totaled up to over twenty thousand dollars. The bride, however, gave up her virginity with a great deal more willingness than she gave her purse. For the latter, he had to blacken one of her eyes. (42)

“Tom, don’t let anybody kid you. It’s all personal, every bit of business. Every piece of shit every man has to eat every day of his life is personal. They call it business. Okay. But it’s personal as hell. You know where I learned that from? The Don. My old man. The Godfather. If a bolt of lightning hit a friend of his, the old man would take it personal. He took my going into the Marines personal.” (137)

All these Hollywood guys laughed at his fondness for virgins. They called it an old guinea taste, square, and look how long it took to make a virgin give you a blow job with all the aggravation and then they usually turned out to be a lousy piece of ass. But Johnny knew that it was how you handled a young girl. You had to come onto her in the right way and then what could be greater than a girl who was tasting her first dick and loving it? (164)

Hagen understood that the policeman believes in law and order in a curiously innocent way. He believes in it more than does the public he serves. Law and order is, after all, the magic from which he derives his power, individual power which he cherishes as nearly all men cherish individual power. And yet there is always the smoldering resentment against the public he serves. They are at the same time his ward and his prey. As wards they are ungrateful, abusive and demanding. As prey, they are slippery and dangerous, full of guile. (236)

The other Dons in the room applauded and rose to shake hands with everybody in sight and to congratulate Don Corleone and Don Tattaglia on their new friendship. It was perhaps not the warmest friendship in the world. They would not send each other Christ gift greetings, but they would not murder each other. (280)