'Godfather Returns' -- leave the sequel, take the original

Let's start at the beginning: Mario Puzo's best seller, "The Godfather."

This is the book so riveting that it sold 21 million copies worldwide, so entertaining that it prompted an Academy Award-winning film and its equally brilliant sequel, so realistic it that became a primer for subsequent generations of genuine mobsters.

Puzo co-wrote the movie and its film follow-up, bringing his fictional crime family to a perfect finish: Don Michael Corleone sitting emotionally bereft, the murderous king of the mob world now wealthy, powerful and utterly alone in his Nevada mansion.

What more was there to say?

Nothing. Which, of course, meant another movie sequel: the disappointing "The Godfather III." And now comes the even more unnecessary book sequel, "The Godfather Returns," a book that should sleep with the fishes (or at least line some birdcages).

Author Michael Winegardner was chosen last year in a nationwide contest conducted by publisher Random House and the Puzo literary estate. It was a Pyrrhic victory; how could the original be topped?

It can't, although Winegardner gamely tries.

His book picks up in 1955, with Michael Corleone summoning the sequel's new major character, Nick "Ace" Geraci, to handle a piece of business: the murder of family capo Sal Tessio, who had betrayed the Corleones way back in Puzo's book. This sets in motion a series of betrayals, killings and power grabs -- none of them as compelling as the first go-round.

A new generation of Corleones, the brood of the late Sonny, are introduced; they pale in comparison to their faux father. Even the old characters get lost: Fredo Corleone becomes a homicidal bisexual in the new book.

In the original, saloon singer Johnny Fontane was created with a knowing wink at Frank Sinatra. In this book, Fontane simply IS Sinatra. He's got his own Rat Pack (Briton Robert Chadwick, black/Jewish sidekick J.J. White Jr.); they're working on a Las Vegas film (eerily reminiscent of "Ocean's 11"); he's campaigning for an Irish-American presidential candidate (James Kavanaugh Shea).

The Shea family might sound familiar, too -- dad Corbett Shea was a bootlegger with mob ties. His son successfully runs for the White House. Once elected, Shea appoints his brother as attorney general. And the brother then decides to go after the mob.

Goodbye, Corleones. Hello, Kennedys.

The original Puzo book was poetry, with unforgettable characters and dialogue that immediately entered pop culture.

"Tom, can you get me off the hook? For old times sakes?"

"Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do me a service in return."

"Mr. Corleone is a man who insists on hearing bad news at once."

Why bother trying to top it?