I suspect you are right. I love footnotes, but.... Actually I found it to be profoundly depressing. I usually finish books that I start; not this one. I put it aside with a deep feeling of relief.

Also, there were many, many awkward sentences. I kept wondering "are these sentences intentionally clumsy, and am I too stupid to understand the art behind it?" In the end I decided, no -- it's just not that well written.

Talk about logorrhea!

I finished the book, but I'm too exhausted to tell you about it.

Don't waste your time reading "The Godfather". It stinks! But the movie is fanastic! What a conundrum! Usually it's the other way around.

I think that Puzo was good at plot, characters and dialog, but was just no good at writing prose. And he mustn't have had much confidence in his story, because he filled the book with semi-pornographic sex scenes; I suppose it's to keep the reader interested. Well, cut out all that garbage, get rid of the horrendous prose, just let the characters tell the story -- and you pretty much have the screenplay.

I also tried to read "The Sicilian", it was just impossible. I read a bit of "Inside Las Vegas" (non fiction). It was somewhat interesting from an anthropological point of view.

I would start with "The Partly Cloudy Patriot" mostly because I like the title and what it says about the author. To me it suggests that seriousness and integrity are the underpinnings of her humorous musings on politics and US history.