De Zwarte Arena

by Mario Puzo

They lived in a world of ruthless men and their women. A world of naked power and secret influence. A world outside the law, beyond the law, above the law. They lived in - The Dark Arena. Mosca: young, tough, ambitious. He liked the wheeling and dealing and he wasn't afraid to kill; but there was one thing he didn't reckon with: love. Hella: she loved Mosca more than life itself, which was very dangerous - for them both. Eddie: a real operator. He cared only for himself and the deals he could make. And when he was drunk, he was vicious. Leo: a divided soul. He was between worlds and caught up in the deadly intrigues of Eddie and Mosca. "Savage...It's brutal impact is extraordinary." (Library Journal)

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Crime, Thriller, Historical, Mystery, Novels

286 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Puzo was born in a poor family of Neapolitan immigrants living in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York. Many of his books draw heavily on this heritage. After graduating from the City College of New York, he joined the United States Army Air Forces in World War II. Due to his poor eyesight, the military did not let him undertake combat duties but made him a public relations officer stationed in Germany. In 1950, his first short story, The Last Christmas, was published in American Vanguard. After the war, he wrote his first book, The Dark Arena, which was published in 1955.

At periods in the 1950s and early 1960s, Puzo worked as a writer/editor for publisher Martin Goodman's Magazine Management Company. Puzo, along with other writers like Bruce Jay Friedman, worked for the company line of men's magazines, pulp titles like Male, True Action, and Swank. Under the pseudonym Mario Cleri, Puzo wrote World War II adventure features for True Action.

Puzo's most famous work, The Godfather, was first published in 1969 after he had heard anecdotes about Mafia organizations during his time in pulp journalism. He later said in an interview with Larry King that his principal motivation was to make money. He had already, after all, written two books that had received great reviews, yet had not amounted to much. As a government clerk with five children, he was looking to write something that would appeal to the masses. With a number one bestseller for months on the New York Times Best Seller List, Mario Puzo had found his target audience. The book was later developed into the film The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The movie received 11 Academy Award nominations, winning three, including an Oscar for Puzo for Best Adapted Screenplay. Coppola and Puzo collaborated then to work on sequels to the original film, The Godfather Part II and The Godfather Part III.

Puzo wrote the first draft of the script for the 1974 disaster film Earthquake, which he was unable to continue working on due to his commitment to The Godfather Part II. Puzo also co-wrote Richard Donner's Superman and the original draft for Superman II. He also collaborated on the stories for the 1982 film A Time to Die and the 1984 Francis Ford Coppola film The Cotton Club.

Puzo never saw the publication of his penultimate book, Omertà, but the manuscript was finished before his death, as was the manuscript for The Family. However, in a review originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Jules Siegel, who had worked closely with Puzo at Magazine Management Company, speculated that Omertà may have been completed by "some talentless hack." Siegel also acknowledges the temptation to "rationalize avoiding what is probably the correct analysis -- that [Puzo] wrote it and it is terrible."

Puzo died of heart failure on July 2, 1999 at his home in Bay Shore, Long Island, New York. His family now lives in East Islip, New York.

Reviews

[Edita · Rating 4 out of 5]

He had drawn the sheet with arrogant certainty, with faith in the armor he had grown against grief, trusting his memory of the terrible years to shield him now.

[Aurore · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read this one in the darkest days of my life, when i thought too much about my life, about what i'd lost and how i could... die without hurting anyone around me. i felt touched with this story of a soldier who couldn't again get in touch with his loved ones at homeland and that made him return to Germany to find the only one, his woman, who got all his trust during darkest days of the WWII. her love helped him go on with his life until the day she passed away. nothing left and worth to him since her death, even their own child. what he lost was not only his loved one, not only his family or his nation, but also his trust in life. at the end of the novel, he got lost, and tried to run away, cared nothing for what was next in his life, he left his baby to an old woman who got his wife's trust and got away.

years later, when i read "a movable feast" by ernest hemingway, i started to think back about "the dark arena" and got to know more about those of the lost generation. life is so hard.

this one is neccessary for one's life to know the truth about living and trusting. it's also my favourite book of all time in my own life.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like most people, the reason I read this book is that I LOVED the Godfather. I happened to love this book too, but expecting it to be like the Godfather was a HUGE mistake.

Puzo is great I writing about crime, manipulation, betrayal, negotiations, murder, etc. But I don't think he ever really wanted to be this kind of author. Puzo never actually wanted to write an entire book about mafia. He'd written a good book with a a small part about mafia, and his publisher told him the novel would have been more successful if there had been more mafia. So he wrote the Godfather, and people loved it. However most people did because of the crime part, and Puzo ended up being a crime novelist.

I read Puzo's last book, Omerta, and it was only about mafia and police, but it had no heart in it. It didn't feel like Puzo had cared about this novel. It felt like he had to write another book, that people would enjoy.

Now how does that have anything to do with the Dark Arena? Well, this book wasn't written by the Puzo people loved because of his gift for writing about mafia. This book was written by the romantic Puzo who loved Dostoyevsky's novels and wanted to write about character who were emotionally suffering.

Many people didn't like the book because they found the characters unrelatable and unlikeable.

In my opinion, this book's greatest strength was its characters. They felt real. I think the problem is that they felt too real, and there was nothing epic or mythical about them.

Now were they likeable? I think Hella (the German girlfriend) was likeable. And Mosca's family too. But the others weren't. And I think it was done on purpose. Like in the Catcher in the Rye, the only really likeable characters are Holden in his sisters. And that is because Holden thinks of most people as phonies. Well, in the Dark Arena, although it is 3rd person multiple points of view novel, the story is mostly seen through Mosca's eyes. And Mosca sees only the worst in people. He is unable to actually care about someone or something (the first thing he thought about his son is what an ugly baby he was, the second was how he wasn't that ugly anymore), and I think this is the most interesting thing about this novel. The extreme cynicism of the main character, his being unable to care about anything, his wanting to escape life and the world (kinda like Holden, although this book's got nothing to do with the Catcher in the Rye).

(SPOILER ALERT.) The end is really tragic. The reader realizes that he truly doesn't care about anything at all. He's too depressed to live, but doesn't care enough to actually commit suicide. (END OF SPOILER)

Another thing that made this book great is how violently the story is told.

Anyway, don't read this story when you expect it to be physically violent. Because this is pure psychological violence. (Good thing I read the Catcher in the Rye right after that book. It kept me from falling off the cliff and into the ravine of cynicism as I often do.)

If you want to read this book, expect it to be the kind of story Dostoyevsky would've written if he'd lived in the 40's.

[Asghar Abbas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Watch Mario Puzo Hemingway his way around in a first novel published under his own name, after the bad start that was Six Graves to Munich. For a longest while I thought The Dark Arena was his first published book. Sometimes writers go through this, I am not naive, I just thought Puzo was a masterwordsmith from the get go. But then again, Tawni O'Dell wrote five novels she thought she Should write before getting her Back Roads (an excellent novel) published, every writer's woes, I suppose. The Dark Arena ; A novel that is more Hemingway than Hemingway's own work. Puzo had lived this book while stationed in Germany, the story is drawn from that and based on his experiences there. A book he remained a pure and untainted artist with, he didn't compromise at all. Very poignant drink. Chug it.

[Avishek Bhattacharjee · Rating 2 out of 5]

দ্বিতীয় বিশ্বযুদ্ধের শেষে মোস্কা নিজের বাড়ি আমেরিকা ফেরে জার্মানি থেকে। ফিরে গিয়ে নিজের পরিবার এবং তার জন্য প্রতীক্ষা করে থাকা প্রেমিকের সাথে নিজেকে মানিয়ে নিতে না পেরে আবার চাকরি একটা নিয়ে ফিরে আসে জার্মানিতে। জার্মানি তখন আমেরিকার দখলে। সব কিছু চলে অদ্ভুত এক নিয়মে। সিগারেটকে অনেকটা কারেন্সির মতই ব্যবহার করা যায়। এখানে মোস্কা আরো কিছু বন্ধু জুটিয়ে ভালই সময় কাটাচ্ছিল। কিন্তু তার সব পরিবর্তন হয়ে যায় হেলার সাথে দেখা হবার পর। তারা একসাথে থাকতে শুরু করে এবং বাচ্চাও হয় একটা। মোস্কা বিয়ের অনুমতির জন্য আবেদন করে। এর মধ্যেই হেলা প্রচন্ড দাতের ব্যথায় ভোগা শুরু করে। কিন্তু বিয়ে না হবার ফলে হেলা উন্নত চিকিৎসা পায় না। আর বললে স্পয়লার হবে। এম্নিতেই অনেক বলে ফেললাম।

বইটা ভাল না। প্রচুর লেখা, যেগুলা না লিখলেও চলত। পড়ে মনে হল লেখক লেখার চর্চা করেছেন পরবর্তী উপন্যাস গডফাদার লেখার জন্য। গল্পের প্লট খুবই সাধারণ। কোন আলাদা কিছু নজরে পরে নাই। তবে একটা ইউনিক জিনিস হল চরিত্রায়ন। এই কাজটা বইটাতে ভয়ংকর ভালভাবে করা হয়েছে। এছাড়া বাকি সবই গড়পড়তা।

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read The Dark Arena in 2009, during a year soaked in nostalgia and recalibration. It wasn’t the year of a breakup or a job switch—nothing so cinematic. It was the year everything felt...in-between. The wars outside were distant. The wars within, not so much. Into this fog walked Walter Mosca, Puzo’s weary protagonist, striding back into the postwar ruins of Germany like a man convinced the world owed him an apology. I didn’t know it then, but The Dark Arena wasn’t just a novel about a disillusioned GI—it was a mirror tilted at a subtle, crooked angle. I saw shadows of my own contradictions reflected in his restlessness.

Mario Puzo is, of course, best remembered for The Godfather, that sprawling crime opera that etched phrases like “offer you can’t refuse” into pop consciousness. But The Dark Arena (1955) is no mob drama. It’s an entirely different beast: raw, cerebral, and austere. There are no capos, no vendettas, no gunshots muffled by silenced revolvers. Instead, there is moral paralysis, emotional estrangement, and a Germany slowly sweeping its sins under rubble. This was Puzo before the glory—before Coppola, before the Corleones, before the grand myth of Italian-American resilience. This was Puzo trying to be existential, literary, and deeply European.

Walter Mosca, the ex-soldier at the center of the novel, returns to Germany not as a conqueror but as a man allergic to American banality. The narrative opens with his desire to reunite with Hella, a German woman he loved during the war. But even this romance is not tender—it’s transactional, diseased, and doomed. When she falls seriously ill, Mosca takes a decision so ethically jarring that the novel tilts into moral noir. I won’t spoil the detail for anyone who hasn’t read it—but let’s just say it’s not the climax of a love story. It’s the climax of a man’s disillusionment with life itself.
Looking back on my 2009 reading of the book, I remember being disturbed. Not just by Mosca’s choices, but by how coldly the novel treated them. There’s no swelling music, no narrative judgment. It just…happens. Like most irreversible things do.

If you hold The Dark Arena up to the great novels of postwar moral reckoning, it occupies a curious place. Puzo was not Camus, but he seems to have brushed shoulders with that school of thought. Mosca’s emotional alienation brings to mind The Stranger’s Meursault. Like Meursault, Mosca doesn’t follow the moral compass of a traditional protagonist. His ethical decisions are not governed by redemption but by a kind of clinical fatigue. Unlike Camus, Puzo doesn’t frame this as a philosophical statement—it’s just the reality of a man who has seen too much and felt too little.
Yet where Camus is ice-cold in language, Puzo allows for grittiness and bodily despair. In fact, Puzo’s true American godfather might be Hemingway. The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms echo through the pages of The Dark Arena—those sharp-edged sentences, that soldier’s apathy, that atmosphere of post-traumatic indulgence. The bars, the women, the static between violence and sex—it’s all there. But Hemingway’s characters often drift toward existential grace; Puzo’s Mosca moves deeper into shadow.

Comparisons with Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus—another novel I read, and re-read, during years of moral reckoning (2003, 2009, 2014)—might feel ambitious. But both novels share a mood of decaying Europe and compromised genius. Mann’s protagonist Adrian Leverkühn barters his soul for artistic greatness; Mosca barters something subtler—his capacity to feel—for a life that doesn’t hurt. In both, there is a sense of irreversible corruption, of something beautiful turned in on itself.

Reading The Dark Arena retrospectively—after consuming the Godfather trilogy, after watching pop culture canonize Vito Corleone—it’s tempting to treat the book as a draft for Puzo’s later brilliance. That would be a mistake. The Dark Arena isn’t about power. It’s about powerlessness. There are no grand patriarchs or codes of honor here. There is only a man, stripped of illusions, watching as civilization rebuilds with bricks stained in blood.

And yet, you can see the early seeds of Puzo’s obsession with masculinity, loyalty, and control. Mosca, like Michael Corleone, is torn between love and duty, tenderness and violence. But where Michael becomes mythic, Mosca remains irredeemably human. And maybe that’s why The Dark Arena still hits hard.

It refuses the narrative arc of salvation. There’s no triumph, only aftermath.

I remember walking out of a seminar in 2009, the sky overcast, my mind thick with the residue of Puzo’s prose. It was one of those long, slow afternoons where you don’t know if you’re bored or melancholy. I remember thinking: How many people live entire lives without ever making a single free choice? Mosca wasn’t heroic, but he wasn’t cowardly either. He was just stuck. And in a year where the world was recovering from its own version of illness—economic collapses, viral fears, ideological fatigue—I found that stasis oddly familiar.

We were post-Bush, pre-pandemic. The decade was folding into itself, and I, too, felt like a man wandering through a half-rebuilt city. I wasn’t in Germany, but I was in Delhi’s crumbling quarters, where modern glass towers rose beside alleys that still smelled of burning kerosene. The Dark Arena felt timely in a timeless way.

If you liked The Quiet American by Graham Greene, you’ll find a similar emotional tonality in Puzo’s early work: disillusionment without nihilism. If you’ve read Erich Maria Remarque’s The Black Obelisk or Arch of Triumph, that same air of fractured postwar European identity pervades The Dark Arena. Even Böll’s Billiards at Half-Past Nine echoes this aching search for moral coherence in a world rebuilt on compromise.

But perhaps the closest cousin is Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead. That book is about the war; The Dark Arena is about what happens after. Together, they form a diptych—before and after the fall. Both are preoccupied with the loss of moral certainty in an age that mass-produced corpses.
The Dark Arena may not sit atop Puzo’s bibliography in terms of fame, but it deserves a spot in any serious discussion about postwar literature. It is unsentimental, unsparing, and deeply modern in its treatment of masculinity, trauma, and exile. It doesn’t romanticize suffering, but it doesn’t run from it either.

It’s a book that whispers rather than shouts—and in 2009, amid the clutter of louder headlines, I heard that whisper.

It said: You will not be rescued. You must decide how to live anyway.

And sometimes, that’s all literature owes us.

[Rafal Jasinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Mroczna arena" - pierwsza z wydanych książek Mario Puzo - jest najbardziej gorzką i przygnębiającą powieścią w dorobku pisarza. Jej bohaterowie, postaci których losy zbiegły się w powojennych Niemczech pod amerykańską administracją wojskową, zmagają się z traumami, jakie odcisnęły na nich wydarzenia II Wojny Światowej - wśród nich byli więźniowie obozów koncentracyjnych, amerykańscy żołnierze - jedni pogrążeni w marazmie po doświadczeniach wojennych, wyprani z emocji i uczuć, inni wykorzystujący sytuację formalnego "okupanta" do kręcenia szemranych interesów - i Niemcy - zhańbieni i znieważani.

Puzo opowiada o ludziach szukających celu życiowego i szansy na ucieczkę od przeszłości - mrocznych wydarzeń, których byli świadkami, uczestnikami i sprawcami. Wszyscy zajrzeli w najczarniejszą otchłań a powojenna rzeczywistość to postapakalipsa - rzeczywistość brutalna i niedająca nadziei na lepsze jutro. Na jakiekolwiek jutro...

"Mroczna arena" to powieść znakomita, w której Puzo sięgnął do rzadko eksploatowanych w literaturze tematów i okresu. Bohaterowie prawdziwi, wyraziści - choć trudno znaleźć tu kogoś, komu czytelnik mógłby być przychylny - dialogi żywe, narracja dosadna do poziomu wulgarności. Puzo nie oszczędza czytelnika - jest depresyjnie, patologicznie, posępnie. "Mroczna arena" jest niczym film Smarzowskiego połączony z przewrotną wariacją na temat "Paragrafu 22" Hellera.

Najdojrzalsza i najbardziej przejmująca powieść Mario Puzo. Nigdy potem nie napisał niczego na tak wysokim poziomie... Polecam!

[Joe L · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast-paced, entertaining read about the life of an ex American GI turned civilian contractor and his friends in Bremen Germany immediately following WWII.
I sympathized with all the characters, especially the main character Walter. An unhappy man, bitter and restless.

[Jim C · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book takes place after World War II in Germany. This is about an American soldier that returns home to his family and his girlfriend who has waited the whole time he was in the service. The problem is that he is a changed man and he doesn't want this scenario anymore. He returns to Germany for the woman he fell for while he was stationed there.

The author does a fantastic job with the setting and the mood for this novel. One cannot help but get a feeling of dreadfulness throughout this novel as people try to move on from war and put their lives back together. The description of the setting is intense as he describes the ruins of homes and the contrasting nature of people partying in this world. That is the only positive aspect of the book. Overall, this book was wearisome because of the characters especially the main character. They were so unlikable and there was nothing redeeming about them at all. Even when the main character had a chance to act personable or be likable, he did the opposite and left the reader despising him.

My advice is to read other books by this author as he has penned classics. There is nothing positive about this book and I could not connect with any aspect of this novel. The descriptions were vivid and detailed and this is the only reason I gave it a two star rating.

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although the the setting was intriguing, post war occupied Germany, I really did not like this book. The main character just did not have an redeeming qualities. He seemed to have no emotions or feelings, no matter who was hurt or killed. He finally seemed to have a bit of love for his German mistress but even that seemed forced at times. It is a very, dark, unforgiving book and one I would not recommend.

[Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was Mario Puzo's first novel and became a bestseller after he wrote the superb Godfather. Obviously many readers(like me)who'd read the Godfather raced to buy the The Dark Arena. It is dreadful, beyond dreadful in fact, poorly written a terrible and totally boring storyline and it is hard to believe that the author of the Godfather penned this rubbish. It is testimony though to his enormous improvement as a writer and story-teller in his later novels.

[Wendell D'Costa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.3☆

“My friend,” he said, “people like you and me meet face to face and kill each other. Our enemies are behind us.” He let his hand fall. “Our enemies are behind us,” he repeated bitterly, “and commit the crimes for which we die.”

The Dark Arena was my much awaited introduction to Mario Puzo. After the global success of Puzo's magnum opus "The Godfather", I was greatly intrigued to read his work. The Dark Arena, is Puzo's first novel. It is the story of Walter Mosca, a man hardened by the brutality of war, has changed after returning. He soon realises he must return to the land of 'the enemy', to find the woman who accepts the cruelty of the world around her.

In this novel, Puzo presents a vivid description of post World War 2 Germany. The mindset and mentality of the characters clearly potrays the bitter consequences that they have lived through. Puzo's writing was good, and although the story develops really slowly, this book never seemed like a drag. It was evenly paced and I didn't have too much trouble reading though it, although some would find certain parts to be a bore.
The novel itself didn't have much going on, and those who are accustomed to the thrills and twists of the Godfather, will be fairly disappointed. As this story is mostly about the lives of people after WW2, and it lacks any thrills, atleast up until the ending. Walter Mosca's charecter doesn't display any sort of emotion or feeling atleast until the end, and he wasn't really endearing.
I wouldn't recommend this novel to thriller and crime enthusiasts as it hardly has any excitement or direction, but it would be a fine read for those intrested in post WW2 stories.

[Mai Anh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most interesting thing about this book is the author did not focus only on building the main character, he is, Mosca, like other characters, does not seem to be the spotlight of the whole story. In my opinion, this is a good book, it makes me understand more about the war, especially my DAD. A little bit haunting and darkness. All the characters seem to stuck in something in their lifes.

[Saad Shoikot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was always interested in learning about defeated post war countries and this book managed to provide a bleak picture of post war Germany. This book also managed to bring the character of a young man into light who was angry at the hypocrisy of the world after he learned the truth about it.

[Bartosz Ostrowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Całkiem ciekawa książka, która opowiada o powojennej i powojskowej traumie. Główny bohater nieustannie odczuwa dyskomfort niepozwalający mu spokojnie żyć w jednym miejscu. Unika też decyzji i zobowiązań, które spowodowałby, że zostałby zmuszony do zapuszczenia korzeni. Według mnie książka ta opowiada o ciągłym uciekaniu od tego, co tutaj i podążaniu za jakimś (potencjalnie lepszym) tam. Dochodzę do wniosku, że generalnie bardziej podobają mi się książki Mario Puzo spoza świata mafii.

[Sahib Khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dark Arena - Mario Puzo

Goodreads Rating: 3:33
My Rating: 3:00

Summary and Plot:

Mario Puzo has a reputation for being the author of 'The Godfather'. The Godfather is not only one of the finest crime novels, but its movie has been a symbol of charisma and class since its release. The way Vito Corleone played his role, was exceptional.

The Dark Arena is the first novel of Mario Puzo. The theme of the book is dark times and a ray of light in those dark time -- that is hope. In this novel, Walter Mosca, the protagonist of the novel returns back from Germany to his home in the US. This is the time when the WW2 ended. But Mosca doesn't consider himself fit at his home as he departs back to Germany to see the girl whom he had loved. Before leaving for the U.S, Mosca was with this girl named Hella. She too, in return loved him. But he had to love her after impregnating her. When he got back, he came to know that Hella had given birth to a pre-term baby that died. They join the company of each other again.

The lives of Mosca and his fellows are full of rage, wrath and all the poison that one can hold as a soldier. The streets of Germany are dark and burned as a result of WW2. Mosca fails to take care of Hella. He doesn't return the amount of love Hella gave him. He is mostly indulged in his dark business. Hella gives birth to another child. They think of leaving for the US, but due to some circumstances, they can't leave. In the end, Hella gets sick and falls down from the stairs, and she dies. The novel ends as a tragedy.

This novel was inspired by Dostoevsky's work. In this novel, there were few cliches. Also, Puzo has overused adverbs, which Stephen King would never like. The story moved slowly in the middle. Still, it was a fine novel for me to read.

Recommendation:

No, because the story develops slowly and you may feel bored.

[Sigrid Delphine]

At first I wasn't sure if I liked this particular novel, though I always end up liking every single one of Puzo's stories, so I ought to know better. The novel doesn't really seem to be going anywhere, lacking a point, which is actually characteristic of Puzo's style. But there's another thing natural to him, and it makes every work amazing: for he brings characters to life like no other can. The Dark Arena presents the widest spectrum of personae yet, I think; whether it's a radical communist, an ignorant warrior or even the father of a Nazi - they're all made approachable/understandable, given a face, though they're not necessarily likeable. Puzo writes about what it is like to be human, which can really mean so many things, and he does so free from any kind of judgement or moral framework. It is moving and refreshing.

[Amira Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

I expected a "Godfather" setting, but it's totally different: there is no honour here. Published in 1953, it shows Americans in Germany in the years after the War. The conquerors and the conquered living in a city of ruins. It is savage, and brutal, and there is no-one to blame. Puzo lays out the emotions and thoughts in precise, delicate detail. A real masterpiece.

[Silvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Mario puzo but not just because of Godfather and so on (which I love too) . He has written different styles of books and I always enjoyed them.
This one, a novel about a soldier after war, how life change you and how you react to all of that. He created a good bunch of different characters with different ways to live, think and face life. Each of them has their own internal war.

[Angel Serrano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Las cicatrices de la guerra tardan en curar. Walter, en su vida de soldado recién licenciado al acabar la segunda Guerra Mundial, no encuentra su sitio en los Estados Unidos. Al volver a Alemania se encontrará otro mundo donde la violencia y el amor se entremezclan.

[Andrii Osipov · Rating 2 out of 5]

Тяжёлая книга для чтения. Главный герой очень жесток и эгоистичен, не только к окружающим, но и к себе. Все действия происходят после Второй Мировой Войны и описывают жизнь, и быт американского солдата в одном из немецких городов.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another super sad Puzo, but something about his writing makes you read until the very end, despite the inevitable misery and emptiness you're going to feel.

[Anu Lal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unreadable!

[Nazim · Rating 4 out of 5]

in my opinion it's one of the best Puzo's books (after the Godfather). I enjoyed it very much! )))

[Rajeev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mario Puzo is one author who carries an enormous burden of literary expectation on his shoulders on account of the phenomenal success that he attained with The Godfather. The Dark Arena is the author’s debut novel before he attained a cult status with his later novels which predominantly featured the Italian mafia. At the outset, I need to caution any reader who would pick up The Dark Arena expecting the same kind of finesse that one sees in the later works by the author.

The setting and the premise of The Dark Arena is promising enough, but Puzo falters in the execution of the narrative. Walter Mosca is a Second World War veteran, an American GI, who has seen the worst of the war. On the culmination of the war, Mosca returns to his family and girlfriend in America with a lot of expectations. Mosca is war-weary and the bitter experiences that he has had while in combat situations has left an indelible scar on his psyche. Mosca finds himself unable to adjust to civilian life in America. He has adjustment issues with his girlfriend, his mother and brother. Eventually, matters come to such a pass that he decides to return to post-war Germany as a civilian defence employee, part of an American team, ostensibly deployed there to aid in the post-war reconstruction of the country.

Another reason that drives Mosca to return to Germany is his erstwhile German girlfriend, Hella, who happens to be waiting for his return. Mosca stays with Hella in the American billet, at first, against the regulations that are in force. However, Mosca faces a dark and foreboding situation in post-war Germany, with rampant corruption and the exploitation of the vanquished German population by the American occupiers. It is only the love and companionship that he shares with Hella that enables him to face the dire situation in that country.

Mario Puzo paints a bleak picture of life in post-war Germany. Was the situation in post-war Germany that bad as it is depicted in the novel? There is a yawning schism between the Germans and the Americans and it was but natural that the vanquished were not always treated with dignity. Puzo introduces several other interesting characters, both American and German, and invariably the Germans are portrayed as being helpless and unable to adjust to the discrimination and exploitation that they face at the hands of the Americans.

One drawback of the novel is that the development of characters isn’t as robust as one would expect from an author of Puzo’s calibre. I found myself repeatedly comparing the book with the author’s magnum opus, The Godfather, even though it is not fair to do so. The beautiful build-up of characters that you find in Puzo's later works is something that is sorely missing in The Dark Arena. The plot and the storyline too isn’t all that engaging. But one does find flashes of brilliance in the narrative, especially when Puzo engages in describing the hardships of the hapless Germans wallowing in the distress of poverty, corruption and all-around exploitation at the hands of their conquerors.

I wouldn’t rate The Dark Arena too highly, but at the same time, I feel that it is an important work by the author which amply exhibits flashes of his brilliance and talent which eventually catapulted him to fame and fortune.

[Lộc Hoàng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Khốn khổ, khốn nạn đến tận cùng, đau thương và đầy mất mát, một không gian u ám khủng khiếp, một bức tranh đen tối, đói nghèo, bần hàn đến tột đỉnh.
Nhà văn Mario Puzzo là nhà văn mình thích nhất ( Không có một trong ^^ ). Và nếu “Bố già “ gây ấn tượng mạnh cho mình bao nhiêu, thì “Đấu trường đen” gây cho mình cảm xúc mạnh bấy nhiêu.
Thật sự thì đây là một cuốn sách khá mỏng chỉ chừng 300 trang, nhưng truyền tải một nội dung rất to lớn.
Chiến tranh !!! Chiến tranh !!! Và Chiến tranh !!! Sống hay chỉ tồn tại ???
Sách nói về chàng trai Mosca của quân đội Mỹ, sau khi kết thúc cuộc chiến tranh trên nước Đức của Thế chiến 2. Thay vì hân hoan ca khúc khải hoàn và trở về nhà để sống một cuộc đời mới như bao người lính khác. Thì Mosca gặp phải một hội chứng trong chiến tranh mà nhiều người lính mắc phải, đó là cảm xúc chai lì và rất khó khăn để hội nhập với cuộc sống bình thường của một người bình thường. Vì vậy chàng ta chạy trốn gia đình, chạy trốn tất cả mọi thứ hiện tại trên đất Mỹ, chàng ta đã quyết định quay lại nước Đức chiến trường xưa cũ, để có thể tìm lại không gian, tìm lại bầu không khí, tìm lại đồng đội ở chiến trường xưa và có thể là để gặp lại người tình xưa ?
Cùng với những người bạn, người tình của mình là : Wolf ,Eddie, Leo, Hella...Chúng ta hãy xem họ sẽ sinh sống ở trong một hoàn cảnh mà những bao thuốc lá là những kim tiền chân thật nhất trong cuộc sống đầy thống khổ, đầy tham lam, đầy xảo trá. Nơi mà những phiên chợ đen, những âm mưu lừa lọc,những tên buôn lậu xảo trắc đầy rẫy. Nơi mà những cây kẹo, những cái bánh sôcôla nhỏ bé cũng là một món quà vô cùng quý giá, thậm chí một vỉ thuốc, một mũi tiêm chữa đau răng cũng có thể quyết định sinh mạng của hơn một con người.
Cuốn sách thật sự không dày, nhưng có nhiều đoạn mình đã phải cay xè sống mũi, đã phải nín thở nghĩ mông lung không dám tập trung quá mức vào tác phẩm nằm trên tay. Tôi muốn đọc cho thật nhanh, cho thật mau để khép lại trang cuối của cuốn sách này. Để tôi có thể thoát khỏi ra được không gian u tối , không gian cực kì ảm ảnh ở cái nơi mà sự dửng dưng, vô cảm, máu lạnh lên ngôi. Xen lẫn, đan xen với một chút tình người, tình yêu, tình bạn với sự hy sinh mà những con người xa lạ dành cho nhau ở nơi đất khách quê người.
Qua đó ta có thể thấy một vết trượt dài của tất cả mọi thứ, nền văn minh, xã hội ấm no đói nghèo, tinh thần, vật chất... Chiến tranh đã để lại những thứ quá khủng khiếp.
Tất nhiên đây chỉ là cảm xúc cá nhân mà mình muốn chia sẻ cho mọi người, nó có thể không chính xác với mọi người . Để có thể hiểu rõ tác phẩm hơn mọi người có thể tìm đọc tác phẩm này.

[J.B. Mathias · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a little hard to get into because the characters were all so unlikeable. That being said I don't think characters have to be likeable for it to be an interesting story...it's just harder to get invested when everyone is a bastard.

It was very well written, the prose and the fact that this was early Puzo has me interested in reading more of his books. It was both an easy read as well as a well described and occasionally poetic one.

My other issue is I don't see a real point to the story, and what point I do derive from it feels like it may be unintentional. He seems to be painting a very nihilistic picture of the world...which would make sense for the people in this setting and scenario...but it never really felt like the themes meshed into a coherent point. Obviously my take away is that war sucks, there are not really any definitive bad guys and good guys in war. Even the men who liberated camps...went on to terrorize civilians in the aftermath...many who liberated camps for the same reasons nazis worked the camps...those were the orders. Many not caring about who lives or dies. There is a part where jews fleeing Germany are beaten by the same UK soldiers who helped liberate camps. It seems like it was just written to be desolate and hopeless for the point of being desolate and hopeless.

The other part I don't like is when you have these atheistic characters...who never give God or faith even a single thought...who go out and do whatever they want...commit acts of reckless evil...and then when things go to shit their takeaway is that God is actually a bad guy because he lets bad things happen to them.

Overall a good story that needed some direction and maybe a little more excitement but that was well written and enjoyable despite its bleakness and assholery.

[Faizah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 stars
Genre - historical fiction, crime fiction
Before starting my first ever Mario Puzo book I wanted to do some research on The Dark Arena, his debut novel - I came across mixed opinions on his writing and storytelling for this novel, which readers consider quite average for his standard. 
I have to say, if this is considered average to bad for Puzo's novels, I am looking forward to his other work because I surprisingly enjoyed this one a lot. It was easy to read and get through, and although the action was not too complex and can be summarised quite well, it was very well-written. For a debut novel, it really reflects his talent as a writer and shows how Puzo had potential to write the masterpiece that is The Godfather - I am in love with the setting of TDA and the development of the characters as the story evolves.
Mosca is a very complex character and reflects realistic personality traits - he is not a 'good' or 'bad' character, and has flaws that are justified through the war flashbacks that Puzo gives readers. Of course I couldn't spoil this for anyone, but all you need to know about Walter Mosca before you read TDA is that he is a WW2 soldier who goes back to Germany to find the woman that he is in love with, who is the 'enemy'. Definitely not your typical enemies to lovers romance but it is very well written, tragic at times and a good example of what life looked like for people during the World Wars. 

[Alexandara · Rating 5 out of 5]

La verdadera mafia son las emociones humanas, la violencia que nace de dentro, la que palpita dentro de nosotros y enraíza en pequeñas puñaladas de crítica y culpa. Algunos leen este libro y piensan que no pasa nada, que no hay drama, no hay historia. En mi opinión es como entrar en la cabeza de uno de esos niños que tuvieron que luchar muy pronto, y sentir como su corazón poco a poco va dejando de latir aún con vida. Creo que describe con tristeza y acierto esa época, la pérdida la confusión, la pérdida de la humanidad de la guerra y como la vida humana vale menos que una caja de cigarrillos. Creo que este escritor siente mucho más en novelas como esta, donde no pasa nada, pero se siente todo, donde entramos en la mirada y en la sangre de sus personajes que en otras novelas llenas de acción . Personajes terriblemente humanos, realidades trágicamente reales y quizás por eso a muchos no termina de encajarles este tono. Estoy convencida, de que si este autor hubiera podido escribir sin preocuparse de editores habría escrito muchas más obras como esta, tras haber empezado a conocer su obra por su último libro “ los borgia” me doy cuenta de que su pasión eran los personajes trágicos e incomprendidos. Realmente un libro maravillosamente cruel

[Sangita · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dark Arena is the first novel by Mario Puzo, published in 1955. This is the first of Puzo's works that I have read, though I have watched the movie series.
Grim. Unrepenting. Dark. These are the first words that come to my mind when I think of this novel. Walter Mosca returns from America to Germany in the role of a civilian. He was earlier in the Military and he had returned home to his Mother, Fiancée and Brother but could not sustain there, as he felt that he hardly understood that world anymore.
He returns to Hella, the German girl he had left behind earlier, and to some of his friends and acquaintances who are still there; who are still making a fortune out over there on boxes on American cigarettes.
Mosca cushions his pay with black market operations, battening on the fears of the Germans. But when he feels his security threatened he deserts his partner in crime. In the end, his betrayals of all human compassion catch up with him.
The characters are all so wretched and usually wicked, that when the only character with dignity and compassion dies, it leaves you rattled and shocked.