The wealth of fascinating detail makes this a compelling read. That and the fact it's excellently written.The wealth of fascinating detail makes this a compelling read. That and the fact it's excellently written....more
The story of the sixty-year battle between Christians and Muslims for control of the Mediterranean culminating in the epic sea battle at Lepanto. ObjeThe story of the sixty-year battle between Christians and Muslims for control of the Mediterranean culminating in the epic sea battle at Lepanto. Objectively it's a five star book - well written and tremendously well researched. However, I never quite found it as engaging as it should have been. I'm reading the same author's book about Venice's rise and fall as a maritime power which I love a lot more. It's often in the detail that a book succeeds or fails in hooking you. The detail in the Venice book is somehow more intimately revealing of the unfolding stories....more
Trieste is a work of documentary fiction about Holocaust survivors. The author invents a female Jewish character who has a child by a Nazi. One day whTrieste is a work of documentary fiction about Holocaust survivors. The author invents a female Jewish character who has a child by a Nazi. One day while her back is turned the baby is snatched from its pram. What happened to him remains a consuming mystery to her throughout her long life. Hana discovers the child's father is an SS officer. A monster who reigned at various death camps, including Treblinka. Her desire to track down her son take her deeper and deeper into the incomprehensible insanity of Nazism. Her son, we learn, was snatched as part of the lebensborn project and then adopted by a German family. When his dying mother reveals to him he was adopted he too is constrained to research the holocaust. The text quotes lots of first hand accounts of Nazi atrocities. An incredibly clever and powerful book. ...more
There were times when this book reminded me of the film Billy Liar. A young man fantasising himself as the hero of a succession of adventure stories. There were times when this book reminded me of the film Billy Liar. A young man fantasising himself as the hero of a succession of adventure stories. This book contains a preface by the author in which he tells us this is a true story but urges us to read it as a novel of biographical fiction. Initially, our hero helps Italian Jews escape over the Swiss border. This for me was the most engaging (and believable) part of the novel. He is then urged by his parents to work for the Germans. He secures a job as driver for the head of the organisation Todt in Italy, General Hans Leyers. A young Italian boy with film star good looks (there's a photo of him) who drives a Nazi general about every day and wears a swastika armband for six months is going to need an exonerating excuse at the end of the war. Of course he's going to say he was secretly working for the Allies. He'll be shot or lynched otherwise. He has a fight with both his brother and best friend who are appalled he's wearing a Nazi uniform. His work though is so secret he can't tell them about it even though he's told his girlfriend who is the maid of the mistress of the Nazi general so potentially much more of a security risk than his own brother. Pino is not hired as a spy. His supposed spymaster is his uncle. We're told nothing about his uncle's credentials or contacts. His role is never officially verified after the war. The wireless operator is the novel's invisible man. He pops up about three times in the entire novel known only by a code name and doesn't feature at all at the end when the author tells us what happened to the various characters after the war. The information Pino gets is essentially all stuff the allies would have got from other sources. What else doesn't ring true is the hatred Pino professes to feel for his boss. Leyers likes Pino, they spend every day together, they share a mistress in the same apartment and even share a moment of danger together when the car is strafed by a spitfire. Another clue this is fiction and not fact is the reappearance of Pino's nemesis (a bandit who humiliated Pino up in the mountains) in a highly implausible location towards the end of the novel. We know life can be stranger than fiction but very rarely is it tidier than fiction. We learn Pino became something of a playboy in America after the war. This in itself tells you something. He doesn't come across a man with a social conscience. Pino is in his eighties when he finally tells his story. In other words everyone who could disprove it has died. Ultimately I would guess about 80% of this novel is fiction. But it's a very clever marketing ploy to present it as a true story. That said the author does a good job of researching his material and making it on the whole an enjoyable read....more
I've got no qualms about giving this one star because it's got a higher average rating than Hamlet, War and Peace and Pride and Prejudice. (Damning evI've got no qualms about giving this one star because it's got a higher average rating than Hamlet, War and Peace and Pride and Prejudice. (Damning evidence we're not perhaps evolving as a race!)
Romantic fiction is a bit like self-assembling furniture. There's no craftsmanship. Every interlocking component is functional. I skimmed through reviews and sometimes saw it described as beautifully written. It isn't beautifully written. The author has a rudimentary command of language. What she does though is describe beauty a lot.
You expect some research in a historical novel. There is little evidence the author knows anything about Venice in 1939. The Venice depicted is the tourist's Venice. The approaching war is a flimsy painted backcloth, a prop to heighten the romantic adventure. Venice used as a marketing tool. The author only needed to read one memoir by an Italian Jew to know Italian Jews were never made to wear the yellow star. A google search would have informed her that in 1943 the ghetto in Venice was largely a historical site not an active reality. Wikipedia would have informed her the Allies were not in Umbria in 1943. Neither has the author bothered to learn anything about the act of painting despite her character supposedly being a talented artist. She comes across as a child colouring with crayons. And neither has she bothered to learn anything about wireless operators and the world of secret ops despite her character supposedly transmitting vital information about shipping movement back to London. Her understanding on the complexities and dangers of this occupation is non-existent. Instead the narratives fixes obsessively on what the character eats, what canals she's swanning down and, of course, all the ins and outs of her feelings for her Italian aristocrat.
I'm probably taking this book too seriously. It's meant to be harmless escapism and who gives a monkeys if it's littered with historical inaccuracies and inventions? I suspect its appeal on a certain kind of woman (few, if any, men would enjoy this book) isn't dissimilar to that of soft porn on the imagination of adolescents back in the day when the world was more innocent. It titillates romantic fantasy....more
Incredibly well-researched. There are accounts from English, American, Polish, German soldiers, Italian fascists and civilians. If it has a stumbling Incredibly well-researched. There are accounts from English, American, Polish, German soldiers, Italian fascists and civilians. If it has a stumbling block it's the sheer number of different recurring narratives which makes it difficult to remember the stories. It's the kind of book that makes you realise why we enjoy novels so much. A good novel seeks to arrive at the bigger picture through a single or small number of narrative voices, a device which creates more intimacy and urgency in our reading experience. It works on the less is more principle. I wonder sometimes if non-fiction books couldn't be more creative in their construction. ...more
A somewhat flimsy and flippant tale set in world war two Italy. It begins with a fisherman rescuing a young feisty Jewish girl who has escaped the SS.A somewhat flimsy and flippant tale set in world war two Italy. It begins with a fisherman rescuing a young feisty Jewish girl who has escaped the SS. The fisherman soon turns into an action hero, a role his brother plays as an actor in the film industry. The plot becomes as implausible as it is senseless. Essentially we get the love story of a flawed but admirable man going to the rescue of an idealised young woman, sufficiently independent and intelligent to appeal to modern taste. There's an awful lot of banter between characters which serves little purpose and a backstory of brotherly rivalry. Never though came alive for me. ...more
An account of life as the commander of an international partisan brigade in northern Italy. In the introduction James Holland complains that this bookAn account of life as the commander of an international partisan brigade in northern Italy. In the introduction James Holland complains that this book isn't nearly as well known as Love and War in the Apennines. There's a reason for this. Eric Newby is a much better writer. He had talent for bringing his experience vividly to life which I found lacking here. It's an interesting book but never a gripping one. There's very little first hand action as such. Probably the most interesting aspect is the hostility he constantly faces from nearby communist brigades. He paints a picture of them as not much better than the fascists. ...more
A memoir full of fascinating details about life in both wartime England and Italy. Peter Ghiringhelli is a young boy when Mussolini declares war on GrA memoir full of fascinating details about life in both wartime England and Italy. Peter Ghiringhelli is a young boy when Mussolini declares war on Great Britain. His father is immediately arrested and given the choice of returning to Italy with his family or becoming a prisoner of war and being deported to Canada. Luckily he chooses the former because the ship bound for Canada was sunk by a German U boat and most of the passengers died. Before this happens he gives a riveting account of life in Leeds during the phoney war.
Life in Italy is initially difficult. He is bullied for being English (as he was bullied in England for being Italian). He has to undergo all the fascist education programmes and wear a uniform. He lives near Lake Maggiore where the winters are hard and food shortages are rife. Things of course get much worse when the Nazis arrive.
This book offers a unique perspective of wartime life in two warring countries and is a treasure-trove of fascinating period detail....more
This was too whimsical for me and I abandoned it. It's about an irritable English spinster who goes to Venice when the woman she lives with dies. For This was too whimsical for me and I abandoned it. It's about an irritable English spinster who goes to Venice when the woman she lives with dies. For it to work it needed a memorable lead character but I found Julia both dull and implausible. She is a retired teacher who didn't like teaching or children; she is an atheist and a former communist but all this felt like irrelevant biography - told but never shown. It's a book that depicts a much kinder world than the one we live in. Julia somehow manages to charm four young people into befriending her within days of arriving in Venice. It's surprising sometimes how seemingly innocuous can be the details which prevent you from suspending disbelief. But why young hippy twins restoring a church would take an interest in a grumpy old woman baffled me. It also baffled me what credentials they had to be restoring a church. Again this is told, not shown, as if the author couldn't be bothered to research the art of restoration. It did though remind me of what a wonderful novel A Month in the Country is - where the author has artful command of the discipline of restoration. This novel becomes even more implausible when the boy twin disappears with one of the panels of the church's inventory. You can't help asking yourself what church would allow a pair of wayward kids with no adult professional supervision to restore a church. The novel now becomes a kind of genteel version of the De Vinci Code. But there wasn't enough reality in the book for me to ever feel engaged. Even Venice is told rather than shown with lots of guide book info but little enlivening detail. A parallel narrative recounts a fictional account of the apocryphal story of Tobit and Tobias which I liked better but not enough to see through to the end. It's a no from me. ...more
WW2 chick lit. I should have abandoned it early but toiled on until the end. A young woman inherits her Italian mother's war diary and sets out to ItaWW2 chick lit. I should have abandoned it early but toiled on until the end. A young woman inherits her Italian mother's war diary and sets out to Italy to solve a mystery. It was excruciatingly cheesy and formulaic. I saw all the so-called twists early on. You might say it's a love letter to Italy but it's Italy seen through the sentimental lens of the two week tourist. Not a novel for anyone who expects some creative engagement with a book. It felt like the product of corporate market research. ...more
It's the end of the second world war and everyone is telling lies about the part they played in the conflict. Stefano claims to be an Italian soldier It's the end of the second world war and everyone is telling lies about the part they played in the conflict. Stefano claims to be an Italian soldier who fought with the Germans but was imprisoned when Italy changed sides. He is making his way back to Italy when he meets an orphaned young boy and feels compelled to take him under his wing. They take refuge in a house but are discovered by a former German soldier. There's clearly something sinister about this man. In the house next door there's another former German soldier and his wife. This soldier is shellshocked and addicted to drugs. The novel is split into four narratives, becoming five later in the novel. Each chapter also features flashbacks, showing us the wartime experiences of each of the characters. Though the author sustains much of the mystery by withholding information. What this novel does best is show how much emotional damage the war did. It's a competently written and very well researched novel. The reason it didn't warrant five stars for me was I felt the author rather overegged the melodrama towards the end. The withholding of key information at times was a little heavy handed. And she used the same scenario at least a dozen times - showing someone on the verge of being killed who later we discover miraculously escaped. It became a little predictable as a ruse. It also got a bit over complicated. But on the whole an edifying read. ...more
In Love and War tells the story of a young English man, Esmond Lowdnes whose mother and father are supporters "Character is theoretical until we act."
In Love and War tells the story of a young English man, Esmond Lowdnes whose mother and father are supporters of the British Fascist party. In 1937, Esmond is sent to Florence to set up a radio station after being sent down from Cambridge for a homosexual affair. Initially he has a flimsy sense of identity - not quite sure if he's gay or a fascist. The first part of the novel is his sentimental education. Eventually he will meet the Jewish Ada who provides him with self-knowledge. When war breaks out he stays on in Florence and joins the resistance.
Strangely Esmond, the pivot of the novel. was the least convincing character for me. While the Italians around him were vivid and convincing Esmond himself always seemed a bit implausible to me, overly romanticised. However, this was an excellently written novel and though I found the first half overindulgent of Esmond's sex life I really began to enjoy it once the war began....more
This is an absolutely riveting account of the wartime experiences of five Jewish Italian families. It’s structured in exactly the way I complained TheThis is an absolutely riveting account of the wartime experiences of five Jewish Italian families. It’s structured in exactly the way I complained The Last Jews in Berlin wasn’t – that is, an unbroken account of each set of characters so that you’re able to fully immerse yourself in each narrative. The characters are almost all fascinating. There’s the fervent Jewish Fascist who had the offices of a Jewish newspaper in Florence burnt to the ground because he thought they were too critical of Mussolini’s government; there’s a notorious Jewish novelist who works as a spy for the fascist secret police; there’s a playboy aviator who ends up saving hundreds of Jews from the Nazis and one night even sleeps at the German Embassy so brazen is he; there’s the plight of the poor families of the Roman ghetto and in particular one woman who never stops shouting at Nazis and miraculously survives Auschwitz where she takes lice from her body and plants them in the trousers of SS officers (it’s her job to sow buttons on SS uniforms). It’s heartening to learn how much help the Catholic Church provided and in particular a few very courageous individuals. Also to learn that Schindler wasn’t alone; a few very powerful Italian businessmen provided funds for DELASEM, the organisation that helped the Jews. One Jewish Italian though remained bitter about Italy’s role, pointing out they stamped all Jewish identity papers with a tell-tale mark, making it impossible for them to hide and handed over lists of addresses to the Gestapo. And as a mark of how petty people are there’s the story of how the Jewish community in Rome demonised two Jewish sisters who survived Auschwitz because they assumed the girls had offered sexual favours to survive. Extraordinary how after what happened during the war such blinkered prejudice could still find a voice. I whole heartedly recommend this for anyone interested in the subject matter. ...more
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