Another wonderfully moving book by Nuto
Revelli. And yet another one about Italian Fascism (in my defence, I hadn’t
written about one of those in a while).
Similarly to Il Mondo dei Vinti, this is oral history at its finest. However,
Raimondo Vitale, isn’t like the poor peasants of the other masterpiece by
Revelli, he is a man capable of shaping his own destiny (at least to an extent)
and to help others. The word “giusto” in the title does not signify that Viale
was a just man, but that he was – rightfully – named “Righteous among the
nations” because of the help he gave to persecuted Jewish families during the
Second World War.
This is a book that students in their final
year of high-school should be forced to read (in Italy and France, at least),
but again I’m afraid we’re not going to run the risk of that happening anytime
soon. So bring on pointless feuillettons from the early 19th century
(yes, to this day I am still very fond of Manzoni’s I Promessi Sposi)
No comments:
Post a Comment