Il Partigiano Johnny – Beppe Fenoglio

This blog is making me realize how many books I’ve read about the Italian Resistance and, in general, about the fight against Fascism. This book, however, is probably my favourite one of all. And I am not just talking about books on anti-Fascism, I am talking about all the books ever written all over the world.

Of course, even in this case, I am dreadfully biased. The book is all set in the towns and on the hills where I’ve grown up. But, even as I try to be remotely objective about it, I think it’s an absolute work of art: the prose, mixing Italian and English, is still innovative even after 50 years, Fenoglio weaves global history, local history, and personal histories (fictionalized or not) with an inimitable display of skills and even the smaller characters manage to leave a lasting impression in the minds of the readers.

And I might be naive, or simply in denial, but I don’t think the ending is so obvious as most people take it to be.

Mephisto – Klaus Mann

For years, I thought that Mephisto was just a critically acclaimed movie (which I owned and never watched, clearly) – then a friend gave me this as a birthday present, because it was his father’s favourite book, and the rise of Nazism and all that. In one go I found out that the movie was taken from a book, and that Thomas Mann had a son who could also write, although not as well as him.

The book is a great and fairly quick read. It is fascinating, in particular when one thinks that it was published in 1936, at a time in which the rest of Europe hadn’t yet understood the full depravity of the Nazi regime. It’s a metaphor of the entire German society in the 20’s and 30’s, but I’m not excessively fond of ground-sweeping generalizations, so I prefer to read this book as a demonstration of the fickleness of over-ambitious people, ready to compromise on all their principles (which, probably, they often don’t have in the first place).