History in Around the World

Aug 03, 2011 Shahar rated it really liked it

Oh Useppe Useppe.
There are easy read books and there are books that you straggle with , putting aside and pick up again, rebelling and disagreeing with the way the writer takes the plot and then ,with some of them ,you let go – allow them to engulf you , guide you ,embrace you - Those are usually the books that walk with you way after the last page was read.
La historia was like that for me - Reading it didn’t always “flow” and really stammered ( if you can say that ) at times – ( I too, like U Oh Useppe Useppe.
There are easy read books and there are books that you straggle with , putting aside and pick up again, rebelling and disagreeing with the way the writer takes the plot and then ,with some of them ,you let go – allow them to engulf you , guide you ,embrace you - Those are usually the books that walk with you way after the last page was read.
La historia was like that for me - Reading it didn’t always “flow” and really stammered ( if you can say that ) at times – ( I too, like Useppe, tagged at Davida arm so he will stop lecturing his beliefs ) and I didn’t always connect to the directions the storyteller took the story - but the after taste of the book improves for me as time passes , and the character of Useppe is so full of life it brings in you all the parental feeling as if it were not a character in a book.

The book tells the story of Ida and her 2 children between 1941 – 1947 in Rome Italy.
“The history” is a big name for a book and a committing one and yet the book tells the story of Ida and her son, 2 character that history inflicts upon but they do not dictate it or even aware of its grandeur .
Throughout the book that bothered me – why call a book ,that its main character is a grey woman that even her being Jewish doesn’t put her directly in the path that Rome Jews took - “The History “?! .
I do not have a full answer – I can give a partial personal interpretation :
Some say Ida is Italy I can understand that to extent but if someone who reads this can elaborate more on it ill be happy to hear. My take is that this grey character – portrait at the beginning with a slight contempt and towards the end is described in an understanding and slight admiring way – is the eye of the storm . Trying to survive in a world gone mad – minute by minute , day by day . From her the story spreads and the history of Rome , Italy and Europe is told via Nino and Davide and Yehezkel and others and there’s lies the power of the story – telling history from Minor to Major.
The book seems to be told in a first person voice – a woman voice but a part of some remarks it is actually a third person – know it all - story . That was one of the things that bothered me in the book – a first person teller is a character as any other and in some remarks the teller makes it seems like she has connection to the family - but her existence is not revealed throughout the book and there could not have been such a character.
Another small thing that bothered me - I know I am being petty - it might be from the translation to Hebrew :
At the begining of the book there’s a German soldier who wishes to go go home in a chopper – although I checked and choppers were invented before the war - something in that thought is unbelievable .

This is a special book . Hard at times and magical at others.
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Jan 03, 2014 RG rated it liked it

Shelves: 52-challenge-2014

A poignant, heartfelt tale about the privations created by war. In a way, this is an "ensemble" novel with a large cast of characters whose lives are briefly visited to give a broad perspective of life in Italy (particularly Rome) during World War II. At the heart of the novel, however, is Ida Mancuso and her sons, whose lives we follow from the rise of Fascism through the war to the years immediately after.

The story is handled beautifully by Morante who shows a great deal of affection for her ...more

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Dec 11, 2016 Inna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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Dec 30, 2022 Diane rated it really liked it

Shelves: italian, translated, 20th-century, guardian-1000, national-book-award, bigger-books, guardian-top-100, 1000-books, 1001-other-editions, wit-100

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