Crossroads
by Niccolò Ammaniti
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Book Summary Information
Author: Niccolò AmmanitiEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); Italian (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-01-08
ISBN: 1847670377
Number of pages: 496
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
Book Reviews of Crossroads
Book Review: Brilliant
Summary: 5 Stars
Ammaniti is utterly brilliant. I read "I'll Steal You Away" last year, and it was a devastating experience. One of the funniest, sadest, grittiest and moving books I have ever read. It took me weeks to get over it. This is perhaps not quite as successful - but its still much better than 95% of other writing. In the 80s there was a literary movement called Dirty Realism in the US; writers like Richard Ford and Jayne Anne Philips writing about the day to day people leading normal, gritty, working class lives. Ammaniti takes this to another level - he focuses on outsiders, in an Italy a million miles away from the tourist trail, the fashion centres and the historical monuments. His characters live at the bottom of the pile - and in this case comprise a fascist labourer, the village idiot (due to an accident with some power cables) and an alcoholic failing to get over the death of his daughter. This unlikely trio plan a ram raid, and the build up to the raid, and the consequences in the days after, form the basis of the plot. As always with Ammaniti, the central character is an adolescent boy, forced to become an adult before his time, let down by all the adults around him, making poor choices in impossible situations. Cristiano Zena is actually not as memorable a character as some of Ammanitii's other adolescent heros, and you may think that some of the acts he carries out may be logistically impossible for a 13 yr old boy. In fact, the characterisation of Fabiana Ponticelli, local teenage beauty and the exact opposite in every way to Cristiano, is perhaps better. Never the less Ammaniti brings to life Cristiano's small, fragile and hopeless world and the relationship between him and his appalling (to our eyes, not to Cristiano's) fascist father, is beautifuly brought to life.
One gripe I do have is with the title. In Italian the title is "As God Commands" - and this is a much better title. Many of the characters beleive they are in the hands of God, or fate, and indeed each action taken leads inexorably to everything that could go wrong with the raid, going wrong, with consequences it would have been impossible for anyone to predict.
Another quibble is that I was utterly engaged until "The Night" but in the aftermath, Ammanitti seems a little unsure of what to do with some of his characters, especially Cristiano. The end was somewhat unsatisfying - which is why I say that its not quite as good as "I'll Steal You Away". But still excellent, and highly recommended. But be warned - pick up an Ammanniti and say goodbye to any other plans for the day. He's impossible to put down
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