I'm Not Scared / by Niccolo Ammaniti; trans. from the Italian by Jonathan Hunt

In the sweltering Italian summer of 1978, residents of the sparse hamlet of Aquo Traverse do their best to keep cool and comfortable. Adults mainly stay inside, dissuaded from their normal tasks and irritable to be around, while children are left to explore on their own, largely unsupervised as they roam the surrounding countryside. On one outing, 9-year-old Michele Amitrano accepts a dare to enter an abandoned farmhouse alone. What he finds there, lying in a hollowed-out portion of the foundation, is what he presumes to be a corpse, that of a boy around his own age though he doesn't tell his friends or let on about anything out of the ordinary. Someone must be told though as news of this sort is obviously noteworthy and, soon afterwards, Michele discloses the situation to his father only to have the elder Amitrano mysteriously brush him off, actually telling him to forget the whole thing and indicating (in aggressive fashion) that this is the last he wants to hear about it. A confused Michele, too curious to stay away, ultimately returns to the scene and discovers that the boy in question is in fact not dead, only deathly weak, disoriented and mostly unable to account for his presence. In the following days, with aid from the food and water Michele brings him, a pieced-together story of kidnapping, ransom and cover-up involving every adult, Michele's parents included, in the small village is recounted. The evidence of the abducted boy, what he's able to recall and the mutual conspiracy by practically every grown-up he's ever known are largely out of Michele's reach. From his limited perspective, the situation's not only unfathomable but contradictory. And yet he knows something must be done. At a moral as well as developmental crossroads, Michele decides to act. Will it be the right move?

There are lots of coming of age novels. There are lots of growing older novels. There are lots of recollective, anecdotal stories written by grown-ups of early youth and confronting reality. But there are precious few truly great 'books about childhood written for adults'. This is one of them. Not a thriller, not suspense. Not nostalgia, not YA, not an abuse testimonial and probably not even a kid-centered horror tale à la Stephen King's It or "The Body" (those had relatively happy endings) though similar elements are involved. I'm Not Scared is something different, something inadvertently real and starkly rendered, not too far removed from Italian Neorealism itself in which self-consciousness in storytelling is intentionally absent. It's incredible how convincing Ammaniti is in writing the mindfulness of a nine-year-old. Michele's a character with not a lot of maturity but not a lot of despair, possessing plausible fears and believable errors. He's curious and at times impetuous without the foresight to know different and always, always in the moment. At no point is he looking at things with adult goggles. Ammaniti has been on the radar as a celebrated Italian novelist since the mid-nineties and this book clearly defines why. It's not one to miss. (FIC AMMANITI)

The Portrait of a Lady / by Henry James

If ever an author marginalized his homeland in favor of other, more fashionable places, it was American Henry James (1843-1916). Any slight was largely unintended however. With regard to his lifestyle, it seems only practical that James would concentrate his literary efforts on the settings and subjects at hand. Born to a wealthy New York City family already well-regarded for their intellectual prowess--James' father Henry Sr. and his brother William were both accomplished philosophers and his sister Alice's posthumous diary would influence later feminists--James received a classical (if informal) education . For much of his early life, he lived abroad traveling extensively with private tutors through England, France, Italy and Switzerland. It was during this formative period that James garnered a great appreciation for the art and culture of some of Europe's most cosmopolitan settings. His only sustained residence in the United States came when he briefly attended Harvard Law School after which he resumed a semi-permanent home abroad in England for the remainder of his life. His novels, short stories and varied prose, much of it heralded as classic 'American' Literature, is predominately set in Britain and continental Europe where it almost exclusively depicts a society and class of people who could well-afford to devote themselves to the refinements of life. Consequently, critics of James have said his fiction is unrealistic and have derided the author as an unapologetic anglophile with eurocentric tendencies. His 1881 serialised novel The Portrait of a Lady follows a young American girl as she takes up a residence with relatives in England and subsequently grows into womanhood.

American Isabel Archer is only 19 when her father dies and her Aunt Touchett comes from England intending, upon request from Isabel's late father, to take the girl back with her to the Touchett estate of Gardencourt. It is settled that a life lived here in proximity to a more sophisticated social element can give Isabel a better chance to "blossom" into a well-refined, cultured woman. Almost instantly upon her arrival, Isabel is courted by several suitors, among them an older, well-off gentleman named Lord Warburton and a younger American man, Caspar Goodwood, whose been in love with Isabel previously and has followed her from America. Though both men are of able means and come well-recommended, neither can win Isabel's hand in marriage and each graciously depart from her company. It is also during this time that Isabel forms a close attachment with the Touchett's son, Ralph, whose terminal illness both prevents and dissuades him from pursuing Isabel romantically. But Ralph is a kindhearted, affectionate man and while it's never explicitly stated, it is he who perhaps loves Isabel in the purest, most unselfish way. As the elder Mr. Touchett, stricken with a similar illness, lies dying it is Ralph who persuades him (anonymously) to bequeath a legacy to Isabel, an inheritance large enough so that the girl may have the means to cultivate her higher faculties through travel and association with European society's more sophisticated set.

Though surprised at her good fortune, Isabel suspects that Ralph may have had a hand in it. And as anticipated, the young woman does indeed flourish with aid from her newfound wealth, first in the salons of Paris then the courts of Italy where along the way she procures the friendship of one Madame Merle, a thoroughly "complete" woman polished in every sort of way and a person Isabel hopes to emulate. Consequently, it is Madame Merle who introduces Isabel to her "friend" Gilbert Osmond, a man as impressed with Isabel as she is with him. Before long the two are in love and, despite the warnings of others that Gilbert is a fortune hunter, Isabel agrees to marry him. But what she doesn't know, what she doesn't even fear as she succombs to the affable and gallant wiles of Mr. Osmond is that dangerous secrets have been witheld from her concerning Gilbert and his charming daughter Pansy, a girl much in the same strangely limited situation as Isabel formerly had been.

The Portrait of a Lady is popularly considered to James best novel. It could also be said that it is his most 'Jamesian' novel, the author portraying a world, his own little microcosm of parlors, drawing rooms and galleries, where his brand of literary realism is given room to thrive. Of course no one who regards this James novel (and many of his others) would say that his mode of portrayal, a realm absent of anything but the wealthy elite stiffly going about their lives, is in any way realistic. And it's not, at least in the sense that the 'real world' and the cross-section of society contained within it are not only disregarded, but that any activity relegated to the mundane aspects of life are ever within the scope of the story. Much of it does seem like pomp and circumstance. But that's just it. James' "realism" is never intended to encompass such aspects which he feels, perhaps justifiably, aren't necessary to elucidate the ideas, themes and 'realities' he aims to render. For his is the kind of style, very acutely rendered within context, which strives to engage the most intimately authentic portions of human life, the conditions, choices and consequences enmeshed therein. An understanding of this concept isn't without contradictions. It is perhaps a bit hard to accept Jame's realism--a motif in which he firmly insisted was intended to oppose romanticist elements in fiction--when such a flourishing type of life as Isabel aspires to carries such exclusive, largely unobtainable means. (FIC JAMES)

The Imperfectionists / by Tom Rachman

In 1953, visionary Atlanta businessman Cyrus Ott has a seemingly crazy idea: establish an English-language newspaper in Rome. The risky though potentially rewarding endeavour is eventually agreed upon as Cyrus partners with his hand-selected editors, Betty, a former girlfriend, and her current husband Leo, to begin the life of the International Herald Tribune. Soon the paper grows from scrappy independent publication into one of Europe's most tastefully subjective independent news sources. Over the next five decades, the Tribune informs and entertains a growing number of subscribers, confronts fluctuating international issues faced by Americans abroad and becomes as recognized for its quirky employees as its provocatively off-the-wall content.

Now in the waining days of news print, as the internet threatens to bring about the end, the staff must face down the inevitable while dealing with their own individual concerns and problems. Editor-in-chief Kathleen, still dealing with her husband's recent infidelity, handles the task of managing her dwindling cast of employees who include Arthur, a lazy obituary writer dealing with his own very recent. personal loss. Meanwhile staff HR head and chief financial officer Abby discovers that some of the people she's having to fire include her secret lover and field correspondent Douglas still seeks more earth-shattering headlines, going to some pretty desperate lengths to get story. As the day of the print news coming to an end, this 'imperfect' crew of drifters and ex-pats, exiles and misfits, faces an uncertain future. As the paper's rich history is revealed, including the surprising truth about its founder's intentions, so to are its future plans inevitably played out as the successors of the Mr. Ott's once unique idea now caretake on his crumbling vision. Released to critical and public acclaim in 2010, The Imperfectionists is a really, really good book. (FIC RACHMAN)

Amarcord (DVD) 1973 / a film by Frederico Fellini; starring Bruno Zanin, Armando Brancia & Magali Noel

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In the Italian coastal village of Borgo, schoolboys play in the streets of the square, snatching at puffballs which float in the air. In the barbershop Gradisca, the town beauty, prances around in her fancy clothes doing her best to visually engage the leering male audience. As evening nears in the village square, a blind accordion player peddles for petty change while Volpina the prostitute, another of the town's pathetic down-and-outers, vamps about in the shadows. 12-year-old Titta Biondi observes it all from beginning to end--all of the bawdy shenanigans, the simple mundane patterns and sad but curious spectacles which are always on parade in his little corner of the world. It is the 1930's and the age of Fascism in Italy where the government has pledged to revive the country's prestige through strict authoritarianism and collectivist slogans. But despite the seeming enthusiasm with which directives of the regime are undertaken, the movement accomplishes little aside from providing a few small-minded men with the chance to wear stuffy-looking uniforms. The few Borgo residents who are wealthy or powerful enough to care about politics try to follow suit. They've been instructed to root out any signs of anarchy and so they do their best to follow-up on any petty squabbles or tomfoolery, even if it's merely a phonograph recording of an anarchist melody. For Titta and his family, nothing really changes. Titta still gets in trouble, his father is still easily angered, always griping at his wife. As a year passes and the seasons change, their simple lives remain much the same as the generations before them. But it's a sameness in which the magic of everyday is sharply revealed.
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Amarcord, loosely translated as "I remember", is just that--a life's journey brought to the screen. With Fellini, one can always expect a world of quasi-fantasy mixed with archetypal images from the mind's eye. Yet Amarcord might be the director's most indelible portrait of just what that vision embodies: a starkly personal and illuminating ode to his youth and memory. Nothing compares with the beauty of Fellini's imagery; he is a master of aesthetic exposition. A peacock in the middle of the snow, the tragic splendor of a deserted seaside hotel, even the colorful procession of the new prostitutes arriving at the local brothel all absorb the viewer's senses, each a mesmerizing portrait of artistic clarity. With Amarcord, a true pinnacle of Italian art film, Fellini encapsulates his deepest convictions, exploring the subtle if contradictory truths behind memory, experience and conscious awareness. And though the content can seem perplexing and distant, the narrative at times enigmatic and confusing, the central concept remains grounded as one in which a profound insight can be expressed through the simplest of actions. Life is renewed daily, even instantaneously in Fellini's world. But just as life continues, its composition changed, even altered forever at times, memories are always being preserved in the most incandescent of ways--at times tragically, at others beautifully but always magically. (DVD AMARCORD)

Catch-22: A Novel / by Joseph Heller

For readers accustomed to novels possessing a linear structure and straightforward narrative, Joseph Heller's Catch-22 may seem an incoherent, jumbled series of confusing characters and disconnected episodes. Many critics said as much upon its publication in 1961. But to the more enlightened audience, the novel is nothing short of a literary masterpiece. Born in Brooklyn in 1923, Joseph Heller grew up the only child of Russian immigrants. In 1941 at the age of 19, he joined the Army Air Corps as a bomber pilot in training and subsequently flew over 60 combat missions in the European theater. Upon his return stateside, Heller worked as a copy editor while crafting his concept for the story which would become Catch-22. The satirical wartime novel chronicling the individual's place amid an erratic institutional bureaucracy swiftly became a classic and remains so today.

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind . . . Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. "That's some catch that Catch-22," he observed. "It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed. (p. 46)

Capt. John Yossarian is an American bomber pilot in the final months of World War II. Having already flown well over the designated 40 flying sorties, or missions required by the Army, Yossarian is nonetheless kept around on active duty by his seemingly idiotic superior officers who see to it that the quota number of sorties are repeatedly raised. It's not just the number of combat missions. The entire squadron is certifiably crazy, it seems to Yossarian, who finds common sense and logic nominally absent from the base's operational system, the entire chain of command appearing to function with a misplaced agenda.

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It all seems a big muddle from the outside looking in. But is it? Though everyone and everything seems ludicrous to a T, bent on insanity and lunacy, the self-perception within the squadron isn't so drastic. Visibly, the atmosphere is relatively docile with the men seeming to accept the way things are. The absurdity of incidents like a captain promoted to major simply because his last name is "Major" (so he could be called "Major Major"), a discharged private who's continually given the most important duties, a colonel's reason for action based solely on what others think of him, or the company mess officer orchestrating the bombing of his own men are accepted as perfectly permissible activities or otherwise inconsequential dealings. What really matters, it seems, isn't quite what really matters.

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More than anything else, Catch-22 embodies its title phrase--the self-contradictory, circular reasoning evoking a no-win situation. The structure and style of the novel itself are like this, the prose always repetitive and paradoxical, reiterating themes of irrationality and nonsensical logic all purported as sound doctrine and ingenuity. Yet it's this seemingly ridiculous pattern of disjointed incoherency which makes the book so profound. For within the double-speak and literary hodgepodge is a deadly serious diatribe on war, peace, life and death, brilliantly illuminating the ordered chaos of military combat which inevitably subjects individuals to disorientation and futility. The 1970 film version (DVD CATCH) of the book starring Alan Arkin, John Voight and Orson Welles received lukewarm reviews but has garnered an appreciable fanbase and "cult" status in subsequent years. (FIC HELLER)