July 20, 2009
Plans for an ATM heist go terribly wrong for a bumbling gang of Italian ruffians in Ammaniti's latest. Rino Zena, an unemployed single father with neo-Nazi tendencies, can barely keep his teenage son, Cristiano, out of social services. Zeno's friend Danilo Aprea hopes to buy a lingerie shop in order to woo back his wife after the death of their daughter. Their plan, to boost an ATM, hinges on the car-thieving skills of Corrado Rumitz, nicknamed Quattro Formaggi, a not-quite-right misfit obsessed with a porn star named Ramona. After watching Dog Day Afternoon
, Rino takes the movie as a sign from God not to go forward with the plan, but word fails to get to Danilo or to Quattro Formaggi, who, on his way to meet up, is distracted by a teenager he thinks is Ramona. When a massive rain storm hits, the series of tragic coincidences quickly turns deadly. Ammaniti, a wonder at creating graphic black comedy, keeps the plot rolling while pushing his characters to their absolute limits, even if the last act is a bit messy. If the Coen brothers ever wanted to go Italian, this'd be prime adaptation material.
Starred review from September 1, 2009
Punk-rock desperadoes and a daft father-son tragicomedy team run riot through the mess and splendor of today's Italy.
Bang! Propulsive from the first page, this latest from Ammaniti (I'll Steal You Away, 2007, etc.) is stunningly, disturbingly entertaining adrenaline fiction. Teenaged Cristiano, hyper-vigilant and insecure, wakes to his father brandishing a pistol. Rino's a rager—ropey, tattooed deltoids; cold beers in his pockets—and he's got a mission for junior. Kill a dog. Barking awake all of snowbound Varrano, the factory owner's mutt is Rino's current target, along with Jews, blacks, the rich, TV stars and the village's jailbait, whom he regularly despoils and discards. Like a crazed commando-puppet, Cristiano does dad's bidding, leaving"a red hole among the black hairs" of the poor mongrel. Then he plunges into picaresque adventures with dad's crew: Quattro Formaggi (named after the pizza), who barely survived electrocution in a fishing accident (!), and Danilo Aprea, flashing bling and hair"dyed mahogany red." It's Danilo's brainstorm to shanghai an ATM machine, capstone caper of these goons' thug life. The botched heist is the book's backbone, but its glorious and greasy flesh is a speed-of-light montage of family-and-friend dysfunction: Rino screaming"kiss your God" at Cristiano; Danilo's wife choking to death,"the cap from a bottle of shampoo stuck in her windpipe"; Cristiano nearly killing a rich kid who had the temerity to score with Fabiana and Esmeralda, Cristiano's mental pinups and the town's shoplifting supersluts; Cristiano, for a perfunctory school assignment, penning a harrowing skinhead screed ("we can be a great pure nation again"). Ammaniti relentlessly creates a poetics of perversity, an anthem of anger for working-class Italy: bollixed and laid-off by Internet modernity, appalled and titillated by the omnipresence of Britney Spears, fearful of the crash of Italy's currency, the corruption of politicians and the onslaught of immigrants.
Not at all pretty, but darkly, ferociously beautiful—a triumph for Europe's hottest novelist.
(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
August 15, 2009
Thirteen-year-old Cristiano Zena lives in the small industrial town of Varano, Italy, with his unemployed father, Rino, an alcoholic neo-Nazi. With friends Quattro Formaggi and Danilo, Rino decides to liberate an ATM machine from the local bank by driving a vehicle into it. But on the fateful night, in the midst of a torrential rainstorm, things do not go as planned. The ATM is not stolen, three people end up dead, Rino lies in a coma, and Cristiano's life is unchanged forever. Like David Lida's "Travel Advisory: Stories of Mexico", this book shows the gritty side of life not seen by tourists heading to a popular destination. The issues raised here range widely, from alienation, violence, drug use, hunger, and joblessness to the role of religion in today's world, which would make this an excellent book discussion choice; fortunately, a reading group guide is included. VERDICT A powerful novel, cinematically written, with touches of unsentimental emotion and comedy, this international best seller won the prestigious Strega Prize. The masterly Ammaniti ("I'm Not Scared") creates powerful characters not easy to forget. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 6/15/09.]Lisa Rohrbaugh, formerly with East Palestine Memorial P.L., OH
Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
October 15, 2009
Cristiano and his alcoholic, out-of-work, abusive father, Rino, live in the economically depressed village of Varrano, Italy. When Rino and his equally hard-living friends come up with a plan to reverse their fortunes, Cristiano hopes his life will improve. But, as with all of Rinos projects, things do not go as planned. Cristiano, with his complicated and troubling relationship with his father, makes for a fascinating character, but overall the characters are so unsympathetic that the book is best read in small doses. In sum, a flawed, but compelling look at characters not usually featured in modern fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)