Review: THE CROSSROADS, by Niccolò Ammaniti

The Crossroads, by Niccolò Ammaniti. Published 2010 by Canongate Books. Translated by Jonathan Hunt. Literary Fiction.

Also published in English as As God Commands and winner of the 2007 Strega Prize, Niccolò Ammaniti's The Crossroads is a heartbreaking and breathtakingly suspenseful coming of age story set far from tourist Italy in a working-class community impacted by drugs, immigration and economic collapse.

Cristiano Zena is thirteen and living with his father Rino in a dilapidated house cluttered with garbage and resentment. Cristiano's mother is gone and the boy idolizes his narcissistic father, on whom he depends and feels he must protect. At the outset Rino orders his son to kill a dog that's making too much noise and even this episode is laced with suspense. Will Cristiano do it?

Of course he does, and when Rino and his buddies Danilo and Corrado aka Quattro Formaggi plan a get-rich-quick robbery scheme, Cristiano doesn't question it. Meanwhile he's navigating his hardscrabble adolescence in the only ways he knows how- through violence and confusion. He has a run-in with a local bully that ends badly, and gets teased by two girls in his class, Fabiana and Esmeralda. Then the night of the robbery comes, and things take place that no one could have planned.

This sequence, "The Night," is a novel in and of itself, a heart-pounding, cinematic sequence that interleaves the perspectives of Rino, Danilo, Quattro Formaggi, Cristiano and Fabiana. By the end of "The Night" all of them will have passed a point of no return. The book is a little slow to start but once you get here you won't be able to stop until the heartbreaking end.

I really loved this book but it was a difficult read at times. Rino is a bitter man whose rancor is passed on to his son even as he says he wants something better for the boy. Cristiano can't see the difference between his father and himself, while Rino's friends drown in their delusions. But it's Fabiana who pays the ultimate price.

Like I said, it's a tough read but I can't recommend it enough if you think you're up to the task. I'm glad I gave it a shot. Uncompromising and impossible to forget, The Crossroads will leave an indelible mark on your heart.


Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

Review: JAMRACH'S MENAGERIE, by Carol Birch

Jamrach's Menagerie, by Carol Birch. Published 2011 by Canongate Books. Literary Fiction.

So, I read Jamrach's Menagerie for my book club, which focuses on books that were nominated for or won the Man Booker Prize. Jamrach's Menagerie was nominated for the prize in 2011 when it was also longlisted for the Orange Prize. The story is about the coming of age of Jaffy Brown, a London boy who gets a job with a zookeeper and is sent on a mission on a whaling vessel, to help bring back a dragon.

The story starts as a lively and entertaining vision of 19th century London life. Jaffy knows the city inside and out, and London is almost a character in the book, so vividly does Carol Birch bring it to life. Jaffy takes right to working with animals and befriends Tim and his sister Ishbel, a beautiful and precocious girl. Charles Jamrach is a larger than life figure and Jaffy loves his work. Life on the boat is hard but Jaffy does his best to adjust. He gets to know the ship, gets to know about whales and whaling, and he meets Dan Rymer, who will have a lasting impact on him in ways he can't imagine right now. Finally they arrive in the south Pacific, and face the dragon.

What happens from here I won't tell you, but it's unforgettable. It's also grisly and grim, and we only have hope because we know Jaffy survives. Carol Birch spares us no detail of the horrors that await these men. I skimmed parts of it, because it was a little too gruesome for me.

It takes about an hour to get from my apartment to the meeting location of my book club, and unfortunately I fell asleep and missed my departure window that Sunday. Just as well. The moderator said she chose this book as a lighter selection after Richard Flanagan's graphic The Narrow Road to the Deep North. The first 3/4 of the book qualify as light but the final quarter eclipses it completely and it's just about dark as dark gets. After the trip Jaffy tries to return to some semblance of normal life, but nothing will ever be the same. I don't feel quite the same either after finishing this deeply disturbing book.

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.