After so much anguish and so much mourning, so many tears and so many tricks, so much hate and injustice and despair, what are we to do?
I just finished Ignazio Silone's Fontamara, the first book in his Abruzzo Trilogy (the second is Bread and Wine, which I reread a couple weeks ago). Much like Bread and Wine, Fontamara includes a goodly amount of humor to somewhat balance out the unrelenting misfortune doled out to the cafoni (peasants) by the townspeople and officials and the Catholic Church during the Mussolini dictatorship. Early in the book those in power, even petty power, make it clear that they're not worried about the cafoni because always suffer and the no how to suffer, which only justifies more suffering.
Jokes of that kind are not easily forgotten, even if the town loafers constantly think up new ones. So our first thought was that the diversion of the stream was a practical joke too. After all, it would be the end of everything if men started interfering with the elements created by God, and diverted the course of the sun, the course of the winds, and the course of the waters established by God. It would be like hearing that donkeys were learning to fly, or that Prince Torlonia was no longer a prince, or that cafoni were no longer to suffer from hunger - in other words, that the eternal laws of God were no longer to be the laws of God.
Sadly, what hit me while reading was how true this sentiment still was in so much of the world, and how the wealthy and powerful in America were equally guilty of believing it to be true.
This book, and this trilogy, is highly recommended. I'm looking forward to reading more books by Ignazio Silone.
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