Never too Late to Read Classics discussion

We are leaving the mountains behind and find ourselves in a small town in the Po valley-The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovannino Guareschi, also known as Giovanni. For some reason, goodreads uses Giovannino as the main link.

There are a number of books about the parish priest, Don Camillo and his flock. His main adversary is the Communist mayor of the town. The books are set in the times after the second world war, when Italian politics was unstable, at best. And time does pass in the later books of the series.
These stories are generally lighthearted but can take a serious turn when they deal with events that happened during the war.

I have a copy and will be reading a few of those tales.

Great!

I ordered Comrade Don Camillo. I think it is the middle book.
I have The Little World on a wish list for a hardcover of course :)

You'll get an idea of what Don Camillo is like. He has a great sense of humour combined with a no-nonsense attitude.

It sounds like a fun and enjoyable read! Cannot wait!

I will need this after reading Madame Bovary I believe.

It will cleanse your palate! And make you smile.

I'll be joining this one.

Great!

I would like to read along too. Unfortunately I didn’t plan ahead because it would have been fun to read it in Italian too.

If you do get a chance to read it in Italian later, it would be great to read your comments, Melanie.

Certainly! My library has L'Anno di Don Camillo, which according to 카지노싸이트 is #8 in the series and untranslated. I'll see if I can find one earlier in the series.

My library has that one as well and I've placed it on hold. It might take a while to get it since someone has it checked out. I've read a bunch of the earlier books quite a while ago so it will be fun to read some more Don Camillo stories.

I read this delightful series of novels back in the 1950’s. Considering the time period it was written about and written in, I remember some humor and maybe some not.
But, very enjoyable.

I'm still waiting for one hold to come in, but since then have placed a hold on a book I'd already read and will be reading that after I pick it up at the library.

Lesle wrote: "I ordered Comrade Don Camillo. I think it is the middle book...

It finally showed up yesterday!!
Starting soon!

I first read The Little World of Don Camillo as one of three books required by freshman to read in the summer before entrance into my Catholic high school. My memory is that I enjoyed the book as much as any 14-year-old-avid-reading-sports-oriented-Catholic boy could enjoy it.
I reread the book in another GR discussion group in 2019. The book is a series of vignettes, much like a weekly TV series where each episode tells a story but there is also a progression in the characters and their relationships.
On Day 1 I realized that reading too many chapters a day got redundant and that reading one or two chapters a day was more than enough. I made my daily chapters of the book the first thing I read in the morning, after the newspaper. I came to enjoy reading the light humorous vignettes right after watching a morning news program.
The book often brought a smile to my face, much like reading a good comic strip does. Nothing earthshattering, just a simple enjoyable start to my daily reading, enhanced by the nostalgia of the experience.

I'm glad you found a way to enhance your reading experience, Brian.

Who thought that a 14 year old boy would get much out of this book? It must have been a favourite of the teacher.

It was a Catholic school but he was a lay teacher who had been in the Catholic seminary before dropping out. His favorite book was Mr. Blue by the very Catholic and conservative Myles Connolly.
The teacher was very influential on my reading and I had him again in a senior year semester English class on the modern, alienated hero where he assigned us:

Demian by Hermann Hesse
Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Bread and Wine by Ignazio Silone
Man's Fate by André Malraux

This class expanded my horizons a bit as we were largely assigned American and English works during the earlier high school years. It was better than my college level English lit classes.

Lesle wrote: "Lesle wrote: "I ordered Comrade Don Camillo. I think it is the middle book...It finally showed up yesterday!!
Starting soon!"

Oh my goodness! I just started and it is a fun read already!
Quite a character our priest is!

He certainly is robust!

Christ speaking to him is just a voice of reason, but he seems to prefer the devil sitting on his other shoulder speaking to him! (as I shake my head)

Rosemarie wrote: "I'm glad you found a way to enhance your reading experience, Brian.

Who thought that a 14 year old boy would get much out of this book? It must have been a favourite of the teacher."

I was put on to the books at about the same age, but by my mother. She adored the books, and encouraged me to read them. Back in those Cold War years, they offered a glimmer of hope that there might ultimately be some rapprochement. (Not that I much cared for that at 12; I just enjoyed the humor and the relationships.)

I was delighted to see a few years ago that they had been reissued in new translations. And... I have to say that re-reading them has been a different experience. I'm not entirely sure to what extent it's a faulty memory on my part versus the fact that these new editions are also more complete, but the books I remember were "fluffier": the conflicts less serious and the humor more pronounced. As I remember, no one was killed, or even seriously injured, in the older translations. But the tone in these new editions is frequently rather darker.

I still, well "enjoy" is perhaps not the right word, but admire the way in which Guareschi tries to keep things both light and even-handed.

Lesle wrote: "Christ speaking to him is just a voice of reason, but he seems to prefer the devil sitting on his other shoulder speaking to him! (as I shake my head)"

“In the play Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw, Joan of Arc insists that she hears voices that come from God. She is informed by skeptics that the voices come from her imagination. Unmoved, Joan replies, ‘I know, that is how God speaks to me.’”–Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster

Guareschi says himself that the voice of Christ is Christ's voice as he (Guareschi) hears it, and it's my favorite part of the books!

These are just so fun. My favorite bits are also when he talks with Jesus. Too funny.

Especially when he isn't sure if Jesus approves of his actions.

I've found an interesting bit of information in the introduction to the collection I'm reading.
The Don Camillo owe their success to the fact that their author is a procrastinator! He had a deadline for three stories just before
Christmas and not enough time, so he submitted the same story to two papers, just using a larger font in the second one-and that's the one that made Don Camillo a hit.

Sounds like something Don Camillo would do!

I finished Comrade Don Camillo over the weekend.

Don Camillo feels a responsibility that seems to drive him.
Throughout the book the Don Camillo often consults with Christ on the Crucifix for guidance which are amusing.
The constant bickering between the Priest and the Communist Senator makes it a witty and enjoyable to read.

Hope to read others in the series.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, Lesle.

Thank you Rosemarie for bringing him to light for me. Appreciate it very much!

I discovered him by accident years ago, and am so glad I did! When I was in Germany quite a few years ago, I discovered that my friend, who used to be my babysitter, likes Don Camillo too.
The books have been translated into many languages.

I'm reading the second Don Camillo collection and some of the stories deal with the elections. And there's usually a little twist at the end. The local communists are not as strict as the higher ups.

Italy had a very unstable government for many years after World War Two, which led to a lot friction between various parties, and the Church.

It seems that Guareschi wrote very little, or even nothing else besides these Don Comillo stories. Is that correct?

Chad wrote: "It seems that Guareschi wrote very little, or even nothing else besides these Don Comillo stories. Is that correct?"

No, not even close. The Don Camillo stories are his best known, but he was a prolific journalist as well as a humorist. Even in English, some of his non-Camillo books include
The House That Nino Built
My Secret Diary
A Husband in Boarding School
The Family Guareschi

Thanks!

Finished reading book 1 of The Little World of Don Camillo yesterday. I enjoyed it, but probably not enough to seek out any more of his work.

They're stories from a different time, but people haven't changed that much.
I'm glad you enjoyed them, John.

I'm reading the second book and there are some serious topics covered in a few stories, but most are upbeat. And there is one that is just plain sad. People were very poor after the war and getting enough food was hard for some. Plus, there were some issues remaining from the war, which involved people getting killed-to get even.

The later stories in the book are lighter-Don Camillo helps a school boy escape from boarding school, and my favourite is the story of Ful-the dog who kept coming back until he was finally able to stay.

Interestingly, I preferred on balance the slightly darker stories, where I felt he made his points even better.

Both Communism and the Christian churches now exist largely on the margins, but we still need love, common sense and the ability to laugh at ourselves!

I've just finished a reread of Don Camillo e il suo gregge/Don Camillo and His Flock which is the second book in the series. It was as good as I remember it being!

I've just finished L'anno di Don Camillo which dealt with a year in the little word. Time has gone by and people now have televisions and fridges. But they are still dependent on the weather. I really enjoyed this collection of stories.