Customer Reviews

Bread and Wine (Signet Classics)

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The book is deceptively simple in its language and plot, all of which merely serve to veil deep meaning and thought. The story takes place before WWII, when Mussolini is at the height of his fascist power and the country is preparing for a war with Ethiopia. The protagonist Pietro Spina, after having been forced to flee and live abroad because of his contrary political views, returns to Italy to spread the message of Communism. He goes into hiding disguised as a priest, Don Paolo, in the small mountain village of Pietrasecca. His casual views win the heart of all the villagers, and everyone he meets opens up to him (they all want him to hear their confessions, but he refuses on grounds that he does not have permission from the pope). As the novel progresses and as he comes to better know the peasants and their needs, his doctrinaire Communist views slowly change to one that takes on the appearance of grass-roots Christian socialism, and he more and more assumes the role of a priest. But even when the novel opens, one sees that he is person driven more by a determination to seek moral justice than a political answer: one gets the idea that Communism was the option most appealing of all the options to an idealist like he, as it was for most conscientious intellectuals of that time period. The novel reminds me of Camus's The Plague in that it poses the moral dilemmas people face and their reactions when confronted with a powerful dehumanizing organization, which in this case is fascism, while in Camus's case the organization is embodied in a disease. Pietro, the martyr Murica, and the priest Don Benedetto are the moral resistors of oppression, albeit each resists in his own way. However, theirs is a dignified, almost passive resistance which contrasts with the Communists outright rebellion. There is Zabaglia, once a socialist orator, who has now turned fascist sympathizer. And there are the peasants who are resigned to the follies of all politics because they see it as a part of life--the present government is merely one is series of historical and natural afflictions. Their down-to-earth cynicism allows them to be wary of all political propaganda. There are many passages in the book which reveal the quiet, rustic, and often times harsh beauty of the bucolic life, which is also sometimes shown as being crude and vulgar, yet always natural and unpretentious. There are hilarious passages showing the peasants' unquestioning Christian piety which they combine without any qualms with indigenous superstition: "One old woman was sliding along her knees toward the chapel of the sacrament, with her face on the floor, touching it with her tongue and leaving an irregular trail of saliva like that of a snail behind her. A young man in uniform was walking beside her, taking small steps, awkward and ashamed." The chapter before the last, when the villagers and Pietro come to pay their respects to the parents of Murica who had been humiliatingly tortured to death by the police, beautifully sums up the author's themes of common humanity and fraternalism by making a parallel with Christ's last supper. ' "The bread is made from many ears of grain," said Pietro. "Therefore it signifies unity. The wine is made from many grapes, and therefore it, too, signifies unity. A unity of similar things, equal and united. Therefore it means truth and brotherhood, too; these are things which go well together." "The bread and wine of communion," said an old man. "The grain and the grape which has been trampled on. The body and the blood." ' The novel ends inconclusively with dark foreboding when Cristina, Pietro's love, passionately tries to follow through dark and snow the illusory footsteps of Pietro, who has had to flee once again. A pack of wolfs comes upon her and she falls to her knees, closes her eyes, and crosses herself.

The late Ignazio Silone, the author of "Bread and Wine," stated that he "would willingly pass [his] life writing and rewriting the same book -- that one book which every writer carries within him, the image of his own soul..." "Bread and Wine" is just that -- a beautiful reflection of a man's soul. Using humor, easy language and insights into the Italian fascist regime, Silone tells the story of all humanity's search for truth. In the figure of Pietro Spina, a Socialist political activist, the reader is lead to ask questions about politics, relationships, and faith. The irony is that Spina has just returned from exile and must remain incognito -- as a priest, of course. Through his experiences, he asks many difficult questions about his Socialist party, his church, and himself. In the end, he is left to bring together who he is as the "priest" Don Paolo and who he was as the anti-political activist Pietra Spina. He must learn to "let the inner and the outer man meet" (Plato).

Set in Italy, at the outbreak of the invasion of Africa, at the height of fascism, Silone's main character, the communist leader Pietro Spina, disguised as a priest, is confronted with a sad reality: the large distance that separates ideological communism and the daily reality of the "cafoni," the Italian peasants who have to face the cruel struggle for survival, their indifference to political rhetoric, their acceptance of a future with no perspectives, and their reliance on blind faith. Spina is the intellectual mind who painfully learns that ideologies by themselves are not enough, the element of "faith" has to be present in life. The narrative has superb discourses, simple in its language, but with an incredible depth of meaning, there are plenty of allegories for the attentive reader, the story is a pleasure and a delight, as much as some good bread and wine!

Ignacio Silone's Bread and Wine takes up the issue of the individual within the community. Masterfully, he makes every character whole and unique. A noble communist Pietro Spina hides from the Facist as a priest in a peasant town. While in this role he realizes that abstract ideologies are do not strike a cord with the mass man. Instead, it is the essential sacarments of life, i.e. bread and wine, that justifies their suffering and their motive to live on. This is a book that should be read by all who attempt to define the mass man. As soon as it is read, they will discover that they know nothing at all. jmm

Originally published in 1937 while the author was in exile from facist Italy, this book chronicles the return of the main character, Pietro Spina, to Italy. Spina's hope is to restore the socialist revolution while in hiding, but learns the importance of other more simpler ways of life. He is sent to a small, remote mountain village to recuperate from an illness and, while there, gains and understanding of the simple ways of the peasant folk. These people are not interested in "idealogical" revolution but know only about waking up and putting a long hard day in at the fields and returning home and going to bed...only to get up and do it all over again. Bread and wine is their sustenance. Religious symbolism is abundant in this novel which is basically about the rebirth of Pietro Spina into "true" Christianity/Religion /Manliness. The relationships that he develops are beautifully and simply written in the novel. I orignally read this book 12 years ago as part of a college course and, for some reason, return to it every two to three years. Just finished it again

The first time I tried to read this book, I didn't get it. Perhaps I was too distracted or reading it too quicky or sporadically, but I kept waiting for something important to happen or somebody to say something worth underlining and quoting, and got impatient when nothing happened and nobody said anything. It has sat abandoned on my bookshelf for a couple of years.

This time around, I had a little more time to read and a little more space to think. It made all the difference. I enjoyed the subtlety of Silone's characterization. He delights in small, subtle humor, in symbolism that doesn't scream itself aloud -- like the drunk peasant who falls off his donkey and then beats the donkey. It slips by you if you're not attuned to it.

There are probably other valid interpretations, but to me, Pietro (or Don Paolo) really isn't the main character here. He is simply a placeholder for the reader, so that I can see and hear and experience rural Italy. Perhaps because I can so easily identify with him. (I, too, am an idealist, a revolutionary with romantic ideas about the poor and romantic hatred for Institution. I may not be an exile on the run, but I live in a more tolerant time and place. A demonstration in Italy in the 30's might have been viewed by the authorities as criminal activity; in 21st century America, it's considered entertainment. I don't know which is more frustrating.) I have experienced Pietro's (and Silone's) frustration with those he is trying to help -- that ironic feeling that you could do a lot of good for the poor, if the poor would just cooperate.

The peasants of Italy, and the universal poor by extension, are the heroes of this book -- those people that most revolutionaries strive and die to empower and free from oppression, yet few revolutionaries actually take the time to understand and love. The gold in this book is Silone's gentle, compassionate, humorous rendering of these people -- what they care about, don't care about, how they make decisions, what they fear, what they think about and hope for. It is an exposition of a collective mind; a dangerous undertaking, bound to slip into stereotype at times, and one that Silone undertakes with great reverence.

As I go among the poor in my own day and age, I remember Silone, and find that what he has to say rings true. Much too often, attempts to help, to organize, and to "empower" are ultimately patronizing and arrogant. It is much better simply to break bread with them, and learn to know and love them. After all, this is what Jesus did, the greatest and best riend of the poor, and the ultimate Saviour of all mankind. I would rather follow his model than Marx's.

I had to read this book for an Italian history class and it was excellent. The book deals with different concepts, but is primarily related to the role of religion in fascist Italy. We follow the path of Pietro Spina and his persona as a priest, and we see how those regard him act and feel.

I highly recommend this book!

A really interesting work. I agree with the author of the introduction in that the work is a bit uneven, but a good read and worth the price of admission (I wish I could score it a 4.5). The plot is pretty simple--an ailing communist underground leader from Abruzzi returns from exile to Italy during the fascist regime of Mussolini in the 1930's. While in hiding, he reluctantly takes the garb of a priest and seeks to convalesce in a small town in his home region. Despite the simplistic plot, there is a number of layers of meaning in the text--Silone uses this as a vehicle to discuss everything from freedom in a dictatorship to the role of the Church in bad times. His is critical of dogmatic communism--in fact, the main character is at his least convincing when spouting the party line and never gets anyone to agree with him when doing so. It's only when he talks in broader terms of humanity--and here Silone heavily relies on a Christian allegory--that he gains supporters. These moments are when the book really shines. Silone challenges us to ask what would happen to Jesus if he returned to our world. The ending is a bit odd, but is allegorical--some might find it off-putting.

This is the definitive account of one God that failed. It describes a man's loss of faith during the 1930s in the international Communist movement. Wanted as a terrorist, he slips back into southern Italy where he hides as a Catholic priest recovering from tuberculosis. Fascism is rampant and war with Ethiopia has given national purpose to Italians suffering from economic stagnation. His priestly duties involve offering forgiveness to Catholics saddled with a primitive and uncompromising faith. His contacts in the Comintern underground demand his obedience to party dogma from Moscow that he now sees as meaningless. While Silone offers no grand solution to the dilemna that loss of faith presents, the book presents an uncompromising and wonderfully written portrait of the strength and weakness of humanity in the Godless world of the 20th Century.

Silone's communist message is outdated.
More, he makes the cardinal error to believe that solidarity is a basic human characteristic: 'Bread is made of many grains of corn, wine is made of many grapes, so it means unity. Unity of similar, equal, useful things. Hence truth and fraternity are also things that go well together.'
But, man shows only solidarity if there is a 'personal' gain. Pure altruism is absolutely no option in the struggle for survival.

His picture of mankind is static, too rosy and naive. His belief in the proletariat is obsessive: 'the poor are uncontaminated by greed for property.' Hence, he proposes the abolishing of private ownership of land.
'Evil is only everything that prevents millions of people from becoming human.' For Silone, evil is not a basic and intrinsic part of the human character.
He doesn't understand that all proletarians want their children to become (not static) doctors, engineers, lawyers, economists ..., in other words 'bourgeois'.
In Stalin's Soviet Union, he sees only a fraternity of peasants and workers.
The political role of the Catholic Church nowadays is marginalized. In Italy, they even don't have a Christian Party anymore.

Of course, the main character poses certain questions: had that (communist) community not itself become a synagogue? abandoned the critical spirit? the risks of conspirational struggles?
His answer is no. He refutes that the communists aspire too to totalitarian power and orthodoxy and that a black inquisition will be followed by a red one. His return to his homeland 'had been basically an attempt to escape that professionalism', and he has the 'hope of one day playing a big role'.

Like a fanatically convinced Christian missionary, he tries desperately to sell his communist gospel to the poor cafoni. Unfortunately, they are terribly conservative ('it has always been so') and his message falls on deaf ears.

What is left in this book are the struggles against a totalitarian (here fascist) regime and against the butchery of war.
It is partly very melodramatic (e.g. the confession at the end) and its main symbolism (a marxist apostle disguised as a priest) irrealistic.

I prefer Silone's more direct and less apostolical 'Fontamara' and recommend highly his masterpiece 'Emergency Exit'.