Customer Reviews

I'll Steal You Away

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Niccolo Ammaniti's "new" book, "I'll Steal You Away" is a melange of small but very passionate vignettes concerning a cross section of people in Ischiano Scalo, an Italian Peyton Place. His protagonists are one Pietro Moroni, an uncertain pre-teen who carries the responsibility of the world on his shoulders and Graziano Biglia, a forty-something ne'er-do-well. Their lives are largely connected with Flora Palmieri, a local school teacher on whom Pietro seeks revenge for failing him at school and with whom Graziano has a whirlwind courtship lasting one night.

I'll Steal You Away" is "new" in the sense that it was written before his wonderful 2003 book, "I'm Not Scared" (after which a gratifying movie was made) and translated by Jonathan Hunt (no relation to me) earlier this year. Ammaniti's attention to detail and his often graphic descriptions of characters in sensual scenes are in abundance in "I'll Steal You Away". He knows how to tell a story. However, this earlier book suffers from being too long where "I'm Not Scared" was of an apt length. While one of the aims of the book is to transfer a sense of worth and power to Pietro from Graziano during an encounter where the youngster is being attacked by his peers and Graziano comes to Pietro's aid, it nonetheless takes almost the entire length of the book to get to that point.

Hunt's very British translation makes for a fun sidelight (at least for American readers!) but Ammaniti shines in the force of his narrative delivery. It's a good book but some editing would have made "I'll Steal You Away" an even better one.

In "I'll Steal You Away" Ammaniti gives us two intersecting tales of people trying to escape the deadness and brutality of Italian provincial life, interspersing these stories with cameos, walk ons and diversions from a range of hilariously drawn characters.

And whilst I would agree that the one of these narrative threads - the story of Graziano Biglia, ageing Lothario and charicature of the Latin stud, desperately trying to conjure up a respectable future as the local boy made good, whilst being led by the nose by the skittish, gold digging nude dancer Erica - is frequently hilarious, embarrasingly well observed, and always diverting, ultimately this is an entertainment. Such a cartoon is Biglia, that it is hard to be anything other than amused by his sufferings, or those of Flora, drawn reluctantly into his web thanks to the inhibition-lowering effects of MDMA.

But in his other narrative thread, Ammaniti has created one of the great adoloscent characters in literature. I challenge anyone who had a less than perfect childhood - and that's most of us - not to relate strongly to Pietro Moroni. Pietro, 12 years old but small for his age, struggles with a dysfunctional family dominated by an abusive alcoholic father and with bullying and victimisation from the local toughs. His only salvation comes from being the best friend and soulmate of Gloria, the most beautiful and feisty girl in town. But as Pietro hits adolescence that plank is also becoming shaky, as friendship starts to turn into something else, with all the uncertainties and fears that brings.

Pietro is swept along on a wave of events that he has no way of controlling, let down by all the adults in his life, only able to turn to the always supportive, but not always wise, Gloria. Ultimately, as his narrative crosses paths with that of Biglia, he takes a series of unpredictable and shocking actions to take control of his life.

A book that can be hilarious, picaresque, and profound simultaneously is a rare thing indeed - and Pietro and Gloria's story in particular will stay with you for a long time. And for anyone who remembers the fear, pain, occasional rapture and general heightening of the senses of your first love / first crush, this book will stir up feelings and memories you've long forgotten.

Deliberately or not, Ammaniti has left plenty of room for a sequel and personally I hope he writes it. But for now, I heartily recommend this book to anyone with a heart.

Only read this if you like conflict, unrelenting quirky characters, bullies, mischief, sex and a carefull sad ending.

A humorous yet sad story, and entirely believable. Translated from the Italian by a Brit., I'LL STEAL YOU AWAY," is delightful in context and hilarious in a really good translation.

The author, Niccolo Ammaniti, could have written this story around my own Italian-American family. Some of the characters and scenes mirror the things I have seen in my early years in a similar ethnic neighborhood.

I'm anxious to read more from this author.

Ammaniti's style is lean and sparce but full of references to many modern topics such as art,music and literature and it was fun to recognize the references or at least some of them. The book is chock full of interesting characters, some of whom appear only briefly and then disappear. The main protagonists, Pietro,a young student and Graziano, an aging Lothario meet only once but the effect of the encounter is life altering; Ammaniti tells a good story but his dialogue is stilted and the ending improbable and unsatisfactory. Being somewhat of an Italophile, I enjoyed the depiction of a small nondescript backwater town and the lives of the folks that live there. If these kinds of things interest you, read the book otherwise give it a pass.

Although a devotee of Italian literature, I must admit that I am not fond of most of the current crop of Italian writers (too much imitation of "hip" American writers and filmmakers; even many Italian filmmakers have lost their originality in the last twenty years). In "I'll Steal You Away," besides the setting(and I have lived in such a small Italian town), I found nothing particularly Italian about the story or its characters. This story could be transferred to almost any country and particularly to any "small town USA."
The sparse style was unimpressive. The constant staccato dialog was most annoying. The total immersion into pop culture and mores left me cold and bored.
Sorry, but I'll stick back with Manzoni, Verga, Lampedusa, etc. Now, I must be fair. My reactions are influenced by personal preferences, and I did read the work in the English translation, which may account for the diminution of any Italian flavor. I'm going to get a hold of an original Italian copy of the work and see if it fares any better.

While there are many lovely passages in this book, and the prose generally has a "keep reading me" feeling, this book fails as a novel. All the big surprises are obvious before the reader reaches them; when it is only a few pages rather than a few chapters it seems like a victory for novelist. While many of the characters are vividly described, few are given any real depth. It seems that making witty comments on the characters is more important to the author than giving them depth or motivating their actions. The result is a lot of clever caricatures carried on an uneven plot. The only really sympathetic character is the young boy Pietro, and the novel is ultimately about all the bad things that happen to him. If you want to read horror stories about children having horrible lives you can open the newspaper (or go the their on-line site). To read it as a novel there should be some deeper understanding about the human condition offered. I didn't find anything here.