Customer Reviews

Momo

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I still have my first and only edition of this book, that I read before "The Never Ending Story" became famous and was turned into a film, making Michael Ende a recognizable name.

I love reading stories about beautiful princesses, but Momo is a princess of a different kind.
She's on her own, homeless and destitute, without a family or means of her own. Her magical power is not that of a lovely face and a providential Godmother, but the fact that she remains a lovely, giving person, uncorrupted by her misfortune and possesses a supernatural ability to listen to others. Reading the book you understand just how and why such an apparently small thing can be so life changing, more so than any "action".

The book is ostensibly about how time is subjective, about how people "save time" by doing as little as possible the very things that make life worth living - in order to have more time to do them later on, when one has "more time" for that sort of thing - only to get there and realize that it's too late, life has passed you by, and you've got no more time left to enjoy them any further, or any one to enjoy them with.

But the reason I read it time and again was because of Momo and her two best friends, the old man and the young man, who are so completely different from each other; The turtle Cassandra, the forest of clocks, the one hour flowers...I can't stress enough how much you need to buy this book.

First of all, I was in shock to find there are no reviews of "Momo". Really. A few minutes ago I checked "The Neverending Story" by the same author and there are several hundreds of them. Let me refer to that book before I move on to "Momo".

I saw the film based on "The Neverending Story" and like many wanted to read the novel. Even though I was just around 10 I immediately understood how worthless the movie was compared to that masterpiece. Yes, masterpiece of the same class as those telling stories of Alice, Winnie the Pooh or Peter Pan. Readable at every period of life, it reveals its secrets as you get older.

"Momo" is a book not a bit worse. It is much shorter but just as imaginative and intense.

Its title serves as the name of a strange little girl. She appears in a possibly Italian town wearing a too-big-for-her coat but noone can tell anything about her. She finds herself a place under a ruined amphitheatre and good, even though poor, people bring her food. Local children soon discover how precious a companion that skinny girl is.

Momo does not talk much. She mostly listens, yet thanks to her presence other children and even adults find wisdom, patience, creativity, compassion. For a group of cigarette-smoking, apparently invisible men this is not an acceptable situation. They want to make a deal with the town inhabitants. The transaction seems to be perfectly OK, a bargain even, but there is a catch in it which Momo will be able to see, so she must be taken out of the way.

I cannot reveal more of the plot. You have probably read or watched "The Neverending Story", that is what brought you here. If you want to immerse yourself once again in the vivid world of Michael Ende do it with Momo.

See what great adventure you have been waiting for.

I read Momo as a kid, and loved it. But it was not until I was an adult that I got the message behind this beautiful fantasy story for kids. I was shocked at how the novel was an allegory of modern times, of the loss of values, of how the meaning and joy of life get lost if you let yourself be carried away by ambition and haste. Modern society argues this is the right way to make use of your time--but is it? A book about chosing what you do with the time you have in your heart, written beautifully. Also, the character of Momo is absolutely magical. Great for anyone, any time, any place. HOW CAN IT BE OUT OF PRINT????

Maybe the reason that this is the hardest Michael Ende book to find in English is that it really is telling children a lot about the real nature of the society, particularly the wonderful "free market economy" part of it, as well as "productivity" and "gross domestic product" and the rest. It is a dangerous book, it really makes you think about all the benefits of the new global religion of consumerism.

Momo is a masterpiece, no doubt about it. It is a children's book, and I read it as a child, and it made me look differently at the world. It does not take its intended audience (children) for fools and treats them as they deserve (as reasonable, open-minded children, not bigotted, senseless adults). It has great comedic moments (stories of Girolamo) and has wonderfully created villain (the cigarette smoking gray men), as well as cool characters like Caseiopeia. it is a perfect children's novel and will keep you reading and re-reading for years to come.

Most people are aware of The Neverending Story, written by the same author, that was turned into a famous movie. But most people are unaware that Momo was also turned into a movie. I have it in the German language, but I'm under the impression it was originally made in English. It is an outstanding book with lessons to learn about our values in modern times, with similar themes to the Neverending Story. In the Neverending Story, part II, a rockbiter's baby eats a lot of rocks, but keeps crying because it feels empty inside. In Momo, the heroine of the book has three lunches but feels empty inside. In the Neverending Story, the childlike emporess has a fatal illness, caused by The Nothing. In Momo, the dispensor of people's time, Professor Hora, is afraid the men in gray will poison the time he allots to people, causing a fatal illness. Quote:" A fatal illness, though you scarcely notice it at first. One day, you don't feel like doing anything. NOTHING interests you, everything bores you. Far from wearing off, your boredom persists and gets worse, day by day and week by week. You feel more and more bad tempered, more and more EMPTY inside, more and more dissatisfied with yourself and the world in general... you bustle around with a blank gray face, just like the men in gray themselves - indeed, you've joined their ranks. The disease has a name. It's called deadly tedium." Another quote: "So the men in gray aren't human? No. Their human appearance is only a disguise. What are they then? Strictly speaking, they're NOTHING. So where do they come from? They exist only because people give them the opportunity to do so."

An intricate story with a hidden satire on the birth of the fast-paced, all business society, told threw the eyes of orphan Momo, who loves her friends as her only family, she follows a turtle past the reaches of time to figure out why her friends do not come to talk to her anymore. This book is about time--stolen and hidden from people in constant motion, the dreams they had, and the gigantic love of one little girl. Micheal Ende magically weaved a subtle wit, humor, bravery, friendship, love and loss all together and created a story that I could not put down until I read it all the way through. Any generation can learn from this book--all you need is to take a bit of time!

Momo is an interesting commentary on society, with the aid of some grey gentleman, a tortoise who can communicate in an interesting fashion, a wise elderly man, a roadsweeper, a young storyteller and a little girl who appears from nowhere. I loved all of the characters, especially Momo - You'll want to sweep her up and adopt her! The little comments on daily life and work will make you stop and think. Anyone who is fascinated with the concept of time and/or loves The Neverending Story - READ. THIS. BOOK.

Like The Neverending Story, there was a movie adaption of Momo. However, unlike The Neverending Story, it is not in English (there's an audio book too, but that is also not in English). Thankfully I was able to obtain a full version of the movie that had subtitles created by a fan-otherwise I'd have been lost. Even though the quality of the production isn't bad, I just didn't get the same feeling from the movie that I did from the book. For one thing the character of Momo was all wrong; they used some popular, cutesy looking girl who's hair and personality were totally different. Still, it was interesting to see Ende, who played a small part, and they did a great job with the other characters, particularly the Men in Grey (or, The Grey Gentlemen).

Story overview:

A little girl, age unknown, lives in an abandoned amphitheatre just outside an unnamed Italian city. The neighborhood learns about her and, rather than send her off to be dealt with by the law-or the orphanage she escaped from-they all end up doing their part to take care of her. She, on the other hand, ends up doing more for the town than they do for her. You see, there's something very special about Momo. She has the remarkable ability to listen to people, really listen, in a way that offers the utmost therapeutic relief. In addition, she has a wonderful imagination and comes up with all sorts of creative and fun games for the neighborhood children to play. When not playing, she often spends time with two of her closest friends: Beppo, a street-cleaner, and Guido, a poetic tour guide.

One day a man in grey shows up and convinces a store owner that he can save money by storing time in a savings bank. The logic seems sound, and many people buy into the scheme. Eventually the town becomes full of these "Gray Men" and the people find that they no longer have time for one another. Not only that, but they become miserable. Momo works her magic to bring the people back, but the Men in Grey see her as a threat and so they seek for a way to shut her up.

Momo escapes, with the help of a turtle, Cassiopeia (who can see several minutes into the future). After several close encounters with the Men in Grey, Cassiopeia leads Momo to the home of a Time Professor named Secundus Minutus Hora. But it's only a matter of time before the Men in Grey find a way to break through Hora's defenses, and Momo finds herself traveling to the future only to discover that the Men in Grey now rule her town and have darkened the hearts of everyone she loves. It's all up to one little girl to find a way to destroy the Men in Grey and give back the lost time to all her friends.

My thoughts:

I absolutely love this story, and have read it at least three times. Each time I get a great reminder of the need to focus on the important things in life. The translation is good and the characters are beyond brilliant. You cannot go away from this book without feeling a strong sense of the importance of life.

Things to consider:

Good for both girls and boys, this book is probably best read at around the age of eight (as Ende said, children ages 8-80). There is nothing questionable about it that I can see. The only thing is that some elements might be a little too scary for younger children.

James D. Maxon

Author of, The Cat That Made Nothing Something Again

[...]

I read this book as an American boy growing up in Germany, nearly 30 years ago, and hands down this book has stuck with me more than any youth novel I read, even more than The Never Ending Story. The feel of the book is like a cross between Kafka's The Trial and the alternate world of Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. This is book is a youth book, but with the substance of adult literature.

If you have a kid who loves Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, or Cornelia Funke, get her to graduate to Momo - it will probably be appealing, and a step up in literary quality to boot.

After glancing at some information about this book online, I still had no idea what it was about, so I decided to read it. You might think it's about a homeless girl or a turtle or something upon seeing it at first, but it's really about a paradoxical idea that the more time you try to save, the more of it you will waste. It has what some would call a regressive message no doubt, and it's a message I somewhat agree with. I particuarly like how you don't really get a good grasp of the plot until you're well past the halfway point of the book, and with the exception of the "Make-Believe" digression chapter, you want to read on to figure out where the story's going. It's good at leaving you in the dark just enough to keep you reading, no matter how much someone tells you about the book beforehand.

While not quite as imaginative as The Neverending Story, Momo is just as well-written, and just as philosophical. The characters Beppo and Guido are developed very well, but Professor Hora reminds me of Father New Year from Ende's "Night of Wishes," which has some mediocrity to it.

The men in grey villians are wonderful. I had such vivid visuals of their behavior throughout the book, particuarly their evil selling pitch on the benefits of "saving" time and their mad scramble at the end for anything that might give them life. Sometimes I feel like a man in grey, keeping busier than I should to save something I really can't save. What can I do but ask for forgiveness?