Pietro's Book: The Story of a Tuscan Peasant [Hardcover]

Pietro Pinti (Author), Jenny Bawtree (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 2004

Pietro Pinti, born as he says 'in the Middle Ages,' worked the land with hoe and plow from his earliest youth. Growing up under Mussolini's Fascist regime on a farm near Florence, he and his family lived under conditions of extreme poverty, as sharecroppers to generally unscrupulous landowners. But during World War II, when millions in towns and cities suffered untold hardships, the hardy Tuscan peasants were well equipped to face the rigors of the era: war or no war, work on the land went on, and Pietro describes month by month a typical year in their lives: how they made wine and olive oil, planted and harvested the wheat by hand, made baskets and ladders from chestnut wood-skills now lost. With sly wit and salty wisdom, Pietro, a natural storyteller who played the trumpet, wrote poetry, and grew famous for his tales of peasants, knights, and brigands, recreates in colorful detail a world and peasant culture that is fast disappearing. Jenny Bawtree, an Englishwoman long settled in Tuscany, was so fascinated by Pietro's stories that she helped shape them into this autobiography, full of color and humor, hardship and nostalgia.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Tuscan countryside has inspired and been celebrated by many famous writers and artists, but here it is explored "not by a foreign intellectual but by a Tuscan peasant"; as such, readers are given a real and honest view of the region and life in it. Written in refreshingly simple language (made smooth by Bawtree, a former teacher who now runs a riding academy), the volume provides a glimpse into Pinti’s life, from his birth in 1927 (he was mother’s 12th child) through his schooling during the Fascist regime and World War II. He describes his life working as a contadino (farmer of low social status)—complete with pleasing anecdotes of days of celebration and feasting; from there he explains post-war Tuscan peasant life, which he left in order to earn pay as a "builder’s mate." Black and white photos, maps and illustrations, plus a glossary of Italian terms (such as casa colonica, a sharecropper’s house) that were relevant to the life of a peasant render a more thorough understanding of a compelling life that is neither glamorous nor romanticized.
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From Booklist

This small, cherishable book is as close to living history as one gets. Pinti was the youngest of 12 children, born in 1927 to a family in the Arno valley of Tuscany. He and his family were mezzadri, sharecroppers, who worked their lands but gave half to the landowner. As he tells his story to Bawtree, an English professor who has lived in Tuscany for many years and who now employs Pinti, rich anecdotes emerge of peasant life, local customs and practices, and the intrusion of landlords, politics, Fascism, and war. The heart of the book, though, is Pinti's month-by-month description of how it was to live: from chestnut wood ladders in January, made without nails in the coldest month, to pruning, sowing, and hoeing in April; from grape and chestnut harvests in September to olive-oil pressing in December. The labor was endless and backbreaking, but the stories are full of humanity and sly wisdom. "We worked hard, it is true, but we sang as we worked. Nobody sings any more now." GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing (June 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559707097
• ISBN-13: 978-1559707091
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #510,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting view into a vanished Italian way of life., January 21, 2012

By 

countsheep "Sleepy" (VT, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pietro's Book: The Story of a Tuscan Peasant (Hardcover)

From the first pages I found this book fascinating and refreshing for its simple presentation of the ins and outs of the daily life of poor farmers in Italy; those charged with working the landholdings of the wealthy.

One is struck by an alarming truth as in the beginning of the book Pietro says, "My generation has had a unique experience: we were born in the Middle Ages and now we are living in the age of computers." His descriptions of life as a peasant farmer do sound right out of the pages of a book on the history of the Middle Ages, yet this was not so long ago. According to the author, the last of these tenant farm contracts expired as recently as the 1980's.

The book has some photos and a few illustrations that are helpful in showing some of the things that would be alien to the modern reader. A glossary at the back is also helpful. In the introduction (not the main body, which is Pietro's life story), however, it would have been preferable to see some footnotes and sources for the information provided. While much of it sounds plausible, it's difficult to gauge whether it's reliable or accurate. This is the book's one failing.

I'm grateful to have found this book, as I now feel I have a better understanding of my Italian mother-in-law who, along with her mother and father, were mezzadri (tenant farmers) in the early and mid-twentieth century. She had described her life to me somewhat, and I knew it was difficult, but because of our language barrier (she speaks Neapolitan more than Italian) I could not fully understand. I think some of it she would rather forget, as well. This book has helped me to understand better the life circumstances that shaped the person she is today (still hard working with an amazing variety of practical skills).

While I felt no small amount of outrage at the injustices of Pietro's life, and sadness at the hardships and atrocities during wartime, I also felt no small amount of envy at the many good aspects that we seem to have lost in our modern age: connection to the land and the seasons, sense of community, closeness of families, the art of story-telling, simple entertainments and pleasures, and a life where work, no matter how difficult it may be, has dignity, meaning and real purpose. I am also envious of the author's opportunity to sit and listen to Pietro's stories. This book is the next best thing, and I'm happy its allowed me to eavesdrop on their conversations.