Customer Reviews

The Red Horse

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This is the best book I have ever read! Corti gives us an incredibly deep insight into the Second World War and the immediately following years, the years of the "rebirth" in Italy. His characters' point of view starts always from the deepest and most human desires in a time where destruction and havoc seem to be dominating the world, reducing men to war machines. The pages of the Russian campaign will glue you to the book and will give you a sense of real drama. This book helped me to understand more the meaning of life and provoked me with more questions. Corti gives you a sense of real hope and, at the same time, of real commitment to life, even in the most dramatic circumstances. The size of the book is just an indication of how much you are going to get out of it and, except for a few pages at the beginning, never gets boring.

Recently I was sent a copy of Eugenio Corti's novel `The Red Horse' to read. This looked like a daunting task as the book is over 1,000 pages in length. However I was amazed that the pages just seem to fly by. The novel is set in Italy during the Second World War and tells the story of how the war affected Italy and its people through the eyes of some of the participants. The first hundred pages may seem a little boring but I must tell you that after that the narrative moves along at an exciting pace. The story of the Italian soldiers fighting in Russia was magnificent and I don't think that I could go to far wrong in comparing this section of the book to Guy Sajer's `The Forgotten Soldier'. The descriptions of the men and fighting were excellent and I found it hard to put the book down.

I know that many historical authors tend to dismiss the Italian fighting soldier of World War Two but when consideration is given to the weapons and equipment used by the Italian Army it is understandable why they are compared in such bad light to the German soldier or the Allies. I must admit that this book opened my eyes to the misery suffered by the Italian soldiers in Russia and it also fired a desire to read more about the Italian Alpine troops and their campaigns during World War Two, especially in Russia. As I mentioned earlier the first hundred pages may seem boring initially but when you get into the book it makes sense why the author went into such detail about the central characters as we follow them and their families through the war and into the final peace.

I cannot help but feel how the author has used his personal experience of serving on the Russian Front to make this such a great story; it is compelling reading. The accounts of the retreat during the Stalingrad battle are magnificent; you can actually picture the frozen wasteland as the soldiers tiredly trudge through the wind swept villages being hounded by the advancing Soviet troops. The accounts of the many rearguard actions are excellent and I really felt for the men who fell during the fighting. Many other reviews have mentioned that this is a powerful and moving novel of World War Two and I must concur with those sentiments. This is a great story and anyone who has an interest in the fighting on the Russian Front will be truly taken by this account.

The book continues on another level with the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943 and the subsequent campaign in Italy. We follow accounts of the Italian partisans, Communists, Royalist and bandits. This again is another interesting level of the story and one, which I had very little knowledge of. I enjoyed this section of the book as much as the account of the Russian Front. The book does not finish with the war's end in 1945 but continues with the surviving characters through the harsh years of peace and political turmoil that Italy found itself in with the conflict between the Catholic Church and the Communist Party.

Overall this book was a delight to read but at times towards the end maybe I felt that the author was trying to convert me to the Catholic Church however it must been read in the context of the times. I would have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone who wants to learn about Italy during the war or anyone who has an interest in the Eastern Front during WWII. This is a great story and one of the best novels I have read in years, well done to the author!

This is an absolutely incredible book. It is the "War and Peace" of WWII. Despite a painfully slow start (please ignore the first 100 pages), the next 900 pages read very quickly, you will not be able to put this book down until the end. The writing improves dramatically. Anyway, the book follows the experiences of a number of characters from the town of Nomana in Lombardy (northern Italy) through WWII and beyond. It has incredible scenes from the Russian campaign and the retreat of the Italians, horrible gruesome stuff from the Russian POW camps (makes a Japanese POW camp look like Club Med), and a fascinating look at post-war Italy and the relationship between the Christians and the communists. The writer is a conservative Catholic and that in and of itself is an interesting and different perspective. William F. Buckley would love this novel, but I'm sure anyone else out there, even a die-hard communist, would appreciate it. Sure, I was a bit annoyed by the translation (which seemed a bit weak) and the occasional interjection of pure politics but it hardly detracted from the real majesty of this masterpiece. I've reviewed hundreds of books on Amazon and there are maybe only 2 or 3 which I've enjoyed more, and none that I have been more personally moved by. Read it and buy it for your friends.

This is a novel about the consequences of an idea common to the Nazi, Communist and Fascist forces that contested the ground between Berlin and Moscow during WWII, manifesting itself in the horrific barbarity woven through Mr. Corti's narrative. It is that by material methods elites can change the nature of man and his consciousness. But it turns out that reducing man to matter makes him merely meat. Juxtaposed against this view is that of the rural Catholic family whose sons are called up to fight for Italy. They go, but they take with them their crucial religious idea that man is spirit suffusing matter, and attempt to understand the immense suffering and cruelty they are caught up in under that interpretive principle. The despiritualization of the race renders the individual valueless. Mr. Corti has produced something of lasting value, championing, as it does, the human person before the disintegrating influence of the collectivist stupidity of our time.

Thirty pages into this 1000+ pager, I looked back at the title page to see who did the translation. The guilty party was not named.

This is a fascinating novel of the Italian experience in World War II and the subsequent political battles to shape the Italian democracy, told from the Christian Democratic, staunchly conservative Catholic point of view. Most of the book follows a group of young men from the region north of Milan who fought on the Russian front.

You can sense the poetry of the original Italian beneath the surface, but the inept translation - particularly of military scenes, which dominate more than half the book - is annoying and distracting. Antiaircraft guns are described as antiaerial; holsters are sheathes; paratroopers are parachutists. Conversations are rendered in very stilted prose, and there are a number of grammatical errors.

Persevere, and you will learn a great deal about the horror of the Russian campaign and the cultural malaise after the war. It is unfortunate that the publisher didn't invest the editing time and talent the story deserves.

A great novel and a marvelous love story. The preamble is enough to break your heart in witnessing the niave approach of the people of a small Italian town to the coming of WWII and its massive evil. Mussolini and his fascists are looked upon with bemusement and largely ignored at this time and it is only later that this essentially peaceful and loving people are pitched headlong into the cauldron of agony forged by their looney leader and the perverted mind of Hitler. Every home with Italian roots should have this book in a place of honor.

I'm writing this on Veterans' Day, when we stop to remember the suffering and heroism of those who have fought for our country. I'm a veteran, but I never saw combat. Those of us who have not
experienced combat need to know what it is like, so that we will work for peace.

The Red Horse will let you experience the horror of war so you will never forget it, but with an especially tragic twist. It is the story of the suffering and heroism of Italian soldiers fighting on the wrong side. That makes its impact all the greater. We need to feel that impact, so we will hate war.
The author makes a further point: the Italian, German and Russian people were civilized people like ourselves, but they allowed their countries to be taken over by people with an utter contempt for the value of their fellow human beings. He lumps the Nazis, Bolsheviks and Fascists together as socialists, but contempt for human life and human rights are found in many philosophies in America as well as Italy.

The Red Horse is both magnificent and irritating. While I agree with much of the praise heaped on it by other reviewers and reading it was an extraordinary experience, I have two quibbles. Firstly, such a dreadful translation is an insult to what could be a truly great book (and undoubtedly is a great book, in Italian!) I would not expect a reputable publisher to bring out a work like this for the commercial market without giving the translator's name. Obviously this publisher is well aware that it was a botched job. Was it translated by the author? Why not tell us, then? We could have some sympathy, at least, with his efforts, though in my view, translations only work when done by native speakers. The English in this one is a bad joke, as other reviewers have amply pointed out. Or was it translated by a committee of impecunious Italian students, paid quickly to cobble together something that just might do? Forgive me if I'm wrong but that's what it reads like. Big mistake. A book that could be a twentieth century War and Peace and reach a huge international readership with its dramatic and, these days, unusual and important message, should be handled with a lot more care then this. It all suggests saving money and someone down the line who couldn't be bothered. It's better than not being translated at all, but what a shame.
The other quibble is a minor one. Being a simple soul, I like tension in a plot. Why does Corti constantly spoil the story by telling us that so and so is about to die, has said goodbye to his/her village/friends/parents/girlfriend for the last time, etc etc. Even an author trying to put across a Great Moral Message needn't give the game away like this! It's especially glaring towards the end, when the unexpected death of a major character is deliberately signalled beforehand to remove any element of surprise. It had me shouting, "Spoilsport! He's done it again!" Once could have dramatic effect but several times? Oh no, please! But that, I assume, isn't the fault of the translator. And the book, for all its faults, was strong enough to make me care.

This is by far the best book I have ever read. Corti finds a way to make you feel love and compassion for every character and it is not a story in which there is only one protagonist, but it's a complete society in which everyone is different. This is a historical novel which is based in real life experiences of Italian soldiers during World War II. Even though the characters are fictitious, the places, dates, experiences and numbers are all true so it gives a truthful deep impression about the years of this war but also about what happened after it.

This book is like a life experience, after reading it you will feel you have learned a lot, not only about history but also good and evil, compassion, love, friendship, loyalty and courage. During more than 10 years Corti worked in this masterpiece, and you can see that with the quality of his writing and every page leaves a message. Therefore, Corti has made my favorite writers go from "very good" to "simple narrators", he really cannot be compared.

When you finish this book, you will perceive life and death in a complete new way, realizing that we are here living a short phase which leads to a greater life of peace and happiness. Corti has the ability to explain complex things in a simple way, you will find answers to several of the recurrent questions about Christianity and the existence of God; even the ones that even Christians ask themselves from time to time.

The Red Horse, A novel by Eugenio Corti, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2000. Pp. 1015.

A book of epic proportion deserves a comparable review. Unfortunately, due to the restraints of time and space, this brief introduction must suffice. Weighing three and a half pounds, and with over 1,000 pages of small print, this volume is not for the faint hearted. Il Cavallo Rosso, originally published in Italian in 1983, in three volumes, is a worthy read.

Eugenio Corti was born in 1921 in Lombardy, Italy. He joined the Italian Freedom Fighters during the Second World War. He has published two other books about his war experience, both popular and well received in Italy. The Red Horse, an image taken from The Book of Revelation, is Corti's epic story of the Second World War.

What makes this masterpiece so wonderfully compelling is its moving portrayal of Italian life in twentieth century Italy. From the outset, this is a story by one who knows, who has been there. Corti weaves the story of Italy's national struggles with Fascism, Communism, and the de-Christianization of Western society, into a complex fabric of national and family relationships. Central to all this is the reality of war, with its evil, suffering and loss. The brutal and devastating struggle between love and hate, good and evil, light and darkness, moves the book along with honesty and conviction.

Hundreds of pages deal with the enormity of war and battle, strategy and maneuvering, life in the prison camps, and the death marches. One is often led to reflect, indeed to marvel about the mystery of the human condition. If we could only find a way to channel our genius for evil into avenues for good, we could have heaven on earth. But for some mysterious reason, still undiscovered in human history, we prefer suffering and death, and so we have hell on earth instead.

This volume is a graphic portrayal of a European culture and civilization in conflict with itself. Two World Wars, Naziism, fascism, communism, all play themselves out on a continent fomenting with revolution and rage. One glimpses with horror the cost human history pays in order to change, advance, move forward. The great paradox and mystery remains: how a civilization and culture which has given so much to the advancement and good of the human endeavor, could at the same time wreck such tremendous suffering and destruction, violence and hate. The stream of human history has never been so polluted as in the twentieth century. And yet there is always a ray of hope, an intuition of a better world order, a pulse of optimism that can never be extinguished.

Corti finds in Christianity, especially in its Catholic tradition, a glimmer of love and hope, faith, and self-transcendence. Never vitriolic or preachy, he takes a strong moral stand on issues of war, justice and peace, sexuality, social responsibility, and family life.

To introduce the cast of characters would take us too far afield. But be prepared to enter fully and deeply into rural and urban Italian family life. The enchantment of the country side, and the noise and utility of the major cities are portrayed with charm and local color. The personalities of the characters are deeply developed, and each manifest a particular aspect of the human condition, whether humor or sadness, diplomacy or brashness, beauty or plainness, ambition or sloth, the intelligent and the dim-witted. Meet too the men of war, the brave and the coward, the brutal and the merciful, the patriot and the traitor.

This is not a book for the refectory-too long. Neither does it seem fit for airplane or beach side reading-too heavy. Maybe a retreat book, when you have lots of time for solitude, pause, and reflection. This is a work so well written and skillfully translated, one can read twenty or thirty pages and not notice the passing of time.

This book is highly recommended for the internet, sports page, and trash novel addicted. To invest the time and effort to read such a work is rewarding and inspiring. Often, the time we squander on the trivial pursuits mentioned above depresses us. We all need the lift of time well spent and invested. If you feel such a need, this book is for you.

Br Colombo Weber, O.C.S.O
Abbey of Gethsemani
3642 Monks Road
Trappist, KY 40051-6102
USA

cweber@monks.org



Published in USA Regional Mailbag, USA Region of the OCSO, in number 273, October, November, December, 2003, pages 9-10.