A review by _marco_
Into the War by Italo Calvino

hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

Into the War follows a 17 year old fascist youth — a veiled young Calvino — as Mussolini plunges Italy into the Second World War. 

These stories are filled with the undertones of Calvino’s socialist politics as they develop in a very anti-socialist environment. Calvino’s ‘morality’ prompts him to paint sympathetic portraits of the poor, the working class, artisans, and most beautifully, his own peasant father. These shimmering moments of humanity are what struck me the most throughout the book. 

I also greatly enjoyed how Calvino creates a sense of place, both in the empty shell of the abandoned Menton as well as the thick blackness of the night. 

We were there in the street, but the noises were the noises of the house, of a hundred houses altogether; and even the windless air had that heaviness that human sleep causes to sit solidly in bedrooms. 

Considering how Calvino himself wrote about how he hates autobiographical writing, I’m not sure if this was the best book to introduce myself to the author with. Being such a short story, it felt somewhat lacklustre. In certain moments, Calvino’s prose shines through, but it feels secondary to the matter-of-fact recounting of events as they occurred in his memory.

I must read some more Calvino before further developing my opinion on the author.