The appeal of this book eludes me. It is a picaresque adventure story, but the uninspired
writing style and molasses-like pace did not deliver. The book starts out in first-person, narrated
by a 14-year-old girl whom Pietro Houdini takes under his wing and assigns the
name of Massimo—a boy’s name. Massimo’s
parents have been killed in a WWII bombing, and Massimo follows Pietro to an
abbey for refuge. When Massimo embraces
his identity as a boy, the narration changes to third-person. Then Massimo becomes a girl again but with
another false name, and the narration remains third-person. Guess what the final narration and identity
change is? Is this a stylistic choice or
a metaphoric choice or what? For me,
it’s just kind of a mess. As for the
writing style, I would say that it is written for a12-year-old, except that it
contains subject matter not appropriate for a juvenile. Honestly, I would prefer to read a novel
intended for a young audience than to read one intended for adults that has
such a simplistic writing style. The
book does contain some humor and some historic information, but I was still
glad when it was over.
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