THE FOUR DAYS OF NAPLES

by Aubrey Menen ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 13, 1979

After the Allies landed at Salerno, the Germans weren't particularly happy holding on to Naples, a huge, fat target for aerial bombing; but they couldn't quite bring themselves to withdraw until pestered into it by the spontaneous urban guerrilla warfare of the scugnizzi--the unsavory Neapolitan street boys--whom Menen means to honor in this you-are-there account based on historical records and then dramatized. Scenes of improvised David-Goliath strategy are striking: the scugnizzi diving into the bay at Santa Lucia for old, rusted, abandoned weapons; an ambush of Gestapo officers in a closed-down department store; molotov cocktails vs. tanks; a reformatory warden freeing his charges so they can swell the ranks of the scugnizzo irregulars. The hokiness of Menen's narrative is a problem, though: ""The boys of Santa Lucia gathered the day after in a glum silence. The food was distributed and eaten in the same unnatural quiet. Then Niello, his dark eyes at their darkest, said, 'Well, what news?'"" Bogged down in individual scenes like this, the book loses its snap and panorama; Norman Lewis' Naples '44 (p. 48), which takes in Naples immediately after the urchins' brave four days, conveys with greater, sharper, less sentimental detail the pluck and canny bargaining with fate that makes the Neapolitans such unlikely noblemen of the spirit.

Pub Date: July 13, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Seaview--dist. by Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION