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DON CAMILLO AND HIS FLOCK by Giovanni Guareschi Kirkus Star

DON CAMILLO AND HIS FLOCK

By

Pub Date: Aug. 25th, 1952
ISBN: 1849028567
Publisher: Pellegrini & Cudahy

More about The Little World at Don Camillo, written with the same exuberance, understanding, imaginative insight. The friendly feud between the stalwart priest and the Communist Mayor Peppone continues with vim and vigor. Beneath the hard shell of their differences is the warmth of their affection for each other. And yet -- in this more than the earlier book -- the outside force of Communism, the dictates from the bosses, make for tensions and violence and recurrent upheavals involving the whole community. But each time, it is Don Camillo who wins the final round of the battle, whether in getting the original angel back on the tower to preside over the village as it had for some hundreds of years; or to manage to get the ""stuff from America"" to those who needed it, whether Communists or ""reactionaries""; or to defeat the Moscow peace petition, strengthen the faith of the old, baptize the baby of a presumably unmarried couple, marry a young couple against the Party's instructions solve the problem of the ""ugly Madonna"". There are stories that have nothing to do with the issue of Communism for Don Camillo's village -- the story of Bianco, the horse who died living up to long years of habit; the story of the hunting dog that chose Don Camillo over his rich owner. It is a longer book than the first one- it has its unevennesses. But the same charm and humor and magic quality endow it with an individuality all its own.