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Rating: "Wine and Bread" is the second novel by Ignazio Silone, written in 1936-37 (during his time in exile). It tells the story of Pietro Spina (a partially autobiographical character), a member of the Italian Communist Party who returns to Italy after a period abroad to escape the clutches of the fascist government. He returns and is forced, to avoid arrest, to pose as a priest. Already in this, one can notice the two aspects of the author's personality, reflected in the book's protagonist: social and political commitment (Pietro Spina) and spirituality and the importance of Christian roots (Don Paolo Spada). When Pietro becomes Don Paolo, he seems to unconsciously undergo a real change in his identity: just as Spina is a sharp political militant actively fighting against the dictatorship, Don Spada is a calm parish priest who goes to the small village of Pietrasecca to improve his health. A priest who is somewhat cold, brusque, at times rude, but deep down good, much more human than many others who have truly felt the calling.
Don Paolo becomes something very much like a celebrity (if the term is allowed) in the village, with some wanting him with them as if he were a talisman (the owner of the inn where he stays) and others genuinely fascinated by him, like Cristina Colamartini, with whom the protagonist weaves a beautiful friendship that seems about to turn into love. Likewise, the love Don Paolo seems to feel for another central figure in the story, Bianchina, whom the fake priest "miraculously" saves at the point of death, becomes in gratitude his intermediary with the active core of the Communist Party in Rome. There is much more unsaid than said in the conversations between the man and Cristina and Bianchina, much that is shadowy, just as the priest himself is a shadowy figure, whom Pietro Spina does not create deliberately (as, for example, Pirandello's Mattia Pascal does with Adriano Meis), but behind whom he hides and disguises himself, with whom he identifies and lets live. Almost as if he were a real priest, it is indeed true that some in the village come to think (paradoxically, it should be added) that Don Spada is a saint. It is in this paradox that lies the drama of the fascist Ventennio, of the dictatorship, and of war in general: people become so ugly that they forget their roots, their values. And this happens even to those who should defend those values, like the priests (the book does not lack cases of "corrupt" clergy, if they can be so called, who favor the regime), such that a priest who still respects that ancient creed of love and solidarity among men immediately gains an aura of sainthood, notwithstanding that it is but a mask, a charade.
The environment in which the protagonist moves is populated by bizarre characters and by men of great moral stature (though very few in number), like old Don Benedetto, Pietro's teacher, by ignorant peasants (the "cafoni"), idealistic young people, simple party officials, and equally simple "Church functionaries". Every organization, every association, in fact, has a component within it of "functionaries", we might call them journeymen. People who believe they believe in certain ideals, but in fact betray them with their very actions. And such people are as despicable as the "enemy", as what one tries to fight against. This book teaches us to follow nothing but our conscience, to put "party dictates", rituals, and Church hierarchies in the background, to rediscover the true values that make man great, that elevate him.
The ambivalent character of Pietro/Paolo (the two most important saints in Catholicism, and I doubt it's a coincidence) is told with Silone's usual inimitable style, a sober style, extremely sober. Measured and clear, but not telegraphic, indeed full of poetry and color even in its simplicity. The author, in the end, tells us about himself, his political struggle, his spiritual turmoil. How can one not love a personality like Ignazio Silone's? And how can one not love a deeply human character like Pietro Spina/Paolo Spada? We are urged to sympathize with him, to stand by his side. Silone warns us to seek the core of our culture, to rediscover the center of our way of being, to better know ourselves, and to live better with others. A book that narrates in an extremely personal way a dark period in Italian history and simultaneously speaks about us, about the human being, about what we must remember to be better people.
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