Niccolò Ammaniti
Come Dio Comanda

"Come Dio Comanda" by Niccolò Ammaniti is one of those books that, right after you finish reading, leaves you undecided.

The story is there, undeniably, but it isn't written with the kind of naturalness and beauty that makes you love a book. However, with the upcoming release of the film adapted from the book, I found it appropriate to review the book, which is, by the way, the winner of the 2007 Premio Strega.

This particular point leaves me a bit puzzled. For some years now, the Premio Strega awards haven't excited me anymore, just like with "Come Dio Comanda", as well as the last awarded, "La Solitudine Dei Numeri Primi".

But let's not digress, and let's describe the book. As I was saying, it's not so much the story that I dislike, which indeed seems more suited to a film screenplay (something Salvatores rightly understood), but rather the way the book is written.

The book, in fact, is written quite confusingly, with perhaps too many digressions, with a chapter first describing the social worker, then returning to Quattroformaggi, about whom it's not clear until the end whether the author sees him as a negative character or almost a victim of a sick and selfish society, and perhaps with not a few vulgarities and scenes a bit too "gruesome," that go against the common "Biensenance," speaking theatrically, even though today it seems almost a trend...

The story itself tells of a father and son, Rino and Cristiano Zena, two disadvantaged people, and (they are) victims of today's society, which believes that to be a respectable family it is enough to show an orderly home. Cristiano's mother died some time ago, and she is not much referred to.

The two thus find themselves alone, but together, creating something more than a normal Father/Son bond.

Rino thus tries to make ends meet with small jobs, not disdaining thefts and petty thefts. For his part, Cristiano is the classic bully, who in the end turns out to be a boy deeply weakened by the absence of his mother.

It is indeed Rino's "predisposition" to petty thefts that gives the two the idea of robbing an ATM. To succeed in the enterprise, Rino asks for help from Quattroformaggi, his old, disturbed, and pampered friend. It is precisely his figure that will prove to be central, from secondary as he is presented, eventually making him a real monster, who will come to violate a girl of only 14 years.

Ammaniti's work is certainly not a masterpiece, but definitely a book that can be read.

If you venture into it, however, don't stop at the first 50 pages to understand what the book is like, but continue, because as I have already told you, it is very fragmented, but still deserves to be finished.