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Cloggie Downunder
a moving, sometimes blackly funny, and thought-provoking page-turner.
“The wrinkles around his eyes and on his forehead spoke more of wear than years and I felt his presence to be dramatic and theatrical and magnetic: as though my eyes couldn’t help but fall on him and when they did—like being drawn to a performer under a spotlight onstage—I was unable to break away because of the promise of some inexplicable drama yet to come.”
The Curse of Pietro Houdini is the fourth stand-alone novel by award-winning American-born author, Derek B. Miller. It’s August, 1943, and the fourteen-year-old, determined to reach family in Naples after being orphaned by an Allied bomb dropped in Rome, is rescued from a beating at the foot of Montecassino by a man calling himself Pietro Houdini, with the same destination.
This “opinionated but charming polar bear with a big personality and a beautiful accent” somehow exudes trustworthiness, and seems to have a plan for the teen, who takes the name Massimo. They climb up to the Benedictine monastery founded in 529AD where Pietro identifies himself as the Vatican-endorsed Master of Art Restoration and Conservation from the University of Bologna, and declares Massimo his assistant. Massimo has been told his role is to ““Keep cleaning the brushes, especially if you hear someone coming. And listen to me talk. You don’t have to pay attention. There will be no test. But you must feign interest at all times.”
But as Maestro Houdini pretends to work on the frescos, and Massimo pretends to clean brushes while listening, around them the monks are negotiating with the Germans. Montecassino is, just then, one of the greatest repositories of culture on earth, a storehouse for treasure and history and art. And while Fridolin von Senger is assuring the Archabbot Gregorio Diamare that the monastery will remain neutral, safe from attack, Lieutenant Colonel Julius Schlegel is insisting that the irreplaceable artworks and manuscripts be loaded onto German trucks and taken to the Vatican for safe-keeping, just in case.
Brother Tobias, torn between St. Benedict’s admonition for silence and a peasant’s unstoppable need to gossip, shares the gist of the discussions with Pietro and Massimo. Pietro is unconvinced about the supposed sincerity of the Nazis: he believes that Truman Konig is shopping for Hitler, and that not all the loot will make it to Rome.
“It was hot and his body was perfectly still. His mind, I felt, was building a plan as big as a cathedral” Pietro hatches a scheme to deprive the Germans of a few pieces that will also serve an important personal purpose: his intentions aren’t wholly altruistic either. Keeping this under the radar takes a bit of cleverness with the monks’ meticulous inventory, and Massimo observes “Pietro’s actions seemed like those of an alchemist and his ramblings part of an incantation.” Everything done with flair.
Once their pieces of art are ready for travel, a few incidents delay their departure and, ultimately their sudden flight in the face of Allied bombs resembles a radical nativity scene that includes a wounded German soldier on a mule, a nurse, a monk, a fourteen-year-old, an Italian soldier, a flautist, and a limping art restorer. Pietro tells them “We will need to lie, cheat, steal, fight, kill, and sin our way to Naples. We will hold our own lives as precious above all others. We will trust no one but each other, and we will try and remember that in this country, at this time, there is no way to tell friend from foe.” Do they make it to some sort of safety?
Miller effortlessly evokes his era and setting, and his descriptive prose is marvellous: “Pietro Houdini had the sorted mind of a scientist but the spirit of a shaman who had seen too much and expected to see much more of it, a thinker and a storyteller and a liar who had as little reverence for the facts as P.T. Barnum. And yet, his dedication to truth—to God’s own truth, a truth Pietro claimed to know and I now believe he did—was bottomless.”
He gives his cast insightful observations: “My father was dismissive because he thought that things that don’t make sense don’t matter, when in fact they are the things that matter most” and “Secrets and lies are illusions and one must commit to the illusion if it is to work!” are examples. Based on certain actual events, Miller’s glimpse into war and its myriad effects is a moving, sometimes blackly funny, and thought-provoking page-turner.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Avid Reader Press/ Random House UK Transworld.
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