Wednesday,
February 07, 2007
"My Father Il
Duce: A Memoir by Mussolini's Son" by Romano Mussolini
The
ANNOTICO Report
It
is unprecedented in the publishing field to allow someone who holds a
totally contrary view to that of the author to have a 21 page introductory essay included.
Alexander
Stille is a Reknown
Anti Italian historian who obviously is interested in trying to maintain a one
dimensional cartoonish caricature of Mussolini, and
is Not interested in permitting a more personal view of Mussolini, Nor having the passage of time allow historians to step back
from the hysterical writings immediately following WWII.
MY
FATHER IL DUCE
A
Memoir by Mussolini's Son
Romano
Mussolini
Introductory
Essay by Alexander Stille
Kales
Press; dist. W. W. Norton;
Publication
Date: November 1, 2006;
Hardcover,
Fully Bound, Jacketed
5 ? x 8 ? inches,
200 pages
18
historical photos
ISBN:
0-9670076-8-2
Price:
$27.95
Publication
date: October 30, 2006
In
this complex, controversial memoir, Romano Mussolini (September 26, 1927-
February 3, 2006), the last surviving child of dictator
Benito Mussolini, contributes his unique perspective to the growing body of
work that portrays Il Duce's era.
Through
the son's portrait of never before publicly shared memories and feelings, my
father il duce (brings alive
the domestic scenes of his childhood as well as snapshots of his father's
public role, particularly when it intersected with the author's own youthful
experiences. He also relates in detail the memories of his mother, Donna Rachele, who lived until 1979 and often spoke with her son
about his father. All of these memories provide glimpses into the character of
the man that even his own family referred to as Il Duce.
Romano
Mussolini portrays a father devoted to a deeply traditional concept of Italian
patriarchal family life, including mistresses on the side, and a family man
whose preference would have been to come home for lunch and dinner every day
and to his devoted wife every night, were it not for his intense responsibilities
to the fascist movement he had founded.
The
son's memories, sorted by chapter, but not presented chronologically, shift
between his own recollections of time spent with his father to the years after
Mussolini's death in 1945. The prose lingers and then artistically moves
forward, melancholy to fierce to vulnerable, like the notes of the jazz music
the author played during his acclaimed musical career.
We
learn that Il Duce never raised his voice with his children, but rather,
"one of his famous stern looks was enough to make us nervous." That
he loved to hear his son play piano-indeed during their final time together,
April 17, 1945, his last words were "Ciao, Romano, continue playing."
Romano
Mussolini tells us too that Il Duce liked to relax by watching movies at home.
His favorites were those with Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, and especially
those starring Charlie Chaplin. Romano cites Modern Times and The Gold Rush as
two of his father's favorite Chaplin movies, but ironically does not even
allude to The Great Dictator-a Chaplin spoof on Mussolini himself in which Il
Duce fails miserably.
The
son presents Mussolini as a man who was supremely convinced that he was the
master of his life: "'Everything happening around me,'" my father used
to say, "'leaves me indifferent. I consciously choose 'Live dangerously'
as my life's motto. As an old soldier, I say, 'If I advance, follow me. If I
retreat, kill me. If they kill me, vindicate me.'" He saw his existence in
scenes of high drama.
In
this memoir, Romano Mussolini does not truly ponder the consequences of his
father's alliances and dictatorship, though with at least one notable exception
that he gave considerable thought to his personal anger toward Hitler for
"stabbing my father in the back at his darkest hour." Instead, he
seeks to render concrete the memories that he held silent over a lifetime
before they were lost to history.
The
fascist order that Mussolini created and imposed upon
As
the trend of a more temperate historical reanalysis in
Thus,
my father il duce (in Italian
Il Duce Mio Padre) was published to great attention and controversy in
In
Those
publishers however could not have chosen a more ideologue or slanted
person to write the Introduction.
The
introductory essay to My Father Il Duce is a bit like putting a Warning Label that states: "This is contrary to
everything I want to believe, so therefore treat it as fiction".
The
author reached his goal of living to see the publication of his memoir in
Italian in 2004. As for this English-language edition, he earlier expressed approval
of the front cover design. On January 1, 2006, he received the translated
English language manuscript of his writing. During the last month of his life,
he approved it. Romano Mussolini died on February 3, 2006, at age seventy-nine
in a
His
death made international news in a way characteristic of a celebrity. The New
York Times obituary reported:
In
the 1950's and 60's he was in the vanguard of Italian jazz with his group the
Romano Mussolini All Stars, and he played with American greats like Dizzy
Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Chet Baker. Mr. Mussolini gained even greater
international fame with his first marriage, to Anna Maria Scicolone,
the sister of the actress Sophia Loren....Despite his own scrupulous avoidance
of politics, politicians from Italy's right wing-parties widely lauded Mr.
Mussolini and his family name in statements they released: "Romano knew
how to make us love him for his humanity, his art, but also for the dignity and
coherence with which he defended his family from attacks and demonizations."
Through
Romano's worldwide celebrity and apparent well-regarded nature, his words in
defense of Il Duce, albeit ones he no doubt wrote as a son who loved his
father, offer a rare insider's perspective on history that is valuable to
society in our quest for a deeper understanding of tyranny.
Some
of the reviews out include:
"An
interesting self-portrait of faith, and the blinding
power of a son's love."
-Publishers
Weekly
"Offers insight into Mussolini's complex character...a
readable and controversial memoir."
-Library
Journal
"A riveting story [that] reveals the human and family
side of a complex historical figure. Highly recommended."
-
About
the Author
Romano
Mussolini, born in
Yet
after World War II, the self-taught musician faced a bitter struggle to
assimilate back into society. In
His
whole life he refrained from discussing his father's legacy until publishing at
age seventy-seven in 2004 in Italy, "before it was too late," his
memoir Il Duce Mio Padre (My Father Il Duce). His first marriage was in 1962 to
Maria Sciccolone, a jazz singer and younger sister of
famed actress Sophia Loren. The couple had two daughters, Elisabetta
and Alessandra, though ultimately divorced after years of marital estrangement.
In 1990 Romano married the actress Carla Puccini, with whom he had a daughter Rachele. Both wives and their children survive him. He
lived in
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