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(More customer reviews)Tradition. We all have traditions that are important to us, oftentimes associated with holidays or from memories of family activities long past. Author Adolph Caso, in his latest book, The Straw Obelisk, highlights a story of one fascinating tradition, still held annually in Italy, and includes pictures of the young boy he once was, his family, and those taken at the 1994 "feast." This book in unique. There is a love story. There is the tale of a long-time tradition, but there is also an unusual epilogue.
First the love story! Samuel is a young man whose forthcoming arrival after the war is to be spread via an old woman who rides a bicycle to each home...a messenger who must deliver the job of homecoming or the sorrow of death. For just a moment each time she travels through the small village, she is the most important person living there. This time her news is happy as she shares with his mother that Samuel will soon be home.
While happy her son is coming home safe, the news brings disruption and heartache as well to Maria, for Samuel's sister, Lucia, has borne a child outside of marriage and to a married man. Their fear of Samuel's temper when he hears of this disgrace to the family is so severe that Lucia immediately leaves her home. Anticipation of Samuel's homecoming spreads through the gossip and sharing common everywhere. However, the fear and pain experienced in the war has changed Samuel, so much so that he immediately goes to Lucia and brings her home to be once again together with her family.
He also goes to find his former girlfriend, Franca, wondering and hoping that she still loves him, but also afraid that she does. While Samuel knows he is seriously ill, he nevertheless finds his love and is with her as much as is permitted within the community's environment--which is not often. The story, of life during the early '40's is slow, and you realize it is reflective of how we would have lived at that time.
Samuel's change, though sometimes strange, as when anybody mentions God--and you feel as if he has been transported back into the midst of the war--is beneficial to the entire community, as his strange, new loving nature influences others. The culmination of his success is shown when he is selected as the lead man in the annual transport of the tall, intricately detailed structure with the face of the Madonna.
My mind tried to create a vision of this activity--where six men and six bulls, along with hundreds of villagers, move the Obelisk as it first was moved. The only thing that comes close for me is the annual parades where large balloons come down the streets in front of department stores. How much more thrilling this trek must be!
Learning of Samuel's illness, gentle Lucia seduces Samuel, but alas, the story ends...and we learn only in the epilogue that records seem to indicate that she had a still-born baby and died soon after. Samuel died from consumption.
Now for the unusual epilogue, I need to quote it:
"The Straw Obelisk is a metaphor for peace. Because it is also the product of man, the army tank is a metaphor for war.
The plot of The Straw Obelisk is the struggle between good and evil. When men's efforts are expended on behalf of good, the result is an obelisk of straw as enduring as one of granite; when men's efforts are expended on behalf of evil, the result is a tank as obsolete as rust itself..."
This book forces the reader to reconsider our lives, our traditions, good and evil. It moves slowly--to allow its impression to be made, for memory of the story will also be slow in leaving your mind.
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