i'm not scared
I just took a break from reading a book called I'm Not Scared, by Niccolo Ammaniti, and it's really, really disturbing. I'm kinda feeling the need to talk about it a little, get it out of my system...
It's about this 9-year-old (Michele) who lives in this godforsaken place in the Italian countryside (no, NOT like Under the Tuscan Sun...) and he loses a race with some of his friends, so he gets dared to go into this abandoned house. He goes in, and one of the floors caves in, and he falls through to this cellar-type thing. There's a big pit in the earth there, and he looks in and sees a dead boy. He throws a stone at him and it moves slightly--so it's not dead. So then...HE JUST GOES AWAY! He comes back later, and gives him some food and water, and talks to him a little bit. At a later point, he's at home and a bunch of his fathers friends are at his house playing cards, and a picture of the boy comes on the news. The boy's mother tearfully begs whoever his kidnappers are to let him go free and not cut off one of his ears like they'd threatned to. And then, Michele's father and some of his friends are all like, "Stupid bitch, we'll cut off both his ears now." So it was the father!!! And a bunch of his friends kidnapped the boy! And the worst part is, Michele still loves his father! I haven't finished the book yet, but I wish Michele would just hurry and DO something...I think the town policeman is in on it, but he could take the boy and run away with him to the nearest big town...there is one, I'm blanking out on the name. It's so depressing! The boy is basically being kept in a grave, not cleaned up after, in the worst possible situations. And Michele's father kidnapped him, even though he has a son himself the same age and grade and everything. It's really terrible. It's so depressing, it's like Lord of the Flies almost. That kind of message...about human nature. *shudders*
It's about this 9-year-old (Michele) who lives in this godforsaken place in the Italian countryside (no, NOT like Under the Tuscan Sun...) and he loses a race with some of his friends, so he gets dared to go into this abandoned house. He goes in, and one of the floors caves in, and he falls through to this cellar-type thing. There's a big pit in the earth there, and he looks in and sees a dead boy. He throws a stone at him and it moves slightly--so it's not dead. So then...HE JUST GOES AWAY! He comes back later, and gives him some food and water, and talks to him a little bit. At a later point, he's at home and a bunch of his fathers friends are at his house playing cards, and a picture of the boy comes on the news. The boy's mother tearfully begs whoever his kidnappers are to let him go free and not cut off one of his ears like they'd threatned to. And then, Michele's father and some of his friends are all like, "Stupid bitch, we'll cut off both his ears now." So it was the father!!! And a bunch of his friends kidnapped the boy! And the worst part is, Michele still loves his father! I haven't finished the book yet, but I wish Michele would just hurry and DO something...I think the town policeman is in on it, but he could take the boy and run away with him to the nearest big town...there is one, I'm blanking out on the name. It's so depressing! The boy is basically being kept in a grave, not cleaned up after, in the worst possible situations. And Michele's father kidnapped him, even though he has a son himself the same age and grade and everything. It's really terrible. It's so depressing, it's like Lord of the Flies almost. That kind of message...about human nature. *shudders*