The Red Horse

Rating:
Summary: Pre-war Italy
Review: A great novel and a marvelous love story. The preamble is enough to break your heart in witnessing the niave approach of the people of a small Italian town to the coming of WWII and its massive evil. Mussolini and his fascists are looked upon with bemusement and largely ignored at this time and it is only later that this essentially peaceful and loving people are pitched headlong into the cauldron of agony forged by their looney leader and the perverted mind of Hitler. Every home with Italian roots should have this book in a place of honor.

Rating:
Summary: An Unforgettable Lesson
Review: I'm writing this on Veterans' Day, when we stop to remember the suffering and heroism of those who have fought for our country. I'm a veteran, but I never saw combat. Those of us who have not
experienced combat need to know what it is like, so that we will work for peace.

The Red Horse will let you experience the horror of war so you will never forget it, but with an especially tragic twist. It is the story of the suffering and heroism of Italian soldiers fighting on the wrong side. That makes its impact all the greater. We need to feel that impact, so we will hate war.
The author makes a further point: the Italian, German and Russian people were civilized people like ourselves, but they allowed their countries to be taken over by people with an utter contempt for the value of their fellow human beings. He lumps the Nazis, Bolsheviks and Fascists together as socialists, but contempt for human life and human rights are found in many philosophies in America as well as Italy.

Rating:
Summary: Chaste soldiers
Review: In addition to agreeing with the compliments of other reviewers, let me add this: Most war books either depict unchaste soldiers or just don't have any sex. Corti, on the other hand, writes about chaste soldiers, chaste students, and husbands who keep their marriage vows. Apparantly, this was not uncommon in the northern part of Italy where he grew up in the 1920s and 30s. Amazing. And inspiring!!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best WW2 novels in recent Years
Review: Recently I was sent a copy of Eugenio Corti's novel 'The Red Horse' to read. This looked like a daunting task as the book is over 1,000 pages in length. However I was amazed that the pages just seem to fly by. The novel is set in Italy during the Second World War and tells the story of how the war affected Italy and its people through the eyes of some of the participants. The first hundred pages may seem a little boring but I must tell you that after that the narrative moves along at an exciting pace. The story of the Italian soldiers fighting in Russia was magnificent and I don't think that I could go to far wrong in comparing this section of the book to Guy Sajer's 'The Forgotten Soldier'. The descriptions of the men and fighting were excellent and I found it hard to put the book down.

I know that many historical authors tend to dismiss the Italian fighting soldier of World War Two but when consideration is given to the weapons and equipment used by the Italian Army it is understandable why they are compared in such bad light to the German soldier or the Allies. I must admit that this book opened my eyes to the misery suffered by the Italian soldiers in Russia and it also fired a desire to read more about the Italian Alpine troops and their campaigns during World War Two, especially in Russia. As I mentioned earlier the first hundred pages may seem boring initially but when you get into the book it makes sense why the author went into such detail about the central characters as we follow them and their families through the war and into the final peace.

I cannot help but feel how the author has used his personal experience of serving on the Russian Front to make this such a great story; it is compelling reading. The accounts of the retreat during the Stalingrad battle are magnificent; you can actually picture the frozen wasteland as the soldiers tiredly trudge through the wind swept villages being hounded by the advancing Soviet troops. The accounts of the many rearguard actions are excellent and I really felt for the men who fell during the fighting. Many other reviews have mentioned that this is a powerful and moving novel of World War Two and I must concur with those sentiments. This is a great story and anyone who has an interest in the fighting on the Russian Front will be truly taken by this account.

The book continues on another level with the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943 and the subsequent campaign in Italy. We follow accounts of the Italian partisans, Communists, Royalist and bandits. This again is another interesting level of the story and one, which I had very little knowledge of. I enjoyed this section of the book as much as the account of the Russian Front. The book does not finish with the war's end in 1945 but continues with the surviving characters through the harsh years of peace and political turmoil that Italy found itself in with the conflict between the Catholic Church and the Communist Party.

Overall this book was a delight to read but at times towards the end maybe I felt that the author was trying to convert me to the Catholic Church however it must been read in the context of the times. I would have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone who wants to learn about Italy during the war or anyone who has an interest in the Eastern Front during WWII. This is a great story and one of the best novels I have read in years, well done to the author!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best WW2 novels in recent Years
Review: Recently I was sent a copy of Eugenio Corti's novel `The Red Horse' to read. This looked like a daunting task as the book is over 1,000 pages in length. However I was amazed that the pages just seem to fly by. The novel is set in Italy during the Second World War and tells the story of how the war affected Italy and its people through the eyes of some of the participants. The first hundred pages may seem a little boring but I must tell you that after that the narrative moves along at an exciting pace. The story of the Italian soldiers fighting in Russia was magnificent and I don't think that I could go to far wrong in comparing this section of the book to Guy Sajer's `The Forgotten Soldier'. The descriptions of the men and fighting were excellent and I found it hard to put the book down.

I know that many historical authors tend to dismiss the Italian fighting soldier of World War Two but when consideration is given to the weapons and equipment used by the Italian Army it is understandable why they are compared in such bad light to the German soldier or the Allies. I must admit that this book opened my eyes to the misery suffered by the Italian soldiers in Russia and it also fired a desire to read more about the Italian Alpine troops and their campaigns during World War Two, especially in Russia. As I mentioned earlier the first hundred pages may seem boring initially but when you get into the book it makes sense why the author went into such detail about the central characters as we follow them and their families through the war and into the final peace.

I cannot help but feel how the author has used his personal experience of serving on the Russian Front to make this such a great story; it is compelling reading. The accounts of the retreat during the Stalingrad battle are magnificent; you can actually picture the frozen wasteland as the soldiers tiredly trudge through the wind swept villages being hounded by the advancing Soviet troops. The accounts of the many rearguard actions are excellent and I really felt for the men who fell during the fighting. Many other reviews have mentioned that this is a powerful and moving novel of World War Two and I must concur with those sentiments. This is a great story and anyone who has an interest in the fighting on the Russian Front will be truly taken by this account.

The book continues on another level with the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943 and the subsequent campaign in Italy. We follow accounts of the Italian partisans, Communists, Royalist and bandits. This again is another interesting level of the story and one, which I had very little knowledge of. I enjoyed this section of the book as much as the account of the Russian Front. The book does not finish with the war's end in 1945 but continues with the surviving characters through the harsh years of peace and political turmoil that Italy found itself in with the conflict between the Catholic Church and the Communist Party.

Overall this book was a delight to read but at times towards the end maybe I felt that the author was trying to convert me to the Catholic Church however it must been read in the context of the times. I would have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone who wants to learn about Italy during the war or anyone who has an interest in the Eastern Front during WWII. This is a great story and one of the best novels I have read in years, well done to the author!

Rating:
Summary: Great Book, Lousy Translation
Review: The Red Horse is a dynamic historical novel of World War II and its aftermath. The author, Eugenio Corti, drew upon his own experiences as an Italian Freedom Fighter and actual events to bring realism to not only his narrative and characters, but the background events of the Russian campaign, Nazi barbarism, the Communist gulag, the North Italian resistance, and two decades of political life after the war's conclusion. The Red Horse is a compelling, highly recommended story of faith and hope amidst the barbarism and cruelty of war and its aftermath.

Rating:
Summary: the red horse
Review: This book had been recommended to me by friends and family members, but the length daunted me. Finally, I dove in and could not stop until I was finished. Corti's tale is first of all a GOOD STORY, all the more engaging because it is based on the author's own experiences. It then has the added benefit of illuminating our era from the vantage point a normal person from a small-town background who lived the darkest aspects of WWII and came out with is humanity intact - and strengthened! This book needs to be read by a wider public, so I offer the following critiques:
- The translation is poor. Many of the Italian terms (including military terms) are translated poorly or not at all. The unnamed translater seems to show a lack of familiarity with colloquial Italian and how to render it intelligably into English;
- I suggest the book be divided and sold as a trilogy - like "The Lord of the Rings" or "Kristin Lavransdatter". I think that would make it less intimidating.
Despite the above flaws in the English edition, the book is a must read.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible Book
Review: This is a novel about the consequences of an idea common to the Nazi, Communist and Fascist forces that contested the ground between Berlin and Moscow during WWII, manifesting itself in the horrific barbarity woven through Mr. Corti's narrative. It is that by material methods elites can change the nature of man and his consciousness. But it turns out that reducing man to matter makes him merely meat. Juxtaposed against this view is that of the rural Catholic family whose sons are called up to fight for Italy. They go, but they take with them their crucial religious idea that man is spirit suffusing matter, and attempt to understand the immense suffering and cruelty they are caught up in under that interpretive principle. The despiritualization of the race renders the individual valueless. Mr. Corti has produced something of lasting value, championing, as it does, the human person before the disintegrating influence of the collectivist stupidity of our time.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible Book
Review: This is an absolutely incredible book. It is the "War and Peace" of WWII. Despite a painfully slow start (please ignore the first 100 pages), the next 900 pages read very quickly, you will not be able to put this book down until the end. The writing improves dramatically. Anyway, the book follows the experiences of a number of characters from the town of Nomana in Lombardy (northern Italy) through WWII and beyond. It has incredible scenes from the Russian campaign and the retreat of the Italians, horrible gruesome stuff from the Russian POW camps (makes a Japanese POW camp look like Club Med), and a fascinating look at post-war Italy and the relationship between the Christians and the communists. The writer is a conservative Catholic and that in and of itself is an interesting and different perspective. William F. Buckley would love this novel, but I'm sure anyone else out there, even a die-hard communist, would appreciate it. Sure, I was a bit annoyed by the translation (which seemed a bit weak) and the occasional interjection of pure politics but it hardly detracted from the real majesty of this masterpiece. I've reviewed hundreds of books on Amazon and there are maybe only 2 or 3 which I've enjoyed more, and none that I have been more personally moved by. Read it and buy it for your friends.

Rating:
Summary: the red horse
Review: truly an eye opener of the brutal and cruel war waged in Russia and on the eastern front during WWII. Mans inhumanity at its worse. a holocaust that needs to be told. Godless man at his worse