Bread and Wine

I don't know how to characterize this book succinctly. Set in 1930's Italy under Fascism, a revolutionary comes back from exile to try to organize his former compatriots, but because of ill health ends up hiding out in a remote village disguised as a priest. As he had studied in a Catholic school and had thought of joining the priesthood, this role has some resonance for him, but it's also uncomfortable because he has rejected religion. For such a grim setting, with such grinding poverty and fatalism everywhere in the novel, there is a surprising amount of humor, too. But side by side with the humor are awful stories of what has happened to the revolutionary's former associates under the fascist regime, and what continues to happen as the story progresses. So, there is a mixture of humor and awfulness in this book that kept me off balance, and that I haven't figured out how to reconcile with a symbolic thread that is also present.

This was not the type of book I usually choose–it was given to me as a gift–but the revolutionary/priest character was so interesting (simultaneously crotchety and sympathetic) that once I was introduced to him, I wanted to find out what he was going to do next. I enjoyed reading this and have spent quite a bit of time thinking about it since I finished.