Despite its title, I’m scared and so is Michele, the 9-year-old narrator of this suspenseful story. It’s fast paced and wild, and you can’t help but be pulled in immediately and with full heart and soul.Ammaniti knows how to create a grim story that has a loveable, heroic boy at its center. And he knows how to keep you sitting on the edge of your seat. The book is scary, but addictive. It reads like a nightmarish fairytale. There’s good versus evil all over the place. There’s one small good guy against a slew of big bad guys. And Michele is constantly being exposed to terrifying situations. For example, I died (along with Michele) when his mother insisted that a scary and gross old man would be sharing Michele’s tiny bedroom.Michele stumbles upon a criminal secret and then spends his time frantically trying to help right the wrong. There is much urgent bike riding as he crashes through the wheat fields in the sweltering heat in Italy. We’re routing for him the whole way, but we share his fear that things could get uglier at any second. And they do, repeatedly. Michele is scared, but he’s also brave and determined to make things right, hindered again and again by the evil adults who hold the power.Michele’s innocence, combined with the impact of the horrific discovery, affect his perception of reality. He begins questioning everyone’s motives and the basic goodness of people. In a minor scene, when he sees his friend dunking her dog in a disgustingly murky pond, he thinks she is killing him. Michele rescues the dog, and the girl insists she was just trying to wash off ticks. Always the helper, Michele then proceeds to remove the ticks. (Ammaniti gives us the gross and graphic details; and we keep watching, the same way we keep watching a car accident.) But was she really trying to kill the dog, or was Michele just being paranoid? Did he save the dog’s life, or was he merely a friend who helped remove some ticks? Ammaniti is a genius at setting up such ambiguous realities.I have four complaints. First, I didn’t think this book was quite as tight as “Me and You,” but that’s only because I’m not a fan of scenery (and I know many people will argue that describing the setting was necessary in order to create the right atmosphere). Second, the translation was poor in the first half of the book. In several cases, the translator used the Italian word instead of the English equivalent—it seemed more a sign of laziness than lack of skill, since some words seemed like they would be easy to translate. Third, even though the ending was clever and dramatic, I thought it was too abrupt. I would have liked more closure. Fourth, I had trouble buying the fact that there was a whole slew of bad guys—including people you would expect to be good guys. I’m just not sure that worked.I give it a 4.6--I knocked off a tenth of a point for each of my four complaints. It’s darker than “Me and You,” but that didn’t stop me from loving it. Wait till you learn about “wash bears.” I hope more people discover this author; he’s a gem.
Spaventoso. Non c'è altra parola per descrivere il romanzo di Niccolò Ammaniti. Io non ho paura afferma il titolo, ma non è vero. Il protagonista è impaurito e lo siamo anche noi.Il romanzo si svolge durante gli anni di piombo. Il narratore Michele è un bambino di nove anni che vive con la sua famiglia nel mezzogiorno d'Italia in un piccolo paese chiamato Acqua Traverse. Ma è un nome ironico perché c'è solo una cisterna e non ha piovuto per tutta l'estate. È l'estate più calda del secolo e gli adulti si chiudono in casa. Solo Michele e i suoi amici hanno il coraggio di giocare fuori nelle strade e avventurarsi con le loro biciclette nei campi di grano dorati. Il calore è soffocante e tutti hanno i nervi a fior di pelle.È in questa atmosfera che Michele scopre un terribile segreto. Un crimine terrificante. Un ragazzino tenuto prigioniero in un buco. Michele non sa cosa fare. Ben presto scopre che niente è quello che sembra. Che cosa puoi fare quando non puoi più fidarti di quelli che ami? Quando il mondo della tua infanzia viene trasformato in un istante in un incubo?Il racconto mi ha tenuto col fiato sospeso. Ammaniti descrive perfettamente il pensiero di un ragazzino che ha una immaginazione vivace e quindi non prende decisioni come un adulto. Ma Michele ha un buon cuore e, essendo solo un ragazzino, la sua situazione sembra più pericolosa. Mi è piaciuto molto il romanzo e l'adattamento cinematografico. Entrambi sono pieni di suspense e colpi di scena. Mentre leggevo mi chiedevo cosa avrei fatto se fossi stata Michele. Sicuramente io avrei avuto paura.
What do You think about I'm Not Scared (2004)?
Ammaniti ormai non mi sorprende più. Un autore meraviglioso, capace sempre di stupirmi, di affascinarmi, di farmi provare sempre dei sentimenti bellissimi. Anche in questo romanzo scritto in maniera divina e capace di evocare nella mia mente le immagini dell'ambiente descritto (Acqua Traverse, un paese sperso nei campi di grano del sud Italia), dei personaggi (per lo più i bambini che abitano in questo luogo), delle cose (gli strumenti rurali, le tv in bianco e nero, la gondola di venezia immancabilmente messa sopra la tv), come se fossi lì in disparte a guardare tutta la storia. Il libro è commovente, a tratti straziante, ma anche pieno di purezza e innocenza che si trova solo nei bambini. La storia poi scorre velocissima, anche se a tratti è soffocante e drammatica, come solo la realtà sa essere.Consiglio anche questo libro di Ammaniti, come ho fatto con tutti gli altri.http://kelanthsblog.blogspot.com/
—Kelanth, numquam risit ubi dracones vivunt
Set in an Italian countryside, a group of children challenge themselves to a race. The first one to reach the top of the hill is the winner and the loser must carry out a dare determined by the winner. Michele, a 9 year old boy, was the last one to reach the hill. On his dare Michele stubbles upon an abandoned cottage and it is there that he discovers this horrendous secret. The book is so short so that is all I can say as much as secret is concerned without revealing any spoilers. But what I can say is that it’s an amazing, gripping story of a group of young children that are caught up in a cruel and greedy adult world. The story is told though the eyes of Michele, who is young and naïve and doesn’t fully comprehend the severity of the situation he is in, but none the less he knows it wrong and is scared out of his wits. You are incredibly fearful for him as he put himself closer and closer in the line of danger without being aware of it. You, as an adult, are fully aware of the situation and what is to come, but as you’re reading it you feel helpless for poor Michele – I felt myself wanting to protect him or scream out to him ‘don’t do it!’. An excellent little book that is dark, raw and very suspenseful.
—Mish
I read this book for my Italian class. Reading in another language, especially it being my first time reading a full-length novel in Italian in this case, was a really rewarding experience and it allowed me to experience one of my favorite activities in a completely different way. I read this with a pencil in hand and circled all of the words I didn't understand (there were quite a few). I hope to do this again in the near future, with Italian and other languages, because I really enjoyed the challenge. The book itself was quite wonderful, riddled with aspects of magical realism, though quite a few questions, it seemed to me, were left unanswered. By the end I was both shocked and confused, leaving me with mixed feelings that I hope to clear up by watching the movie adaptation.
—Beatrice
