The Day Before Happiness [Hardcover]

(4.5 stars) Described by Milan's daily newspaper Corriere della Serra as "the only true first-rate writer that the new millennium has given us for now," Erri De Luca writes a story of Naples, filling it with well-developed characters who live through three different time periods - 1943, as Naples has its popular uprising against their German occupiers; the early 1950s, when the unnamed narrator, a young orphan of about seven, is growing up; and the early 1960s, when the young man is now finishing school and about to set out on his own. The novel moves back and forth in time, as the author writes an often lyrical novel full of noble sentiments and wise observations, at the same time that it is packed with details about life and behavior.

The young orphan grows up in the early 1950s without any real supervision, living in a back room belonging to Don Gaetano, the doorman of an apartment building. As a child soccer player famous for his monkey-like ability to retrieve the ball when it goes awry, he discovers a secret passageway into a grotto behind a statue. Lovely descriptive passages make the depths of the city, its sponge-like tufo substratum, and its coolness come alive, and when the boy discovers some books there, he also discovers a whole new world of reading. Another time, he also sees a beautiful young girl through the upstairs window, and she haunts his life, even after she disappears.

The author uses numerous flashbacks to describe wartime life in September, 1943, and as Don Gaetano emphasizes the lessons he has learned through this and other experiences, he creates a kind of daily catechism of his own, declaring: "The worst things happen under sunny skies. When the weather is bad, a person prefers to postpone an evil deed." and "A writer has to be smaller than the subject he is describing. You have to sense the story running away from him every which way, and him capturing only a part of it." The author reveals information slowly, always showing Don Gaetano's concern for the boy, and when the boy is seventeen or eighteen, the beautiful Anna, about whom he has dreamt for years, returns, and their meeting becomes the final dramatic step in his coming-of-age.

De Luca provides much information in few words, selecting perfect details, rather than numerous details, which elevate the novel. The observation that the day before happiness (when bad things often happen) is even more important than the happiness which follows; that Christianity is like a belt around the world; that heirs get rid of the books accumulated by the dead in order to exorcise their ghosts; and that Naples is "Spanish" (and anarchistic) in tone and is located in Italy "by mistake," all suggest much more than they actually say, a wonderful change from the overly specific and self-conscious style of much modern writing. Intense in its imagery and emotion, this novel reflects the universal longings of the main character as he grows on his own. Exciting on the level of theme and style, it is hard to imagine any reader not responding to the young orphan with empathy and warmth as he learns to understand people and to "read their thoughts." Mary Whipple

The Day Before Hap­pi­ness by Erri De Luca is a fic­tional novel which takes place in the early 1950s. The story uses flash­backs to wartime Italy.

Don Gae­tano, the super­in­ten­dent of an apart­ment build­ing in Naples, is pro­tect­ing a young orphan after World War II. Don Gae­tano is a gen­er­ous man and gets attached to the young man telling him about the war and the lib­er­a­tion of the city by its inhabitants.

Don Gae­tano can also read people's thoughts and is aware that his young guest is haunted by the mem­o­ries of a girl he met, who is Jew­ish yet still afraid to show her true self. Years later, when the girl returns, the young man must face his own demons.

The Day Before Hap­pi­ness by Erri De Luca is a won­der­fully sug­ges­tive book, which mince on words but not on details, select­ing the per­fect ones instead of spew­ing them off hop­ing to get one right. This is a char­ac­ter and image dri­ven book which cap­tures the souls of its narrator.

The prose is very lyri­cal in this tale of the search for hap­pi­ness and whether one will find it or not. Don Gae­tano, the father fig­ure of the orphan nar­ra­tor, is known to be able to read people's thoughts. Whether he does have such a mag­i­cal abil­ity or is sim­ply an obser­vant, warm and under­stand­ing human being is one of the mys­ter­ies of the book.

The author's obser­va­tions are thought com­pelling and provoca­tive. Mr. De Luca makes poignant obser­va­tions which are both smart and expansive.

"[The Jews]are a belt around the waist of the world. With the holy book we are the leather strip that has been hold­ing up the trousers ever since Adam real­ized he was naked. Many times the world has wanted to take the belt off and throw it away. It feels too tight."

It is obvi­ous that Mr. De Luca does not think of peo­ple as num­bers. The author actu­ally states that he doesn't use the word "peo­ple" but "per­sons - I found that to be very pro­found. When you treat peo­ple like sheep or cat­tle, they stop being human beings. When one stud­ies his­tory it is quite obvi­ous that the first step to geno­cide is to cre­ate a "herd" of peo­ple so the "sheep" you sent to do the killing won't think of them as individuals.

Even though this is not a long book, it is full with details about life in Naples, peo­ple behav­ior and well devel­oped char­ac­ters. The most inter­est­ing sto­ries, to me, were the pop­u­lar upris­ing of the per­sons of Napoli against the Ger­man occu­piers (knows as The Four Days of Naples/Quat­tro gior­nate di Napoli).

An intense book which gives a lot of credit to its read­ers believ­ing they are capa­ble of read­ing beyond the plot and between the lines. The book touches on many uni­ver­sal themes and does so with style and grace.

Disclaimer: I got this book for free.

"The Day Before Happiness" is a delightful read about a throwaway boy just after WW II and how he grows up with the insightful help of a local 'fix-it' man. The translation does not obscure the regional nature of Naples with all of its charm and tradgedy shortly after the liberation by the Americans. It is streaked throughout with hopefulness and an expectation of happiness just on the horizon. I donated this book to the local Library to help them expand in this time of severe budget constraints.I bought this book from Amazon and am pleased I did !