Reading Article
Review of The Broken Fountain
The Broken Fountain by Thomas Belmonte is a powerful book thatshows greatly the struggle and life of the poor class. It givesa strong sense of urban life through the story of a Neapolitanneighborhood. It goes beyond that, though. There is much morethan a gritty street and rundown buildings. There is much morethan the poor people walking by and emotion filled families.There is an underlying theme of humanity, of justice andinjustice, that the reader can not help but be touched by. The imagery is strong and brings the book to life. The readergets a true sense of what it is like to be in the neighborhood.The description of buildings and people captivate the minds andbring a world of humanity into light. Whether it be in thestreets or the homes themselves, the reader feels that they havesome experience now in this awkward world even if they are sodistant from its location. The setting of Naples does notdistract from this either. It does not give us just a look onItaly, but rather the whole world. One could apply suchhardships and feelings across the whole spectrum of mankind. His portrayal of the people is unique and touching. He doesn’tjust cast them aside as poor and give us little glimpses oftheir lives. He lets the reader live as one themselves andexperience what is meant to be experienced in this story. Fromacts of thievery and abuse to pain and sorrow and plenty offear, he captures it all so intricately in the characters andcreatures an environment that the reader gets so enrapt in thatthey almost becomes a character themselves. The insight and depth that the author provides is a great partto the achievement of the book. The willingness to open his souland become one with the story allows the audience to feel thatthey know this person, that they have a better understanding ofthis life and story. The emotions, the actions, the thingsunsaid all bond together and bring the words to life. There isso much to the subject, and so many subjects to follow. Not onlyis it a book about the poor, but it is a book about family andfriends, about economy and civilization, about social structureand conditions, about Italy and most importantly about humanity. It is clear to understand from reading this how it is a classicto the study of anthropology and sociology. A classical tale ofhuman survival and endurance, The Broken Fountain transcendsbeyond just a work of literature and into a tale of human depthin spirit and body. Not only do we get insight of the author andthe neighborhood he brings to life, but the audience getsinsight of themselves. Through this they analyze their own lifeand are simply touched by the pure human displayed in a book.
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