Bell for Adano

This was another of the Pulitzer prize books in the Young Adult section and besides the language I think it is a good one for the genre.  This book is set in a little town in Italy called, Adano.  The United States army comes into the town to help restore it after World War II is over.  Major Victor Joppolo comes into the small town and calls a meeting of the town leaders who stuck around.  The country was led by a fascist, Mussolini, who ran away as their side was loosing the war.  When he asks them what the town needs most to recover there are opposing ideas.  One man says they need food and the other says they need a new bell for the town.  Everything in the town is run by this bell, it is their clock.  The Major decides to try to get them a bell (he also makes sure they have food, of course) to help bring up the moral of the town.  While he is there he meets many people in the town who are great characters; this book has a lot of those.  You really come to love this small town and the people in it.  I think mostly you come to really care about Major Joppolo or as the people in Adano call him, Mister Major.  He is truly full of compassion and wants to help this town so much.

At one point, a man who had had too much to drink was driving his cart along a major road.  This town lived by their carts.  They had carts bringing in food and water, and taking away waste; anything that this town needed was brought on these carts.  Well, this poor man was going so slow he made a US army jeep carrying a man by the name of General Marvin go really slow.  The General has a very bad potty mouth and demands that they kill the mule and so his soldiers have to carry the order out.  The Italian is very confused by this, he knows the Mister Major who everyone in the town comes to love, and yet another person in the same army did a very cruel thing.  The General also demands that no more carts can come on the road anymore.  When Major Joppolo hears of this he overrides the General's orders and allows the carts to come in, otherwise the people of Adano could not survive.

Major Joppolo does so much for this town.  He gets the men fishing again and overall just helps the town become restored.  The people truly loved him.  They threw a big party for him and had the local artist paint a picture of him.  The other officers of the army saw what a great guy he was and tried to hide the fact that the Major didn't follow the General's orders, but the General eventually hears of it and orders Major Joppolo to be relieved of his duty.  This was very sad.  I really admired Major Joppolo and saw that he had a big heart and a strong desire to do his job and help these people.  It was disheartening that the General won out in the end, but not before the Major finds a new bell for the town and hears it ringing as he is driven out of town.  You gain mixed feelings for these two men who are on opposite ends of the spectrum.  The General is a hard, ornery man who cares for no one but himself and Major Joppolo is a kind, generous man whose only care is what he can do for others.  I think this is one of my favorite Pulitzer Prize books that I have read.  It was overall light-hearted and as I mentioned before full of great characters; I just wish that there wasn't so much swearing in it.