Review of Malino: The Orphan Road
Posted: 29 Oct 2021, 09:56
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Malino: The Orphan Road" by Joseph R. Barry.]
A blind, evil-eyed baby would bring a curse to the village, so when Malino was born, he was taken into the mountains by Grillo, a one-eyed woodcutter, to be abandoned. He stops by a brook and washes the baby, and the cold water makes the infant open his eyes. Grillo gives the baby the name Malino and tells him he has the right to live. He takes him to a nunnery that served as a boarding house for girls and orphaned boys until puberty. After reaching puberty, they sold the children to woodcutters or miners to serve as quasi-indentured labor. Grillo agrees to pay the nunnery 20 lire and a load of wood per month until he comes back to get Malino when he reaches the age of seven. What is to become of Malino? Will he be a slave? Will he survive into adulthood? Malino: The Orphan Road by Joseph R. Barry is Malino's journey in a life of discrimination, slavery, political oppression, and economic oppression.
Joseph R. Barry has done an excellent job with character development. I could visualize Malino's cat-eyes and his vast size. The political and economic oppression is vividly detailed throughout the book. The monarchism and fascism ideologies portrayed in this book are hard to fathom; it would be horrible to live under those conditions. One of the many lessons I brought away from reading this book was that sometimes in order to survive, you have to do things that you would consider dishonorable under normal conditions.
The author did not define a few Italian words, but they did not distract from my reading pleasure. This book needs to be edited by a professional editor because it is full of errors that did distract from my reading pleasure, and this was the main aspect that I disliked about this book.
Overall, the book is an exciting and enjoyable read. The plot flowed smoothly, and the author made me emotional over the events that the main character had to survive. I am giving this book 3 out of 4 stars because it is an interesting book, and the only flaw that affected my reading enjoyment was the number of errors.
I recommend this book to adult fans of historical fiction. I do not recommend the book to younger readers because of the descriptive gory mutilations in the battle scenes, the sexual content, and the non-borderline profanity. Although the sexual content is not descriptive, it does contain intercourse, bestiality, and homosexuality, which is not appropriate for younger readers. Sensitive readers may want to avoid this book for these same reasons.
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Malino: The Orphan Road
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
A blind, evil-eyed baby would bring a curse to the village, so when Malino was born, he was taken into the mountains by Grillo, a one-eyed woodcutter, to be abandoned. He stops by a brook and washes the baby, and the cold water makes the infant open his eyes. Grillo gives the baby the name Malino and tells him he has the right to live. He takes him to a nunnery that served as a boarding house for girls and orphaned boys until puberty. After reaching puberty, they sold the children to woodcutters or miners to serve as quasi-indentured labor. Grillo agrees to pay the nunnery 20 lire and a load of wood per month until he comes back to get Malino when he reaches the age of seven. What is to become of Malino? Will he be a slave? Will he survive into adulthood? Malino: The Orphan Road by Joseph R. Barry is Malino's journey in a life of discrimination, slavery, political oppression, and economic oppression.
Joseph R. Barry has done an excellent job with character development. I could visualize Malino's cat-eyes and his vast size. The political and economic oppression is vividly detailed throughout the book. The monarchism and fascism ideologies portrayed in this book are hard to fathom; it would be horrible to live under those conditions. One of the many lessons I brought away from reading this book was that sometimes in order to survive, you have to do things that you would consider dishonorable under normal conditions.
The author did not define a few Italian words, but they did not distract from my reading pleasure. This book needs to be edited by a professional editor because it is full of errors that did distract from my reading pleasure, and this was the main aspect that I disliked about this book.
Overall, the book is an exciting and enjoyable read. The plot flowed smoothly, and the author made me emotional over the events that the main character had to survive. I am giving this book 3 out of 4 stars because it is an interesting book, and the only flaw that affected my reading enjoyment was the number of errors.
I recommend this book to adult fans of historical fiction. I do not recommend the book to younger readers because of the descriptive gory mutilations in the battle scenes, the sexual content, and the non-borderline profanity. Although the sexual content is not descriptive, it does contain intercourse, bestiality, and homosexuality, which is not appropriate for younger readers. Sensitive readers may want to avoid this book for these same reasons.
******
Malino: The Orphan Road
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon