Naples '44: A World War II Diary of Occupied Italy - Norman Lewis Disclaimer: I got a copy via Netgalley. Have you ever read the transcripts from the Titanic inquiry? It’s a rather interesting look at what various British people thought of the rest of the barbarians, except for the Americans. In some places, Lewis’ diary of his wartime experiences in Naples mirror those transcripts, but this time the Americans are part of the barbarians. One of the most interesting parts of reading this diary is how slowly, subtlety Lewis’ views change. He eventually falls in love with the country and reading those passages is true wonderful. His most descriptive work in the diary is there. Part of this change might be tied to hospitality, for his hosts never let him eat army rations, but feed him from their own merge supplies. But the real reason to read this diary is to see how the Allies interacted with the Italians, once German allies but who are liberated by the Americans, British and Canadians. It is just the treatment of the Italians by the Allies, but how one British man viewed everything. In some cases, Lewis’s observations and his frustrations are funny. He has to deal with Italians who are arrested for cutting wire. This, the Italian in question might point out, is exactly what the British asked him to do, why are they arresting him for it? And then he finds himself immersed in some type of Mafia vendetta that he can’t understand. He doesn’t write it, but his description of the event almost screams, “Didn’t these Europeans read Romeo and Juliet?” There is the court, which is, well, let’s just say people get themselves lost in jail. But the issues that concerns this officer the most and the issue that is most disquieting to readers several years removed is the obsession women. Lewis only seems to be obsessed with women because his job calls on him to be. These wicked Italian women, getting their hooks into the pure innocent British boys must be checked out before they are allowed to marry the man. This is one of Lewis’ jobs, and he seems to think worse of the British men, for not knowing how to handle love affairs, then the women whom at times he admires for their ability to survive. He admires a Countess who at one point in life wrestled pythons and might have killed her husband on their wedding night with passion. Another woman arranges to appear richer than she actually is. But he also, in many ways, is disquieted by the women. Early on in Naples, Lewis is offered a young girl by the girl’s father, who noticed Lewis looking at his daughter. The father does this so the daughter can eat. There is a woman who prostitutes her daughter, and a very young girl forced to prostitute to herself. The disquiet arises from a line about Italian women in rape; Lewis writes that the Italian women don’t seem to be upset if they are raped. Combined with the prostitution, the rape line causes the reader to wonder what the young Lewis may not (or at least did not record), how much of the women’s behavior is due to the years of war, to what today we would call PTSD. In many ways, these sections of the diary shine a light on an aspect of the Second World War that is often overlooked. It isn’t a diary with big battles, there are some battles, but it is an interesting chronicle of the war. Well worth reading.