My Father Il Duce: A Memoir by Mussolini's Son

Author Mussolini, a jazz pianist who toured with the likes of Chet Baker and Dizzy Gillespie, may not have shared entirely his father's bellicose sensibility, but as the youngest son of Italian dictator Benito, Mussolini admits that he was entranced by his father's stature and charisma-making for a complicated and conflicted memoir, a bestseller in Italy. Indeed, the introduction by Columbia professor Stille warns of the ""half-truths, evasions, and self-deceptions that characterize this memoir,"" a book ""laced with a series of absurdly revisionist accounts ... aimed principally at absolving Mussolini."" In the book's first chapter, the author explains his two-pronged mission: ""I wanted not only to share my memories as a son, but also ... to help shed light on certain aspects of Il Duce's life."" Only in the first endeavor-sharing details only a son ""extremely attached to his father"" could provide-does he really succeed: Benito was a captivating storyteller, a man of simple tastes (""he also liked boiled chicken quite a bit"") and, above all, a man whose children idolized him. As for shedding meaningful light on the towering figure, there is little Mussolini's son can offer to mitigate history's account of his father's role as a war-mongering fascist. Perhaps in part because his father was so ""skilled at keeping the public Mussolini and the private Mussolini separate,"" it seems the author has no real grasp of his father's real impact. It makes for an interestingly incomplete portrait of the reviled leader, and a more interesting self-portrait of faith, denial and the blinding power of a son's love.