Anything But Yes: A Novel of Anna Del Monte, Jewish Citizen of Rome, 1749 - Joie Davidow - ★★★.¼
AUTHOR: Joie Davidow
GENRE: Historical Fiction, Based on True Events.
RATING: 3.25 stars.
In a Nutshell: A historical fiction novel inspired by the diary of an eighteenth-century Italian Jewish girl who was abducted to be converted to Christianity. Unfortunately, the writing style didn’t match my reading taste. But I loved the central character, the historical details, and the research.
Story Synopsis:
1749. Eighteen-year-old Anna del Monte stays with her family in the Jewish ghetto in Rome. While they are relatively well off, it is nothing compared to their earlier standard of living, before the Roman Christians declared Jews to be unclean heretics and commandeered them into the ghetto.
One day, Anna is seized from her home at gunpoint and locked in a convent cell, in a bid to convert her to Christianity. With no access to anyone except her captors, who kept indoctrinating her on the superiority of Christian theology to shatter her strong Jewish faith, Anna resists being baptised and doesn’t succumb.
Later, her elder brother Tranquillo encourages her to write a diary of her struggles, in order to motivate other Jews on how to stay strong in their faith.
The book tells us Anna’s story through the third person perspectives of various characters.
Anna’s journal, of which Tranquillo made seven handwritten copies for safekeeping after his sister’s death, was lost for more than 200 years, until a copy was rediscovered in a private collection in 1989. This novel is based on the annotated version of Anna’s journal, penned by Jewish scholar Giuseppe Sermoneta in 1989.
There’s no disputing the fact that this story inspires and infuriates in equal measure. Some members of the Catholic Church (I say this as a practising Christian) act as if God has sent them down to earth with a target on the lines of “Convert 100 people to Christianity during your time down there, else you won’t enter heaven.” Their ignorance of their fallacious approach towards conversion, their false sense of pride in being Christian, their distortion of biblical scriptures to suit their twisted purpose, and their despicable acts towards people of other belief systems, are shameful to the true tenets of the Christian faith. I always wonder why, if they are so supposedly so knowledgeable about what Jesus said, do they forget the Golden Rule he preached in Matthew 7:12: “Do unto others whatever you would like them to do to you.”
Anna’s story tells us of how such poisonous thinking was prevalent even in that era, when the Catholics treated the Jews as scum, forcing them into closed quarters, restricting them from most occupations, and converting them by any means. One tactic to get converts was that if a Jewish man converted to Christianity, and then declared before the Catholic officials that he was engaged to a Jewess, the girl was kidnapped or arrested, and forced to convert, even if the man’s claims were baseless.
This is what happens to Anna as well. But Anna is not just any girl. Though just eighteen, she had been brought up in a family that has educated its girls, treated them as equals, and taught them their rights and their faith. As such, Anna is determined to stand up to her oppressors and not give up her heritage or her values.
The author captures Anna’s spirit wonderfully. It would have been so easy to depict her as a sweet girl caught for no fault of her own, and leave it at that. But the complexity of Anna’s character development is something I relished. Instead of showing her only as a pious and humble Jewish girl, the writing depicts her as a realistic teen, being proud, rude, and judgemental as well, though I can’t really blame her for behaving this way with her captors. At the same time, it also shows her emotional vulnerability. Anna’s character is THE reason to read this story.
Though the book’s focus is primarily Anna, it also highlights several other misdemeanours of the local church authorities. We also get to know the living conditions of the Jews, not just how they functioned within the ghetto but also how they sometimes conducted business with those who persecuted them. Further, we also see the shameful behaviour of the church and its officials towards the Jews. They do not resort to physical torture, but their methods of psychological manipulation were no less reprehensible.
The author’s note at the end of the book elaborates on Anna’s life and how her diary led to this book. There’s also an Italian-to-English glossary.
The historical aspects of the book thus are impressive. Unfortunately for me, the writing style incorporates certain elements that didn’t work well for me.
To start with, the book dives straight into Anna’s capture, without any backstory. As such, the plethora of characters at the start is tough to recognise and remember.
Moreover, the story is written in a mix of the (simple) present tense and the (simple and perfect) past tense. Initially, the simple present felt like a radical choice, as it somehow gave me the feeling of watching the events live instead of hearing a narration, as happens in case of a simple past tense. However, there was no consistency to the tense usage, which switched from past to present to past even for the same timeframe. The back and forth of tenses confused me many times about the timeline. This was further complicated by the numerous flashbacks, which, while necessary to establish the backstory of Anna’s present confinement in the convent, pop in without warning.
Finally, the narrative point of view jumps across too many characters, both major and minor. There are multiple character perspectives within every single chapter. All of these factors ensured that I couldn’t really get into the book, despite the topic being so captivating.
If you are not as fussy as I about the writing approach, specifically about the use of the simple present tense and the hopping across various characters’ povs, this book ought to work better for you. I tried my best to go with the flow, but couldn’t connect with the style. My bad!
I would still recommend this compelling historical fiction to you. Anna’s story, and the Church’s historical hegemony, has been forgotten in the annals of time long enough. Unless we learn from the mistakes of the past, we can never hope to have a better future.
Before I forget, a nod of appreciation for that striking cover. The artwork is from an oil-on-canvas work named “Rêverie sur le Seuil”, painted in 1893 by French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau. While there’s obviously no portrait of the real Anna del Monte, I think the girl on the cover art captures Anna’s spirit beautifully.
My thanks to Love Books Tours and author Joie Davidow for a complimentary copy of “Anything But Yes”, and for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
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Blurb:
This beautiful new work of historical fiction was inspired by the diary of an 18th-century Roman Jewish girl who was imprisoned in a convent cell by the Catholic Church in an attempt to forcibly convert her.
"An intricately detailed novel of resistance and community." - Kirkus Reviews
Anything but Yes is the true story of a young woman's struggle to defend her identity in the face of relentless attempts to destroy it. In 1749, eighteen-year-old Anna del Monte was seized at gunpoint from her home in the Jewish ghetto of Rome and thrown into a convent cell at the Casa dei Catecumeni, the house of converts. With no access to the outside world, she withstood endless lectures, threats, promises, isolation and sleep deprivation. If she were she to utter the simple word “yes,” she risked forced baptism, which would mean never returning to her home, and total loss of contact with any Jew—mother, father, brother, sister—for the rest of her life.
Even in Rome, very few people know the story of the Ghetto or the abduction of Jews, the story of popes ever more intent on converting every non-Catholic living in the long shadow of the Vatican. Young girls and small children were the primary targets. They were vulnerable, easily confused, gullible. Anna del Monte was different. She was strong, brilliant, educated, and wrote a diary of her experiences. The document was lost for more than 200 hundred years, then rediscovered in 1989. Anything but Yes is also based on Davidow’s extensive research on life in the eighteenth-century Roman ghetto, its traditions, food, personalities, and dialect.
Includes Italian to English glossary.
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Author Joie Davidow:
Her latest book is this novel set in 1749, based on the diary of an 18 year-old girl who was seized at gunpoint from her home in the Rome Ghetto and carried off to a convent where she was relentlessly pressured to convert.
She lives in Umbria with her dog Maggie.
Website: http://www.joiedavidow.com/
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Check out this book:
Buy Link: https://amzn.to/45YrI5t
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This has been a stop on the #AnythingButYes blog tour conducted by Love Books Tours. (@lovebookstours on Twitter and Instagram.) Thanks for visiting!
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