SWEET DREAMS, LITTLE ONE.

SWEET DREAMS, LITTLE ONE by MASSIMO GRAMELLINI. (Translated into English by Stephen Parkin).

SOURCE: Received for review from publishers ALMA BOOKS.

The story of a lifelong search for happiness.

It's early morning on New Year's Eve, and nine-year-old Massimo wakes up to a long, doleful cry and the disconcerting image of his dad being supported by two strangers. Inexplicably, his mother has disappeared, leaving only a vague trail of perfume in his room and her dressing gown bundled up at the foot of his bed. Where has she gone? Will she ever come back? And will Massimo be able to say sorry, after quarrelling with her the night before?

 At turns poignant and funny, Sweet Dreams, Little One - the most successful book to come out of Italy last year, and an international sensation - is the story of a secret which has been kept hidden for forty years and the uplifting tale of a boy who, as he grows into an adult, has to learn how to cope with the pain of bereavement and the demons of his own nightmares.
... Outer back copy

FIRST SENTENCE: On New Year's eve, like every year, I called on my godmother to take her to see Mum.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 142}: I shut my eyes and saw him. As a teenager, in his prime, as an old man - all the things he would never be . and then again as the little boy in the hospital bed, with a hole in his stomach I'd not managed to fill in time.

MY THOUGHTS: A work of fiction ..... or is it? Given that the main character and author had the name Massimo in common and that the whole tone of the book was autobiographical I couldn't help but wonder if it was based (however loosely) on actual events.

Whilst I found the nine year old Massimo's story a fairly touching one to begin with, unable to feel any real empathy for him as he grew from childhood to manhood and became increasingly self pitying I'm afraid that I rapidly lost interest.

According to the blurb on the back cover a novel that by turns is poignant and funny. Poignant I can understand as at times it was an emotional read but as for humorous? I'm afraid if Sweet Dreams, Little One was in any way 'funny' the humour was lost to me.

Alas not a book I particularly enjoyed as a lone reader but the thought stayed with me throughout that because of the potential for discussion this would have made an excellent read for my reading group.

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Disclaimer:  Read and reviewed on behalf of publishers, Alma Books, I was merely asked for my honest opinion, no financial compensation was asked for nor given.