interessante punto di vista sulla guerra di indipendenza americana. offre molti stimoli per approfondire la storia. Forse si intrecciano un po` troppi personaggi, con il risultato di non riuscire ad affezionarsi a nessuno.

La prima parte è la migliore, anche se il ritmo all'inizio è molto lento. Ho trovato la terza parte molto frammentaria, anche se nel finale (bello) si ricompone. Il libro offre una prospettiva inusuale, quella degli Irochesi alleati con i britannici, sulla guerra d'indipendenza americana. È anche, più in generale, una riflessione sulle ragioni della guerra, quelle ideologiche e soprattutto quelle economiche, e sul circolo vizioso della vendetta. Vale la lettura.

Dizzying, messy, gruesome, heartbreaking, sentimental, cold and clear-eyed, epic, and very particular. I'm not sure how successful this novel is in the end, but it was a fascinating ride.

Wie jedes der Bücher aus dem Hause Wu Ming ein qualitativ hochwertiges und thematisch exklusives Buch, doche dieses Mal hat es mich weniger als üblich gefangen. Dennoch: die Welt braucht mehr von solchen Büchern!

leave it to Italians to write about the American Revolution. And sure, it's interesting to see a book where the Americans are the bad guys, Wu Ming could've done a better job with it. The basic plot line is that Joseph Brant must muster his Iroquois to serve the British and protect native lands from the encroaching rebels. In it, we're introduced to a lot of characters from Revolutionary War history I forgot about, being not from New York and not as much of a nerd, relatively. The New York German Protestant God-fearing Rebels are the bad guys, and they are a lot more interesting than Brant.

Brant gets his Noble Savage on, though he does do a lot of really bad things, its pretty clear that the Americans do, too. But the whole "protecting our native lands" is thin, in a way: it seemed to me that the writers never really understood the natives that much, although the half-Indian, half-British Peter Johnson is perhaps the most interesting character in the book. Otherwise, the Indians are bold, the women are nubile, and the religious folks are roundly evil (again, this is written by Anarchists).

I guess I was just expecting more. I loved Q's sense of place in the Reformation, and the main character's sense of huntedness and hauntedness. He was interesting to follow around Europe stopping the Papists. Here, we just have the sullen and stoic Brant. I suppose it was supposed to be a screed on the formation of America, but then I wish Wu Ming went more into the religious foundations of the US. Or how regional the conflict was, with Bostoners fighting for one thing, New Yorkers for another, and Carolinians for a third. If Manituana was supposed to be an expository on how nasty and destructive civil war can be, like Q was, then, well, it's overshadowed by folks who are much better at that.

It's not bad airplane reading. It has a quick pace, lots of battle scenes, and is generally as light and readable as something about the extermination of a nation can be. I'll read more of Wu Ming at some point, but probably not for a while. But it is hardly the most impactful book I've ever read. Maybe Revolutionary War buffs or people who hate Imperialism more than me (or the middle of the Venn Diagram connecting those two) would get more out of it. But it's certainly nothing earth-shattering.

But apparently, according to the UK's Independent, Manituana is a great Christmas gift. I guess it's good for that uncle of yours or something. And also apparently, Wu Ming is crowdsourcing the creation and upkeep of the fictituous world of the book, which is a kinda cool concept (Wu Ming is big on kinda cool concepts, as seen in this quote: "We have hallucinations, sort of. Historical research is like peyote to us. After we recover from all the shocks and flashes, we start to write."

Sarà che mi piace molto come scrivono i Wu Ming, ma sono estremamente convincenti anche quando parlano di una storia che quasi nessuno penserebbe di scrivere: molto lontano da casa e molto lontano da ciò che tutti conoscono e possono immaginare degli indiani d'America. Forse è per questo che l'hanno scritta. E anche per questo meritano che la si legga.

Actual rating: 3.5

Premise: I read this book in Italian so I don't know whether the English translation made it justice or not.

What I liked:
- the writing style! As always, Wu Ming's writing style is simultaneously atmospheric and straightforward. The linguistic choices they made are clever and translate well the difference between the characters' backgrounds (for example, the "London Indians" talk in a weird mixture of italianised English and dialects).
- the atmosphere is so vivid! I felt like I was there with the characters, especially when they went to London. The descriptions are clear and simple but some of the details are so specific that they make you wonder how much time Wu Ming spent researching on that time period.

What I didn't like:
- the plot was confusing. The narration jumped suddenly from one point to the other making it really hard to care for what was going on.

My expectations for Manituana were high because "L'Armata dei Sonnambuli" by Wu Ming (I don't think it has been translated in English) is one of my all time favourites. However, whereas in "L'armata dei Sonnambuli" the plot was cleverly constructed to warp up in a way you would have never expected in the beginning, "Manituana" set up an extraordinary plot and cast of characters but, in the end, didn't deliver.