Momo

This is a special book. Momo is an orphan living in an ancient, abandoned amphitheatre. She has one special power. It's nothing you'd expect of a superhero, but in this story it makes all the difference. There is a strong dividing line between stories with events tossed in just to propel it forward, and stories built like carefully constructed edifices or arguments with nothing extraneous and an important meaning behind everything that occurs. This has the feeling of the latter. Even as Momo and her friends are engaged in the imaginative voyage of the Ajax, an entire chapter of make-believe, I did not doubt that Michael Ende included even that scene with a distinct purpose in mind. Comparisons with 'The Neverending Story' are show more inevitable. This is not as complex as the other but maybe just as challenging, and lessons abound.

Michael Ende is fearlessly subtle. He can say the deepest things in the simplest words, and not worry overmuch whether you're grasping their meaning. With lines like, "There are treasures capable of destroying those who have no one to share them with" scattered within a straightforward story for children, an adult also has something to chew on. It is a story at least partially about the importance of taking the time - stealing time, we sometimes say - to appreciate one another in a world that is always madly rushing forward. The grey men may not be real to us in a literal sense, but in the form of time-consuming, time-wasting things we do that make us wonder why there aren't enough hours in a day. The trick is not to confuse time-wasting with enjoyable time well spent. Like when someone my age sets aside studying the French Revolution to spend a few minutes with this. show less

Some books that you read as a child make a lasting impression. You never forget them. However, it is not always a good idea to reread them as an adult. Times change, you've grown up, you've read so many more books that you've become a more critical reader. You remember a book as absolutely scaring or sad, but when you read it again, the magic is gone.

Momo, however, is a book does stand the test of time. On a superficial level it is an adventure of a little girl fighting an army of scary grey men, who steal time. But on a deeper level, it is an ode to the imagination, an ode to friendship and an ode to the beauty of life. It was lovely to read this again, I loved the chapter about the children's fantasies, because it made me remember show more what it was like to be a child. The book also made me think about my present busy live, the way the hours disappear and how all this adult business gets me so hurried up that I sometimes forget about the truer, and more important things in life. show less

Re-reading this after 30 years, it feels eerily timely; I'd forgotten that the plot is essentially "children protest what capitalism is doing to the world, but the adults are too busy consuming to care, and instead choose to go after the kid who points out how unsustainable it all is. In the end, the ones who tried to steal the world fight each other to the death over the few resources that remain."

That said, while Ende's rose-tinted view of poverty leaves something to be desired (of course it's set in Italy, that charming southern cousin where people enjoy being poor), the central idea is still so strong, and the execution both so sharp and so likable that I find myself falling in love all over again. And I promise not to get annoyed show more the next time someone takes longer than they need to in line ahead of me. show less

Ende's books have a dreamlike quality that is probably the main part of his appeal but it isn't really my kind of thing. Momo is more fairy tale and less character-based than The Never-Ending Story. The title character is a flawless good child whose ability that makes her beloved is 'listening' so she is a passive character with no particular personality. We meet her friends but since they do nothing and are just victims to be saved, they don't add a lot to the story. Really felt like there was set up here that was never paid off. I am creeped out that an adult male suggested one day he would marry Momo, a child. I liked the tortoise. Felt very true to what tortoises are like. Meanwhile, though the moralising is making a fair, show more anti-capitalist point, it is so heavy handed that the story mostly read like being shouted at from a soap box. show less

Momo mi è piaciuto davvero molto. Se all'inizio, quando la storia sembrava fatta solo di episodi, lo trovavo interessante e divertente, quando poi la storyline si fissa sul furto del tempo non riuscivo a smettere di leggere! È emozionante, divertente, offre spunti di riflessione e critiche alla società senza diventare moraleggiante. È corredato di bellissime illustrazioni che a volte mostrano una scena o un personaggio, a volte fanno solo da abbellimento alla pagina, ma sempre molto piacevoli. Inoltre è un libro ancora molto attuale, anzi, direi che Ende ha avuto non poca lungimiranza perché sembra più attuale adesso che quarantasei anni fa.
Una lettura bellissima!

http://www.naufragio.it/iltempodileggere/21287

What was I thinking? I already count Ende's [b:The Neverending Story|27712|The Neverending Story|Michael Ende|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327871159s/27712.jpg|1122661] to be one of the very best books ever written, so why would I waste SO MUCH TIME getting to anything else he wrote?

It blows my mind!

It's almost like SOMEONE HAS BEEN STEALING MY TIME! All those damn time-savers out there fooled me and tied me up and made my life a dull gray, smoke-filled, DEADLY TEDIOUS world! They kept me from this book... and now I know why!

It's a conspiracy of the Time-Banks.

Momo is pretty damn wonderful. The concept is classic, an epic battle between children who really understand the necessity of wasting time and the horrible monsters, the show more gray men, who offer up devilish riches to everyone else in order to suck the life and time from everyone else.

*shiver*

Honestly, if someone published this as the new up-and-coming YA book in today's day and age without knowing that Momo ever existed, it would be heralded as unique and gorgeous and groundbreaking. Gaiman would be blurbing it and there would be a twitter storm of praise.

But no, it's just some silly book written back in 1973. No one cares. ; ; show less

Okay, no word of a lie, this is ONE OF THE BEST CHILDREN'S STORIES EVER WRITTEN. Ende is a household name elsewhere in Europe, but here in the UK (where I'm from) he's mostly just known for The Neverending Story. That's also a good book, but this is even better. A powerful allegory about the importance of taking time to enjoy life, this story also contains (in my opinion) the most frightening baddies in the whole of children's literature. You have to read this, it's FANTASTIC.