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Shadows of Rome: A Memoir
WAR AND LOVE FROM ITALY TO CALIFORNIA
An extravagant neo-baroque artist and outspoken proto-feminist, the mercurial Romana Laura Anzi survived Mussolini and the Nazis, risked her life carrying messages for the Italian Resistance, and wound up marrying a wisecracking bespectacled GI journalist who fought in the Italian Campaign then stayed on in Rome to woo her.
Romana was the author’s mother. The GI—Charles E. Downie, Jr.—was his father.
Ranging from the Dolomites in World War One to Rome in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s, then to San Francisco and Berkeley in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, Shadows of Rome tells the bittersweet tale of this unlikely mid-20th-century Italian-American couple and their unusual offspring.
With wry humor and philosophical detachment, in the pages of this moving memoir acclaimed travel writer and novelist David Downie relives his own roller-coaster youth in California and Italy, evoking among the memoir’s many quirky characters his high-color Italian uncles and larger-than-life grandfather, an antifascist lawyer and freemason tortured and ruined by Mussolini’s Fascist Black Shirts.
Without trying to be, Shadows of Rome is disconcertingly topical in Trump’s America.
Praise for other books by David Downie
"Zesty and entertaining."—Kirkus
"Delightful and thoroughly researched."—Publishers Weekly
"Beautifully written and refreshingly original."—The SF Chronicle
"Delightful and insightful."—The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Chicago Tribune
"Unequaled poignancy and passion."—National Geographic Traveler
“Expertly captures the powerlessness and courage of those in peril."—Booklist
"Compelling... a rapturous, history-rich love poem."—The Toronto Star
"Fabulous company!"—NPR
An extravagant neo-baroque artist and outspoken proto-feminist, the mercurial Romana Laura Anzi survived Mussolini and the Nazis, risked her life carrying messages for the Italian Resistance, and wound up marrying a wisecracking bespectacled GI journalist who fought in the Italian Campaign then stayed on in Rome to woo her.
Romana was the author’s mother. The GI—Charles E. Downie, Jr.—was his father.
Ranging from the Dolomites in World War One to Rome in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s, then to San Francisco and Berkeley in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, Shadows of Rome tells the bittersweet tale of this unlikely mid-20th-century Italian-American couple and their unusual offspring.
With wry humor and philosophical detachment, in the pages of this moving memoir acclaimed travel writer and novelist David Downie relives his own roller-coaster youth in California and Italy, evoking among the memoir’s many quirky characters his high-color Italian uncles and larger-than-life grandfather, an antifascist lawyer and freemason tortured and ruined by Mussolini’s Fascist Black Shirts.
Without trying to be, Shadows of Rome is disconcertingly topical in Trump’s America.
Praise for other books by David Downie
"Zesty and entertaining."—Kirkus
"Delightful and thoroughly researched."—Publishers Weekly
"Beautifully written and refreshingly original."—The SF Chronicle
"Delightful and insightful."—The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Chicago Tribune
"Unequaled poignancy and passion."—National Geographic Traveler
“Expertly captures the powerlessness and courage of those in peril."—Booklist
"Compelling... a rapturous, history-rich love poem."—The Toronto Star
"Fabulous company!"—NPR
288 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 14, 2025
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2 people want to read
About the author
David Downie
98 books68 followersBestselling author of novels (crime, thrillers) and over a dozen nonfiction books, has divided his time between France, Italy and California since 1986. A former journalist and guide. Creator of the Commissioner Daria Vinci series; the first Daria Vinci Investigation is Red Riviera (June 2021), the second Daria Vinci Investigation is Roman Roulette (summer 2022). www. davidddownie.com
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 1, 2025
While a sense of great sadness pervades David Downie's memoir Shadows of Rome, Downie is far too skilled a narrator to overwhelm his reader with a sense of bleakness page by page, and I, for one, found myself looking forward to each new chapter as I read this memoir, wide-ranging as it is in both time and space.
At heart, the tale Downie has to tell as he delves into the history of his Italian mother and her antecedents, and then of his mother's (and, to some extent, of his own and his siblings’) life following his mother's marriage to a American journalist-turned-GI stationed in Italy during and after the Second World War is one of successive intra-family estrangements, punctuated by seemingly crazy outbursts of ebullience on his mother's part.
Running through the narrative like a leitmotiv, too, is Downie's awareness of just what a prominent role fascism played in the fortune's of his mother's family (some of whom were collaborators, while she and her larger-than-life anti-fascist father were not), and how the craven need that fascism apparently satisfies in the hearts of men has remained very much alive in post-war Italy, and indeed in post-war America, where it first surfaced as McCarthyism (Downie's own father, having served in his country's military, was one who subsequently found himself "black-listed") and more recently, of course, in its MAGA guise, concerning which Downie pulls no punches.
Towards the end of this far-ranging assemblage of memories, anecdotes, research and speculation, Downie pauses a moment to reflect on the personality of his journalist father:
He saw no point in telling his or any other story. Each generation, each person, would write their own history, live their own lives. The less said, the better. The less “crepe-hanging” and wallowing the better. He wished everyone well but could not persuade himself that ultimately anything the human species did mattered in the cosmic sense.
Recalling his father in this light, Downie sees himself as his father's "spiritual heir". So why then, he muses, did he choose to "cobble together this unusual personal and family memoir"?
Was it to "come to terms with" his mother? he wonders. Possibly. Was his effort "to capture these shadows of Rome equally an effort to come to grips with my eldest brother’s Evangelical bigotry and zeal? To elucidate the formative steps leading to his bona fide American Fascism?" Almost certainly, Downie concludes - but immediately points out that the forces that molded his own (now wholly estranged) brother "have molded millions of others. Fascism is alive and well worldwide and that’s another reason for any thoughtful, concerned citizen and lover of democracy to scrutinize the past in an effort to understand the present and prepare for what’s to come."
As someone with virtually no knowledge of twentieth century Italian history (apart from what I have already picked up, in fact, from reading some of Downie's fiction) I found "Shadows of Rome" a fascinating primer in what it actually meant in practice to live under Mussolini, and in how the choices people were forced to make at that time could easily tear families apart. I also at least imagine (rightly? wrongly?) that I now have at least some insight into how and why Downie, accompanied by his Parisian-born wife Alison Harris, has preferred to live much of his adult life in France and Italy, rather than in the California of his birth.
It will be interesting to see from here whether Downie's fiction-writing self will be tempted to flesh out, in a way he could not reasonably be expected to flesh out in a memoir like this, some of the intra-family dynamics that worked themselves out in his own family in California in what he has called the "shadows of Rome". Even now, there is still much of this story that I would like to know more about.
At heart, the tale Downie has to tell as he delves into the history of his Italian mother and her antecedents, and then of his mother's (and, to some extent, of his own and his siblings’) life following his mother's marriage to a American journalist-turned-GI stationed in Italy during and after the Second World War is one of successive intra-family estrangements, punctuated by seemingly crazy outbursts of ebullience on his mother's part.
Running through the narrative like a leitmotiv, too, is Downie's awareness of just what a prominent role fascism played in the fortune's of his mother's family (some of whom were collaborators, while she and her larger-than-life anti-fascist father were not), and how the craven need that fascism apparently satisfies in the hearts of men has remained very much alive in post-war Italy, and indeed in post-war America, where it first surfaced as McCarthyism (Downie's own father, having served in his country's military, was one who subsequently found himself "black-listed") and more recently, of course, in its MAGA guise, concerning which Downie pulls no punches.
Towards the end of this far-ranging assemblage of memories, anecdotes, research and speculation, Downie pauses a moment to reflect on the personality of his journalist father:
He saw no point in telling his or any other story. Each generation, each person, would write their own history, live their own lives. The less said, the better. The less “crepe-hanging” and wallowing the better. He wished everyone well but could not persuade himself that ultimately anything the human species did mattered in the cosmic sense.
Recalling his father in this light, Downie sees himself as his father's "spiritual heir". So why then, he muses, did he choose to "cobble together this unusual personal and family memoir"?
Was it to "come to terms with" his mother? he wonders. Possibly. Was his effort "to capture these shadows of Rome equally an effort to come to grips with my eldest brother’s Evangelical bigotry and zeal? To elucidate the formative steps leading to his bona fide American Fascism?" Almost certainly, Downie concludes - but immediately points out that the forces that molded his own (now wholly estranged) brother "have molded millions of others. Fascism is alive and well worldwide and that’s another reason for any thoughtful, concerned citizen and lover of democracy to scrutinize the past in an effort to understand the present and prepare for what’s to come."
As someone with virtually no knowledge of twentieth century Italian history (apart from what I have already picked up, in fact, from reading some of Downie's fiction) I found "Shadows of Rome" a fascinating primer in what it actually meant in practice to live under Mussolini, and in how the choices people were forced to make at that time could easily tear families apart. I also at least imagine (rightly? wrongly?) that I now have at least some insight into how and why Downie, accompanied by his Parisian-born wife Alison Harris, has preferred to live much of his adult life in France and Italy, rather than in the California of his birth.
It will be interesting to see from here whether Downie's fiction-writing self will be tempted to flesh out, in a way he could not reasonably be expected to flesh out in a memoir like this, some of the intra-family dynamics that worked themselves out in his own family in California in what he has called the "shadows of Rome". Even now, there is still much of this story that I would like to know more about.
June 7, 2025
David Downie's fiercely honest memoir is part fascinating family history, part mid to late 20th century history, and part timely political commentary. It's timely in Santayana's sense that those who can't remember the past are condemned to repeat it ... and we did and we are.
The writing is personal and compelling, the stories deeply engaging. Several nights I postponed sleep to read just one more chapter ... no, make it two ... because I was that involved in the narrative.
The book is dominated, as Downie's life has been, by his indomitable mother Romana, an Italian artist and member of the resistance who married an American G.I. and reluctantly set up house in California. Downie's father was the introverted partner in the relationship, a journalist and lover of gardening. The family dynamic was fraught, with the author odd man out among the four Downie siblings, the sole liberal, anti-fascist, and (frankly) successful human being in the group. His situation reminded me of my own youth when I was going toe to toe with my dad over some social cause and he looked me square in the eyes and said, "I can't believe I raised a liberal." I suspect there's a lot of that going around these days.
And that brings me to another remarkable quality of this memoir: It makes you reflect on your own family history, on the forces that shaped your parents and, through them, you. Those shadows are part of every family. They are why some years after my father died, I made my own pilgrimage to White Plains, New York, where he grew up, hoping to catch a glimpse of him in places he knew in the teens and twenties of the last century. It's the same impulse that Thomas Wolfe captured in Look Homeward, Angel: “Each of us is all the sums he has not counted: subtract us into the nakedness and night again, and you shall see begin in Crete four thousand years ago the love that ended yesterday in Texas.”
And, finally, somewhat between the lines, this is a love story. Yes, of the way his parents Charles and Romana fell in love, their courtship, but even more, between David and his wife Alison. David's love for Alison and hers for him forms a beautiful and subtle undercurrent in the book, emerging in his accounts of their trips to Italy to research his family going back several generations, and their trips to California to visit his aging mother, who adored Alison.
And, of course, the writing is wonderful in and of itself, as is true of Downie's other books. Paris to the Pyrenees is in a similar vein. The Gardener of Eden is a great novel. And then you have the Daria Vinci mysteries. Oh, and the books on Paris!! Count me a fan!
The writing is personal and compelling, the stories deeply engaging. Several nights I postponed sleep to read just one more chapter ... no, make it two ... because I was that involved in the narrative.
The book is dominated, as Downie's life has been, by his indomitable mother Romana, an Italian artist and member of the resistance who married an American G.I. and reluctantly set up house in California. Downie's father was the introverted partner in the relationship, a journalist and lover of gardening. The family dynamic was fraught, with the author odd man out among the four Downie siblings, the sole liberal, anti-fascist, and (frankly) successful human being in the group. His situation reminded me of my own youth when I was going toe to toe with my dad over some social cause and he looked me square in the eyes and said, "I can't believe I raised a liberal." I suspect there's a lot of that going around these days.
And that brings me to another remarkable quality of this memoir: It makes you reflect on your own family history, on the forces that shaped your parents and, through them, you. Those shadows are part of every family. They are why some years after my father died, I made my own pilgrimage to White Plains, New York, where he grew up, hoping to catch a glimpse of him in places he knew in the teens and twenties of the last century. It's the same impulse that Thomas Wolfe captured in Look Homeward, Angel: “Each of us is all the sums he has not counted: subtract us into the nakedness and night again, and you shall see begin in Crete four thousand years ago the love that ended yesterday in Texas.”
And, finally, somewhat between the lines, this is a love story. Yes, of the way his parents Charles and Romana fell in love, their courtship, but even more, between David and his wife Alison. David's love for Alison and hers for him forms a beautiful and subtle undercurrent in the book, emerging in his accounts of their trips to Italy to research his family going back several generations, and their trips to California to visit his aging mother, who adored Alison.
And, of course, the writing is wonderful in and of itself, as is true of Downie's other books. Paris to the Pyrenees is in a similar vein. The Gardener of Eden is a great novel. And then you have the Daria Vinci mysteries. Oh, and the books on Paris!! Count me a fan!
April 9, 2025
Having read all of David Downie’s novels, I feel compelled to say that this author’s
talent for providing his readers with a powerfully vivid visual impression through the use of his colorful palette of vocabulary finds its maximum expression in this work.
The fact that a story's characters, be they alive or dead, are real, doesn't automatically make them believable. Here, the cast is even more unbelievable than some featured in his novels, yet he manages to make them credible - whether likable, lovable or downright detestable.
At the same time, the way he weaves in historic events and the messages regarding fascism and the "American Dream" through his mother's multi-faceted experience without disrupting the flow of the personal story make the book especially relevant at this point in time.
What an emotional and physical drain it must have been for the author to dig up the elements of his family’s story! Whether they came from painful personal memories, or new information acquired by tramping through cemeteries in a deluge, or bouncing off walls while trying to obtain long archived records, retrieving the pieces of the puzzle putting them all together in a highly readable and informative work was a commendable accomplishment.
talent for providing his readers with a powerfully vivid visual impression through the use of his colorful palette of vocabulary finds its maximum expression in this work.
The fact that a story's characters, be they alive or dead, are real, doesn't automatically make them believable. Here, the cast is even more unbelievable than some featured in his novels, yet he manages to make them credible - whether likable, lovable or downright detestable.
At the same time, the way he weaves in historic events and the messages regarding fascism and the "American Dream" through his mother's multi-faceted experience without disrupting the flow of the personal story make the book especially relevant at this point in time.
What an emotional and physical drain it must have been for the author to dig up the elements of his family’s story! Whether they came from painful personal memories, or new information acquired by tramping through cemeteries in a deluge, or bouncing off walls while trying to obtain long archived records, retrieving the pieces of the puzzle putting them all together in a highly readable and informative work was a commendable accomplishment.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews