Title: Mussolini: His Part in my Downfall
Author: Spike Milligan
Type: Non-Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 288
Rating: 3.5/5
This is part four in Spike Milligan’s series of Second World War memoirs, which I’ve always found to be super readable. Perhaps it helps that I’m fascinated by the war, but I also love Milligan’s writing style and his idiosyncratic sense of humour, which means that there’s plenty here for me to enjoy.
As you can probably guess from the title, this book focusses specifically on Milligan’s time in Italy, which wasn’t the best for me because the Italian front is probably the area of the Second World War that I’m the least interested in. With that said, it’s more about the people and the effects of the war than about any particular incident, anyway.
One thing that stood out to me in particular is the way in which Milligan is able to juxtapose humour with horror, often on the same page. He had some super moving lines where he talked about the effect that the war has had on young people, who are being forced to mature way too quickly. And of course, he also had a ton of stuff on the senselessness of it all.
I can’t help wondering what Viktor E. Frankl would have made of Spike Milligan, because I think that Milligan’s ability to find humour in even the toughest of situations tallies nicely with Frankl’s thoughts on man and his search for meaning. Milligan certainly found meaning in humour throughout the war.
All in all, this surprised me by being one of Milligan’s better war memoirs, although they’re all good and well worth a read.