David

For a while now, I have not found a specific historical fiction book that fills my need to read about history. Now, though, I have found one that explores not a specific time period, but a specific object instead. The book "David" was written by Mary Hoffman, and published recently (10/11/11). It explores the magnificent statue of David in Florence, Italy. The book is written from the point of view of a young man named Gabriele, who is new to the city, as he gets used to city life and becomes a model. Actually, he is narrating near the end of his life, recalling the events that took place when he was younger. He is what he calls Michelangelo's "milk brother". This is because Michelangelo's wet nurse also happened to be Gabriele's mother, so they grew up together for about 6 years. I really enjoyed how everything I knew about the statue of David fit in nicely with the story. The author really explored the life and character of the model, and it was a pleasant story to read. I also learned a lot by reading it. I learned about what was going on in the Florentine government. There were a few very different parties, for democracy, monarchy, and other forms of government. You could only trust people in your own party. If you were part of a party, you had to wear the parties color, all the time. There were many riots and hangings and shootings around arguments over government. In the end, Gabriele got into some trouble and had to be secretly snuck out of the city. The last few pages were pretty dry, pretty much a summary of the political events that had happened since then, but over all this book was exceptionally well written, and I could tell that the author did a very careful job getting all of the historical information correct. The best part though, was that this book was half written as fiction but the other half included real events and objects being made around that day.