What do you think?
Rate this book
The Parnas
The Silvano The Basic FIRST First Edition, First Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Basic Books, 1999. Octavo. Hardcover. Book is very good with publisher mark on bottom page ends. Dust jacket is very good. 100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Sag Harbor, New York.Seller 322883 History We Buy Books! Collections - Libraries - Estates - Individual Titles. Message us if you have books to sell!
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1979
5 people are currently reading
204 people want to read
About the author
Silvano Arieti
84 books21 followersSilvano Arieti (June 28, 1914 in Pisa, Italy – August 7, 1981 in New York City) was a psychiatrist regarded as one of the world’s foremost authorities on schizophrenia. He received his M.D. from the University of Pisa and left Italy soon after, due to the increasingly racial policies of Benito Mussolini.
Arieti was professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College. He was also training analyst in the Division of Psychoanalysis at the William Alanson White Institute, and editor of the six-volume American Handbook of Psychiatry. His Interpretation of Schizophrenia won the 1975 National Book Award in Science.[1]
Arieti undertook psychotherapy of schizophrenic patients, an unusual approach that few of his colleagues chose to pursue. The views he expressed in Interpretation of Schizophrenia are now professionally called the trauma model of mental disorders and constitute one alternative to the mainstream medical model of mental disorders.
Arieti was professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College. He was also training analyst in the Division of Psychoanalysis at the William Alanson White Institute, and editor of the six-volume American Handbook of Psychiatry. His Interpretation of Schizophrenia won the 1975 National Book Award in Science.[1]
Arieti undertook psychotherapy of schizophrenic patients, an unusual approach that few of his colleagues chose to pursue. The views he expressed in Interpretation of Schizophrenia are now professionally called the trauma model of mental disorders and constitute one alternative to the mainstream medical model of mental disorders.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 26, 2017
In the days of awe between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur I am trying my hardest to only read Jewish themed books. Last week I read an inspiring account about how the Israeli defense forces manages to stay one step ahead of its enemies by developing advanced intelligence. Later this week I have a Jewish themed historical fiction on tap. Recently my Goodreads friend Violet reviewed The Parnas by Dr. Silvano Arieti which meshes fact and fiction in an account of Jews of Pisa during the Holocaust. Having my interest piqued, I decided to read this book for myself and was immediately captivated by this short gem of a book.
Silvano Arieti grew up in Pisa, Italy in a time of relative good relations between Jews and Italians. Immersed in the small Jewish community there, he names among his early influences Pietro and Guiseppe Pardo, both mentally ill people with immense gifts to offer to the world. Arieti went on to study both undergraduate and medical school at the University of Pisa, becoming a notable psychiatrist by the age of twenty four. At this point in the mid 1930s, fascists had risen to power and Mussolini had entered into an alliance with Hitler. The Jews' fate all but sealed, Arieti's grandparents obtained exit visas for him and his brother Giulio to immigrate to the United States in 1939. The author went on to become a leading psychiatric authority in the United States and was spared the fate of the subjects of this book.
Guiseppe Pardo Roques was known as the parnas, the leading philanthropist of the Jews of Pisa. Having never married, he took university students under his wing and maintained relationships with many of them for their entire life. He also suffered from a sometimes debilitating phobia which made him fearful of animals, especially dogs. Oftentimes adolescent boys would bark at Pardo from across the street to see what effect it would have on him, usually for the negative. A young Arieti was captivated by the parnas' condition and was determined to help him later in life, leading him into the study of psychiatry. Because of this condition, however, Pardo was unwilling to leave his home when the axis powers took over Pisa. Italy was fortunate in that only approximately 7500 Jews of a total population of 40,000 were killed during the holocaust. Many Jews of Pisa, including Arieti's parents, went into hiding but Pardo remained in his home along with six Jewish and three gentile guests for the duration of the war.
The events described in this novel take place over the twenty four period of July 31- August 1, 1944. Years later Arieti returned to Pisa and interviewed neighbors who heard what had happened at Pardo's home and used his skills as a psychiatrist to piece together the conversations that take place in this novel. Due to his illness, Pardo was unwilling to leave his home. Because of his position as philanthropist, he had been spared, yet danger was always imminent. Knowledgeable in Judaic teachings and often quoting the book of Yeshayahu (Isaiah), his guests felt safer around him than they would have had they chosen to go into hiding, one going as far as saying that the Shekinah, the holy presence, rested on Pardo's neshama (soul). His spirit uplifted all the guests of his home despite the danger that German forces could enter at any time, leading all of them to no longer fear death. While Arieti's writing is largely based on his medical teaching, I found myself moved by the story of the Parnas who faced his fears with dignity, leading both Jews and Christians alike to follow his lead.
The Parnas is a study of the human spirit and shows that all people have much to offer regardless of their station in life. Pardo may have suffered from an at times debilitating mental illness and phobia, but he used it to enlighten others around him at a time of grave danger to both himself and the Jewish people. As I noted in another recent review, with most Holocaust survivors passing on, any manuscript either current or otherwise uncovered is a gift to its readers. Dr. Arieti has written a gem of a novel about the endurance of the human spirit. Thank you, Violet, for leading me in this direction. The Parnas is a hidden gem that should be widely read and is an uplifting account for me during these days of awe.
5 shining stars
Silvano Arieti grew up in Pisa, Italy in a time of relative good relations between Jews and Italians. Immersed in the small Jewish community there, he names among his early influences Pietro and Guiseppe Pardo, both mentally ill people with immense gifts to offer to the world. Arieti went on to study both undergraduate and medical school at the University of Pisa, becoming a notable psychiatrist by the age of twenty four. At this point in the mid 1930s, fascists had risen to power and Mussolini had entered into an alliance with Hitler. The Jews' fate all but sealed, Arieti's grandparents obtained exit visas for him and his brother Giulio to immigrate to the United States in 1939. The author went on to become a leading psychiatric authority in the United States and was spared the fate of the subjects of this book.
Guiseppe Pardo Roques was known as the parnas, the leading philanthropist of the Jews of Pisa. Having never married, he took university students under his wing and maintained relationships with many of them for their entire life. He also suffered from a sometimes debilitating phobia which made him fearful of animals, especially dogs. Oftentimes adolescent boys would bark at Pardo from across the street to see what effect it would have on him, usually for the negative. A young Arieti was captivated by the parnas' condition and was determined to help him later in life, leading him into the study of psychiatry. Because of this condition, however, Pardo was unwilling to leave his home when the axis powers took over Pisa. Italy was fortunate in that only approximately 7500 Jews of a total population of 40,000 were killed during the holocaust. Many Jews of Pisa, including Arieti's parents, went into hiding but Pardo remained in his home along with six Jewish and three gentile guests for the duration of the war.
The events described in this novel take place over the twenty four period of July 31- August 1, 1944. Years later Arieti returned to Pisa and interviewed neighbors who heard what had happened at Pardo's home and used his skills as a psychiatrist to piece together the conversations that take place in this novel. Due to his illness, Pardo was unwilling to leave his home. Because of his position as philanthropist, he had been spared, yet danger was always imminent. Knowledgeable in Judaic teachings and often quoting the book of Yeshayahu (Isaiah), his guests felt safer around him than they would have had they chosen to go into hiding, one going as far as saying that the Shekinah, the holy presence, rested on Pardo's neshama (soul). His spirit uplifted all the guests of his home despite the danger that German forces could enter at any time, leading all of them to no longer fear death. While Arieti's writing is largely based on his medical teaching, I found myself moved by the story of the Parnas who faced his fears with dignity, leading both Jews and Christians alike to follow his lead.
The Parnas is a study of the human spirit and shows that all people have much to offer regardless of their station in life. Pardo may have suffered from an at times debilitating mental illness and phobia, but he used it to enlighten others around him at a time of grave danger to both himself and the Jewish people. As I noted in another recent review, with most Holocaust survivors passing on, any manuscript either current or otherwise uncovered is a gift to its readers. Dr. Arieti has written a gem of a novel about the endurance of the human spirit. Thank you, Violet, for leading me in this direction. The Parnas is a hidden gem that should be widely read and is an uplifting account for me during these days of awe.
5 shining stars
September 7, 2017
There are probably half a dozen ways to describe the form of this book. One would be a fictional narrative of twenty four hours in the life of Giuseppe Pardo, a beloved spiritual leader (parnas means lay leader) of the Jewish community in Pisa written by his pupil and friend Silvano Arieti, a distinguished psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. Another would be a compelling creatively inspired dissertation on mental illness, in the form of a particular and crippling phobia.
Arieti tells us first about his last meeting with Pardo before he emigrates to the USA in 1939. We learn Pardo has a strange phobia. He is terrified of animals. He walks with a cane which he continually swings around behind his back, as if to ward off any animal creeping up behind him. The entire community knows of this fear of his. Children tease him. They know the sight of a dog fills him with terror and sometimes ambush him with a pet. What this means is he is reluctant to ever leave the relative safety of his home. For a Jew and especially a wealthy renowned Jew this is obviously a dangerous condition, especially when the Nazis arrive.
It’s now July 1944 and we’re in Pisa. The Allies have reached the south side of the Arno but across the river, home of the Piazza dei Miracoli, the Nazis are not budging. Pardo is sheltering in his house several other Jews and four Christian women who work for him and refuse to leave him. Thus begins a series of dialogues. Fearing for their safety, Pardo tries to persuade his guests to leave his house. He himself cannot leave because of his phobia. One by one they tell him they feel safer by his side. For the first time he openly discusses his illness, tries to understand it rationally. His guests see his illness as part of the Shekhinah (divine presence) that has come to rest on him.
There’s also a conversation with a young Jewish boy called Angelo who is about to set forth on a dangerous attempt to reach the Allies. In the next chapter we follow Angelo through the curfew in Pisa’s streets and in a stunningly beautiful scene see him make his way through a pine forest. His contact tells him he has never met a Jew before but that it was a Jewish doctor who saved his mother and him when giving birth after the midwife had given mother and son up as lost. The son of this doctor is the author of this book, Silvano Arieti.
The tension is razor sharp. We pray the knock on the door won’t arrive. The author’s storytelling skill in maintaining this tension is no less impressive than his psychological insight into the nature of good and evil.
Eventually Arieti will show us how Pardo’s mental illness is actually a key trigger of the healthy part of his sensibility, that his phobia has always been symbolic and grounded in the prophetic part of his mind.
Does it matter that the conversations in this book are essentially imagined and never took place? No, not at all. This is a beautiful and moving little book that deploys fictional devices to tell the truth about one man’s struggle to fight evil.
Arieti tells us first about his last meeting with Pardo before he emigrates to the USA in 1939. We learn Pardo has a strange phobia. He is terrified of animals. He walks with a cane which he continually swings around behind his back, as if to ward off any animal creeping up behind him. The entire community knows of this fear of his. Children tease him. They know the sight of a dog fills him with terror and sometimes ambush him with a pet. What this means is he is reluctant to ever leave the relative safety of his home. For a Jew and especially a wealthy renowned Jew this is obviously a dangerous condition, especially when the Nazis arrive.
It’s now July 1944 and we’re in Pisa. The Allies have reached the south side of the Arno but across the river, home of the Piazza dei Miracoli, the Nazis are not budging. Pardo is sheltering in his house several other Jews and four Christian women who work for him and refuse to leave him. Thus begins a series of dialogues. Fearing for their safety, Pardo tries to persuade his guests to leave his house. He himself cannot leave because of his phobia. One by one they tell him they feel safer by his side. For the first time he openly discusses his illness, tries to understand it rationally. His guests see his illness as part of the Shekhinah (divine presence) that has come to rest on him.
There’s also a conversation with a young Jewish boy called Angelo who is about to set forth on a dangerous attempt to reach the Allies. In the next chapter we follow Angelo through the curfew in Pisa’s streets and in a stunningly beautiful scene see him make his way through a pine forest. His contact tells him he has never met a Jew before but that it was a Jewish doctor who saved his mother and him when giving birth after the midwife had given mother and son up as lost. The son of this doctor is the author of this book, Silvano Arieti.
The tension is razor sharp. We pray the knock on the door won’t arrive. The author’s storytelling skill in maintaining this tension is no less impressive than his psychological insight into the nature of good and evil.
Eventually Arieti will show us how Pardo’s mental illness is actually a key trigger of the healthy part of his sensibility, that his phobia has always been symbolic and grounded in the prophetic part of his mind.
Does it matter that the conversations in this book are essentially imagined and never took place? No, not at all. This is a beautiful and moving little book that deploys fictional devices to tell the truth about one man’s struggle to fight evil.
May 15, 2013
This account of Giuseppe Pardo's last days has answered a few questions that I had about the role Italy played towards the persecution of the Jews. My father (who fought and was a POW during WW11) kept insisting that Italy had no evil intent towards the Jews. I always found this hard to believe since Mussolini was allies with Hitler. My father was not in Italy during the war and I knew that he was not a reliable source for information. This small gem of a book offers some insight into what was taking place in the small town of Pisa during 1944. This book concentrated on Giuseppe Pardo, who was the parnas (leader) of the Pisan Jews and the people that he had living with him in order to keep them safe. Amongst those people there were also Catholics that were there as maids and decided to remain with him instead of leaving. They were all murdered due to a neighbour spilling the beans to the Germans over a petty argument with G. Pardo about the use of a garden. Today, in Pisa there is a plaque commemorating the deaths of these innocent people that sought refuge with their leader and that would have been liberated a few weeks later by the Allies. I am honored to have read this book and will forever remember this Parnas of the Pisan Jews.
January 20, 2020
On August 1, 1944 Giuseppe Pardo Roques and ten other people were murdered by Nazis in Pisa, Italy near the front line of the war; they were in Pardo's home. "The Parnas", written by Silvano Arieti, is a partially fictionalized account of what led up to the massacre. Arieti was a personal friend of Pardo and later became a renowned psychoanalyst in the USA specializing in schizophrenia.
This account, although imbued with Nazi atrocities, may be more accurately described as an essay on mental illness as Pardo suffered terribly from multiple phobias; how his phobias figure into his death is the major theme of the piece.
"Parnas" is an 'elder' or 'respected one' in the Synagogue; Pardo was that person in Pisa at the Synagogue he attended. 'The Parnas' was a wealthy and generous man, not only towards the Jews of Pisa but to all. He had a paralyzing fear of dogs and other animals and was afraid to leave his home except to attend Synagogue services for which he forced himself from his nest of safety.
Arieti's study describes what he believes happened to his friend and mentor as he struggled with his fears; the Nazi occupation of Pisa; the tantalizingly closeness of the Allied forces, as the house full of friends and caregivers awaited their inevitable fate.
This incredible story challenges the reader to believe the unbelievable. A man of resource and deep faith who could have escaped, paralyzed by his own demons; the Allied forces almost within sight; at his end, he finds freedom, but at a cost and via a mechanism no one should ever bear. A stunning read; a beautiful soul.
By Edward M. Janes
This account, although imbued with Nazi atrocities, may be more accurately described as an essay on mental illness as Pardo suffered terribly from multiple phobias; how his phobias figure into his death is the major theme of the piece.
"Parnas" is an 'elder' or 'respected one' in the Synagogue; Pardo was that person in Pisa at the Synagogue he attended. 'The Parnas' was a wealthy and generous man, not only towards the Jews of Pisa but to all. He had a paralyzing fear of dogs and other animals and was afraid to leave his home except to attend Synagogue services for which he forced himself from his nest of safety.
Arieti's study describes what he believes happened to his friend and mentor as he struggled with his fears; the Nazi occupation of Pisa; the tantalizingly closeness of the Allied forces, as the house full of friends and caregivers awaited their inevitable fate.
This incredible story challenges the reader to believe the unbelievable. A man of resource and deep faith who could have escaped, paralyzed by his own demons; the Allied forces almost within sight; at his end, he finds freedom, but at a cost and via a mechanism no one should ever bear. A stunning read; a beautiful soul.
By Edward M. Janes
July 10, 2019
It has always been fascinating for me to see how the Italians, under a fascist regime, were never as virulently anti-semitic and also so much more humane than other Christian countries such as Austria, Ukraine or Poland (among others). This book, written by an Italian Jew, who grew up in Italy, once again drives home that point. Brava Italia!
November 6, 2022
goodnight
August 9, 2012
The Parnas tells the unknown story of Giuseppe Pardo Roques, the leader (parnas) of the Sephardic-Jewish community of Pisa. Pardo was a very sick man with an extreme phobia of animals, particularly dogs. Due to this phobia, Pardo refused to leave Pisa when the Nazis invaded Italy. Consequently, he hides out at his large home on Sant Andrea Street in Pisa along with both Christian and Jewish house guests. After nearly a year in hiding, Pardo and his guests are gruesomely murdered by the Nazis. Prior to their demise, Pardo provides spiritual guidance to his guests and reminisces Jewish life in Pisa before the horrors of the war. All in all, I would recommend this book to history buffs and avid readers of Holocaust novels. The story provides a slightly different twist to traditional Holocaust stories; the victims in this case were never deported but were murdered on their own land.
November 12, 2012
The Parnas has a quality to it that made me feel caught in between sleeping and dreaming. The theological and philosophical discussions intermixed with the horror of what the Italian Jewish lay leader, the parnas, experienced at the tail end of World War II drew light to one of the darkest moments in Jewish history.
The Parnas is written by a psychiatrist who escaped the German invasion and came to America to complete his studies. Guiseppe Pardo, the parnas, was part of his inspiration to become a psychiatrist and study the mental state that kept Pardo homebound even when the German troops were pressing southward into Italy.
The conversations about fear and humanity are powerful and disturbing, and make The Parnas worth reading.
The Parnas is written by a psychiatrist who escaped the German invasion and came to America to complete his studies. Guiseppe Pardo, the parnas, was part of his inspiration to become a psychiatrist and study the mental state that kept Pardo homebound even when the German troops were pressing southward into Italy.
The conversations about fear and humanity are powerful and disturbing, and make The Parnas worth reading.
March 11, 2012
The Parnas shows the humanity, heroism and beauty in a man with a debilitating phobia of animals. This book inspired me deeply when I read it in my twenties, a time when I was having anxiety attacks so severe that I feared I would end up as an agoraphobic shut-in. My anxiety was compounded a by terrible self-judgement for being "the one who couldn't cope." In reading this book, my compassion for the protagonist naturally turned into compassion for myself. I credit it -- not entirely, of course, but significantly -- for my healing.
January 31, 2015
This is a very nice story of an accomplished and respected Jewish community leader in Pisa during WW2 who was tragically murdered by German soldiers as the Allies were just kilometers away. Some very nice existential and theological discussions are recalled here (the author knew the man well as a young man) as the book places us in the room during the Parnas's last days, who himself suffered an unusual mental illness / phobia that did not allow him to flee), and also got a nice run down of Jewish history in Italy, which prior to WW2 did seem unique in Europe (at least from the author's descriptions).
September 21, 2011
One of the best books I have ever read. It spoke to me- on a personal level. I think every person should read it.
March 29, 2020
I wanted to like this book, but I couldn't. I'm not sure why I couldn't connect.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews