A Bell for Adano is a 1944 novel by John Hersey.
It is set on Sicily in the summer of 1943, starting on July 10, 1943 as the Allies make their first landing in Sicily. Major Victor Joppolo is the commanding officer of an American unit that has entered the port town of Adano. Major Joppolo takes his responsibility very seriously, and is eager to get the occupation of Adano off to a good start, to bring the ideas of liberty and democracy to a town that has spent 20 years under Benito Mussolini's thumb. Joppolo assumes that his immediate task will be to get the town supplied with food and water, and his sidekick Sgt. Barth urges him to stick to practicalities like hygiene. The townspeople, however, catch Maj. Joppolo by surprise with a special request: they want a replacement for the bell in the clock tower, which was taken by the Fascists just a month earlier to be melted down into ammunition.
Tropes:
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Gen. Marvin's Establishing Character Moment comes when a civilian's mule-drawn cart blocks the passage of his jeep. He has his driver shoot and kill the mule.
- Based on a True Story: The novel is a fictionalized telling of the American occupation of Licata, Sicily. Like Adano, Licata was a port town that also had a sulfur industry. Licata also had a 700-year-old bell melted down by the Fascists. John Hersey visited Licata and based the character of Major Joppolo on the actual military governor of Licata, Frank Toscani.
- Bittersweet Ending: Due to Captain Purvis being a rat and General Marvin being a Jerkass, Major Joppolo is relieved of duty and recalled to Tunisia. He is so emotional that he can't say goodbye. But as he's leaving he hears the bell, the new bell that he got for the town, ringing out the time, showing how a new day will come for Adano.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Naturally it's gross, offensive Capt. Purvis who says stuff like "That younger one, that Francesca, she sure has a nice pair."
- Culture Clash: A source of comedy throughout. Maj. Joppolo is taken aback when the local bigwigs who visit him express their thanks by saying "I Kiss Your Hand" (but not actually doing so).
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: All the bigoted Jerkass American officers, like Capt. Purvis or Gen. Marvin, call the Italians "wops." Major Joppolo, the sympathetic protagonist of Italian ancestry, never does.
- Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: Capt. Purvis indulges in some gross sexism when introduced to Tomasina's daughter Francesca.He felt secure in the certainty that the girls did not speak English. "How'd you like to go to bed, Toots?" he said.
- Hit So Hard, the Calendar Felt It: In the back story. Joppolo observes that the ornate desk in the mayor's office has decorations saying "Anno XV" carved into either side. He takes that to mean that the desk was made in the 15th year of Mussolini's reign, so, 1938.
- Italians Talk with Hands: Taken to an extreme with Gargano, chief of the carabinieri, who is called "The Man With Two Hands" because he does this nonstop.He was, he seemed to think, an actor, and he could not say two words without gesturing with both hands.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: General Marvin, the flamboyant, absurd figure who wears riding spurs all the time, carries a riding crop, and shoots a pistol every morning, is an obvious caricature of Gen. George Patton.
- Separated by a Common Language: Discussed Trope. Joppolo has a talk with Lord Runcin, a senior British officer and a student of slang. When Joppolo calls another officer a "dope", Runcin takes this to be a reference to opiates, and Joppolo clarifies that no, it just means a stupid person. Runcin jots this new American slang down in a notebook.
- "Shut Up!" Gunshot: Maj. Joppolo is haggling with Tomassino, a fisherman, to get the fishing industry going again in Adano. The haggling is impaired by a whole crowd of locals that insists on watching, so Joppolo gets Capt. Purvis to drive up and fire his service pistol up into the air. The crowd scatters.
- That's an Order!: Maj. Joppolo's continued commands to Capt. Purvis to cool it with the crass sexual comments (during dinner with Tomassino's daughters) have no effect. Finally he has to make it official."Shut up, Purvis!" The Major's eyes blazed. "That's an order. Now you behave yourself."
- "Ugly American" Stereotype: Captain Purvis. Purvis is loud and crude and obnoxious. He calls Italians dagos and wops. He makes horribly offensive crude sexual advances to women. When a returning prisoner is telling, in Italian, a serious story about how Tina's boyfriend was killed, the non-Italian-speaking Purvis keeps interrupting.Purvis: Major, are you going to sit here jabbering dago with these people all afternoon? How about cutting me in on this pretty little squiff here?
- Unperson: Maj. Joppolo enters what was once the mayor's office and sees photos of VIPs like the king and queen of Italy. Then he sees a "great dustless square" where a portrait has been removed. That obviously is where the mandatory photo of Benito Mussolini hung.
- War Is Hell: One of the first things that Maj. Joppolo and Sgt. Barth see upon entering Adano is the corpse of a young woman, one leg blown off at the knee by an artillery shell.
