Momo

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Momo, also known as The Grey Gentlemen or The Men in Grey, is a fantasy novel by Michael Ende, published in 1973. Momo met a lot of friend and the closest to her were Gigi and Beppo. Gigi was a fun person that liked to invent stories and make people happy with them. When he would spend time with Momo, he would tell her the stories about a princess Momo and prince Gigi. Beppo cleaned the streets and he did his job with pride and dignity. Ende himself has said that " Momo is a tribute of gratitude to Italy and also a declaration of love," [6] indicating that the author idealized the Italian way of life. Loy and Goodhew suggested that Ende's perspective on time coincided with his interest in Buddhism and that for example the deliberately slow character of Beppo might be regarded as a Zen master, even though Ende wrote the book long before his visits to Japan. [7] The author of The Neverending Story wrote this book in the German language, while living in Italy. This tells you three very special things about this story. First, it is a beautiful, thrilling, and thought-provoking fantasy conceived by a great storyteller. Second, it comes to us in English through the very gifted J. Maxwell Brownjohn, whom I take to be the same as John Brownjohn, translator of Mimus (by Lilli Thal) and other German-to-English marvels. And third, its setting and characters have the warmth and vitality of Italy and Italians viewed through the eyes of love.

Momo Book Review | Common Sense Media

This is a modern day fairytale, about a little girl named Momo, who moves into a ruined amphitheater on the edge of a Italian-style town. She is a remarkable individual, who lives in poverty, yet her life is rich with friendship and love. Momo has a unique skill of deep listening. Soon all the villagers learn that when they are not getting along they should "go and see Momo". Through Momo's friendship, her friends find peace, community, and creativity. Her gift of listening to them until the truth unveils itself brings her to be surrounded by many friends who bring her food, tell her stories, and help care for her in her adopted home. Just when she is about to rush out, already wearing her coat, some of her mentor students come in. There has been a conflict. They want to tell her their different versions. The teacher sighs, sacrifices her valuable time out of a reluctant sense of duty, and lets go of the next underground, quite unwillingly. But then the gray men come, men with gray cars, gray suits, gray briefcases, and gray cigars. The gray men are time thieves, swindling the good folk of Momo’s city – man, woman, and child – out of all their time for rest, joy, imagination, and friendship, and leaving them with nothing but hustle and bustle, worry and crabbiness. When Momo’s listening skills enable her to see through – I mean hear through – the gray men’s scheme, she becomes their enemy in a conflict that could save or destroy time itself, and all life with it. Such a poor little girl against such great and numerous enemies, and who does she have on her side but a strange old man and a tortoise with an LCD shell? The main theme of Momo can be seen as a criticism of consumerism and stress. [1] [2] It describes the personal and social losses produced by unnecessary consumption, and the danger to be driven by a hidden interest group with enough power to induce people into this life style. Michael Ende has also stated to have had the concept of currency demurrage in mind when writing Momo. [3]

They always had cigarettes because they kept them alive. They spent most of their time in their shelter. Momo was made into a film of Italian/German production in 1986, in which Michael Ende himself played a small role as the narrator who encounters Professor Hora (performed by John Huston) at the beginning of the film (and at the end of the book). [10] The role of Momo was performed by German actress and model Radost Bokel.

Momo Restaurant - London | OpenTable Momo Restaurant - London | OpenTable

Y aunque todo lo anterior no sea el mensaje central, cada una de esas reflexiones se desglosan de algo tan complejo como lo es el tiempo y el uso que le damos en nuestras vidas. Momo te muestra como estamos más cerca de ser los hombres grises y cada vez más lejos de ser como la protagonista. Es por ello que el libro te invita a hacer con tu tiempo lo que verdaderamente te gusta y te apasiona; porque al fin y al cabo el tiempo que más vale, aquel que es considerado como el oro solo puede ser ese tiempo que dedicas a lo que en verdad deseas, a las personas que quieres y amas con el corazón y a los momentos que parecen insignificantes pero que te hacen verdaderamente feliz. This turned out to be a charming book and one I had never heard of before, although I very much enjoyed one of Ende's other works The Neverending Story many years ago.Damals, als Momo erschien, war ich eigentlich in genau dem richtigen Lesealter. Aber ich wollte, ehrlich gesagt, meine Zeit nicht mit einem „Mädchenbuch“ verplempern. Dafür war mir meine Zeit einfach zu schade. You cannot, repeat: cannot, go into this book with the expectations of "hard," realist fiction. Then again, if you know anything about Michael Ende (the author of the Never Ending Story), you won't. Ves, Momo —le decía, por ejemplo—, las cosas son así: a veces tienes ante ti una calle larguísima. Te parece tan terriblemente larga, que nunca crees que podrás acabarla. Y entonces te empiezas a dar prisa, cada vez más prisa. Cada vez que levantas la vista, ves que la calle no se hace más corta. Y te esfuerzas más todavía, empiezas a tener miedo, al final estás sin aliento. Y la calle sigue estando por delante. Así no se debe hacer.