Uspomene jednog brijača

The book is written in a simple, lively and very accessible style. Germanetto describes his life from early childhood in a poor family in Turin, through his apprenticeship in a barbershop, hard work, hunger and the daily struggles of the Italian proletariat at the beginning of the 20th century. His descriptions of the little man – barber, shoemaker, worker and peasant – their small joys, great troubles, strikes, police persecution and the ever-increasing fascist pressure are particularly impressive.

Germanetto manages to combine warmth, authenticity and gentle humor with sharp social criticism. His memories are not dry or agitative, but vivid pictures of ordinary working-class life in northern Italy. The book shows how a poor artisan develops into a conscious revolutionary and fighter for workers' rights.

The work has become a classic of workers' memoir literature in Europe. In the Croatian translation of the 1930s and later, it was very popular among the progressive intelligentsia and working-class readers because it depicted the class struggle and life “from below” in a very human and convincing way.

Memoirs of a Barber stands out for its honesty, freshness of storytelling, and rare ability to portray major historical processes through the fate of an ordinary man. Today, it is read both as a valuable historical document about Italy on the eve of Mussolini’s dictatorship and as a warm, humane portrait of the working class.