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FAME D’ARIA – HUNGER FOR AIR

May 20, 2023 | BOOKS

Fame d’aria – Hunger for air is the latest book by Daniele Mencarelli published by Mondadori.

Daniele Mencarelli has needed no introduction for a while now.

Fame d’aria – Hunger for air appealed to me because of the structure, the writing and the way in which in real time the reader gets the full load of the eighteen years of life with Jacopo.

Jacopo is not the main character; Jacopo is Peter’s son, Pete is a man.

I say just a man because that is what I thought as I got to know him one line after another.

Pete is not a superhero, he is not a champion, he is not even an example. Peter is simply a person, a human being, as are all those who try to behave in the right way against the waves of the storm that is life: an incessant and continuous lashing that hits inexorably.

Also for this reading I thank Monica, and then I also say thank you to Luciana for pointing me to the meeting with the writer organized by The Pleasure of Telling.

In this way I was able to listen directly to Daniele Mencarelli’s words and find out how his need to tell this story came about.

About six years ago he met a Peter and began to put the pieces together, details that seem to have no importance until the accumulation becomes an element that turns into writing, thinking about how to translate a memory “saved with a name” as if it were a document that has the power to illuminate the path to which to give life.

The immersion inside a life that was not his own was brutal for Daniele Mencarelli; no frieze was allowed to hide the disfigurement that always had to prevail.

In this book the author shifted to the third person while always keeping the present tense because he likes to give the impression that the events happen as they are read because he feels they are less distant.

I must say that the goal was fully achieved because even me as a reader felt literally inside the story.

The novel has an antecedent: in 2000 while going for a beer, Peter meets Bianca. They recognize each other and it is love at first sight.

In 2023 Pietro is a 50-year-old man and his car breaks down in Molise, with him there isn’t Bianca, there is his son Jacopo who is 18 years old and unfortunately has very low-functioning autism.

The village where they stop to look for a mechanic: Sant’Anna del Sannio does not exist in reality although it resembles many places that each of us can identify.

Pete and Jacopo are headed to Puglia where Bianca is waiting for them to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary.

The unexpected lasts three days and revolves around three characters: Oliviero the mechanic, Agata the bar owner, and Gaia. Thanks to her, we enter the father’s inner world and discover everything that families like theirs lack.

Basic seed: the scene as a moment of unveiling the human exactly as I was telling you about the Peter who I discovered while reading.

Daniele Mencarelli was born as a poet, poetry is able to name things, it captures the depth with respect to the scene. Narrative, on the other hand, is architecture of scenes that then takes the form of plot and psychological arc of the characters.

In fact, poetry should not be “strict poetic language,” but should live within the elements of the novel form.

Literature is a gesture that is meant to bear witness.

These words of Daniele Mencarelli find a particular embodiment in the book Fame d’aria – Hunger for air , I think.

But what struck me most was to learn about the author’s personal “hunger for air.”

Over-inked pages that give a sense of claustrophobia.

From this “hunger for air” literally comes the need to open up vertical spaces in the horizontal narrative.

The need to perceive much presence of white, that is, need to break the sentence and go to the head as if it were a need for air.

Reasoning as a poet in certain moments of the human you arrive with a broken speech. In the highest places of the human one arrives only with lyric.

A personal hunger for air.

How about you? When do you feel your hunger for air?

THE BOOKBINDER OF LOST STORIES

May 13, 2023 | BOOKS

The Bookbinder of Lost Stories is the book I read, again thanks to Monica.

Speaking of friendship, Sas Bellas Mariposas and Mamaglia are skilled fan of the author: Cristina Caboni, so maybe they would like to tell us something about her.

In the meantime I would like to chat more about how I especially liked the parts that describe the binding process in the early 19th century.

Nowadays how long does it take to create a book?
There are several 24-hour delivery options on the web.

And each time we find ourselves with the usual question: have we gained or lost?

Recently with my husband we have been looking for someone who was still in a profession related to the traditions of the past, but here in the area unfortunately we do not have old style jobs anymore.

It is very sad to be aware that the precious chain of passing on knowledge and teaching patience and time needed to acquire skills has been interrupted.

By interrupting the oral tradition, we will deprive ourselves of the privilege of being able to know stories because there will be no one left to tell them.

So I would very much like to take up the concept of “binding” lost stories to unite them and to keep them living with us.

I spent a lot of time listening to one of my grandmothers telling about her childhood in a peasant family, talking to me about a seemingly distant era, about an essential lifestyle, about objects that we will never use.

My other grandmother, had less life to live but equally her tales remain indelible to me, as well as the memory her rice-fields worker knees.

My great-grandfather, on the other hand, was a carter, and his traveling for work gave him the opportunity to meet and to marry my great-grandmother: German, in spite of the saying “wife and oxen in your own country …” jokes aside, theirs was a rather unconventional marriage considering historical period and social conditions.

But tell me please! I would love to “listen to you.”

If you have a craft to tell, if you want a story not to be lost, if you wish to pass on a tale, a thought, a concept, a proverb, an experience or even just a comment, I will be grateful and add it to the lost stories to be bound.

AND THEN WE WILL BE SAVED

Mar 25, 2023 | BOOKS

With E poi saremo salvi – And then we will be saved again I thank Monica and again I talk about the Strega Prize.

And then we will be saved is the debut novel by Alessandra Carati, published by Mondadori, winner of the Opera prima Viareggio Rèpaci prize and among the top seven finalist books for the Strega 2022 prize.

Andrea Vitali, celebrated writer from Bellano, proposed and presented the book.

The salvation told by Alessandra Carati is sought because of the war in Bosnia through an escape to Italy, but the characteristic of this novel is precisely its ability to show how being safe does not mean being saved.

And one finds oneself reflecting on roots, or perhaps better said uprooting, and how there is no place in the world where one can escape from pain.

A pain that manifests itself in different ways is that it is the only true “arbiter.”

Alessandra tells us Aida’s story in episodes, sort of like when we remember “that time.”

And in between times, life flows.

And in between times the family changes, while remaining a fixed point, at times distant, like the land of her origin.

The reflection this reading leaves me with concerns the impossibility of leaving behind pain, whatever kind it may be.

We cannot prevent pain from being part of us; we can only choose how to live with it.

Salvation, then, in this book, reconnects with another Strega Prize winner, Tutto chiede salvezza – Everything asks for salvation, the book by Daniele Mencarelli.

There are indeed many kinds of salvation at different levels.

I find these words of Pablo Neruda emblematic:
If nothing saves us from death, at least love should save us from life.

However, I am also struck by these two basically similar interpretations:

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
Martin Luther King

The only tool that can save my life is imagination.
Alejandro Jodorowsky

Did you feel saved when?

THE SUBTLE ART OF NOT GIVING A F**K

Mar 4, 2023 | BOOKS

The subtle art of not givina a f**k is the book written by Mark Manson: three-time #1 New York Times bestselling author.

His books have sold some 20 million copies, have been translated into more than 65 languages, and have reached number one in more than a dozen countries.

In 2023, a feature film about his life and ideas was released worldwide by Universal Pictures.

Impressive numbers indeed.

The subtle art of not giving a f**k also received endorsements from very famous people.

My thanks rather go to Elisa Mirko and Diego for giving it to me.

A title that to call catchy is an understatement, needless to say my first thought was,:with all my multitude of paranoia, I surely have a lot to learn.

Do you always get your way?

Actually the Italian translated title is The subtle art of doing the hell you want and I think it doesn’t express the real meaning of giving a f**k.

It’s not exactly the same thing, is it?

The difference is as subtle as the “art” described in the book.

In my life I’ve given a f**k about a lot of people and a lot of things … And those f**k I didn’t give made all the difference. This is the sentence with which the author introduces the book on his blog.

Yes: blog. It all started from a blog because Mark Manson wanted to be a digital nomad.

Undoubtedly he was able to largely fulfill his desire.

Undoubtedly he has been able to maintain a remarkable balance, I quote his words: when we give a f**k about everything, then we feel as though we are perpetually entitled to feel comfortable and happy at all times, that’s when life f**k us.

So I may be too unbalanced: I have not been able to get involved in reading, I must be a hopelessly lost case.

And consider that I really like this phrase: not givinge a f**k does not mean to be indifferent, it means to be comfortable with being different.

A concept that encapsulates much more than I was able to get out of the book, despite all the right concepts it introduces.

Tell me about how comfortable you feel with doing what you want to do, are you directing your life, or is your life directing you?

BETWEEN THE FINGERS OF DREAMS

Dec 10, 2022 | BOOKS

Between the Fingers of Dreams is the gift I received from Anna Calisti thanks to Manual of Mari.

The cover of the book shows a red rose and Rosa Rossa is the pseudonym of the author who literally put her heart into this book.

And with my heart I thank her.

Anna’s poems paint Love in all its forms, in all its facets, even the painful ones, each just like a rose petal: delicate, fragrant, colorful and velvety.

Some petals are personal dedications, other petals are reflections, and there is also some poetry in French because life led Anna to move with her family to Luxembourg.

Anna was born the same year as my mom, but before I discovered this I was already caring for her.

In this comment she told me about how her mother used to make coffee on the wood stove, you can imagine me, reading with heart eyes, can’t you?!

Anna’s poem I prefer is in fact Memories: it conveyed to me the full force of her roots which I cherish.

The world in a square, life flowing, a journey through time.

Between the fingers of dreams a title that allows to thnik to dreams in a tangible way, in some way allows to be able to touch them.

We are approaching the magical season of Christmas: is there a dream that you wish you could touch?

Speaking of dreams, understood not as wishes but precisely as sleep-related psychic phenomenon, for me they always represent an intense desire to be able to find any messages they contain.

What do you think about this?

Do you think there is a definite reason behind what our R.E.M. phase shows us?

Can you understand your dreams?

MARTA’S BROLO

Oct 1, 2022 | BOOKS

I sincerely thank Beatrice Tognarelli and Mari’s Manual for the opportunity to read Marta’s Brolo.

I admit that when I first read the title of this book, I wondered what a brolo was.

Do you know?

Around here, we don’t call it brolo, we just say vegetable garden, or in slang “vineyard” even though there isn’t any vine plant.

So: at the first step of Marta,s Brolo I learned something new.

But the most beautiful surprise was this wonderful dedication.

And I listened to the author’s heart and I sensed a deep love for roots, with reference to both the land and family, and this as you know is something that I cherish.

Are you fortunate enough to have a vegetable garden?

My father has always tended vegetable gardens: at our house we only had a strip of land, but he also helped elsewhere, allowing us to eat fresh, wholesome vegetables.

This, on the other hand, is the mini garden that my father-in-law gave us for the kitchen, although in the house unfortunately the plants suffer.

Speaking of cooking, I enjoyed the recipes that Marta’s Brolo encompasses.

So did the particular “introductions” to each chapter.

I was also pleased to find several references to coffee, including this one

The smell of coffee intoxicated the room, she poured it into the cup, and stood at the window to taste it, closed her eyes as the rustle of vegetation came to her, suave sound of the countryside.

What sound comes from your window as you drink coffee?