B i b l i o f i l e

(Publisher: Europa Editions, 2009. 162 pages)

OF TERRORISM, WRITING AND AGING

Set in Italy and originally written in Italian, this novel initially appears to be about someone accused of terrorism (of the Red Brigades variety). Then it also becomes an account of an author trying to write a novel about said topic.

The characters, of which the author is apparently one, make a number of noteworthy points.

There are critiques of the capitalist system in Italy and internationally:

… that billions of human beings in the Third World, to the south, should be exterminated in order to allow others in the First World, to the north, to live longer and longer, and that their age should weigh eve more lightly upon them.

* * *

We use handsome words to record ugly things, we agree on plans of attack, ambushes, mockeries, genocide, destruction-reconstruction-destruction. We speak violence and call it the quest for food, hunting, caste, class, competition, market forces, liberation, and new world order.

There are observations about aging:

Aging is the slow process of becoming accustomed to the end of real life. One must slowly abandon one’s image, one’s role, and resign oneself to fading in the memories of others, and in our own… How long had it been since he stopped learning the names of novelists, essayists, directors, singers, artists, and notable people in general? When had he begun to cling to his customary books without trying to read new ones, to his old movie stars without curiosity about the rising new ones?

Terrorists and their justifications are examined:

Both urban guerrillas and suicide bombers, moreover, in cases where they did not strike with violence, but instead wrote documents to explain what they aspired to achieve with the political, religious, and military actions, demonstrated clearly that they - precisely like many politicians ensconced firmly in public institutions - were the product of the exceedingly mediocre mass education that he himself had helped to perpetuate over the past fifty years: crude minds ready to set up gulags and execute by firing squad, and torture.

* * *

I couldn’t understand the rage of the well-to-do, it disgusted me… Their treacherous murders struck me as yet another exercise of power, I thought that their bold willingness to shed the blood of others was simply a natural extension of their class arrogance.

* * *

Human beings of all ages were devastated by ferocious exploitation, bombs, torture. Before the indifference of the well-to-do, men, women, and children, driven by the despair of poverty and hunger, hurried by the thousands to drown in the sea just off our coasts, our homes. Everyone, eventually, would be forced to decide not whether or not to shed blood, but which blood to shed: the blood of the oppressed or the blood of the oppressors.

* * *

“Peace cannot be separated from the defeat of those who buy and sell everything, poisoning the planet, filling arsenals with bombs, and who are willing to blow the whole world sky-high rather than give up their personal privileges, sit down around a table, and give the world a just, free and peaceful order.”

Although such thought-provoking statements make this enjoyable book worth reading, it has to be said that as a novel it is a little unfulfilling. It seems incomplete. One is left with the impression that author did not have enough material for a fully-rounded novel.

Paul T Kegan 26/05/10.