recensione pubblicata in:
Patria independent (No. 4, May 2009)
Archipelago (No. 44, July-August 2009)
Literary.it (no.5, 2009)
LibereRecensioni.blogspot.com (July 2009)
Giancarlo Micheli, West Indies, preface by Manlio Cancogni, Campanotto publisher, 2008, Pasian Prato (UD), pp. 220, Euro 15.00
a story of emigration, la formidabile epopea che ha coinvolto per circa un secolo oltre venti milioni di nostri connazionali, tratta Indie occidentali, il secondo romanzo dello scrittore viareggino Giancarlo Micheli. Protagonisti Aurelio ed Erminia, una giovane coppia di sposi: provengono dalla civile Toscana, e non appartengono alla vasta schiera dei disperati che, a frotte, in cerca di fortuna approdano nell’isoletta di Ellis Island di fronte a New York. Sono alfabetizzati e in possesso di risorse esigue, ma sufficienti, per intraprendere nella metropoli statunitense una modesta attività in proprio, la conduzione di un piccolo bar nel quartiere di Little Italy. In più godono della protezione del Sor Clemente un’ambigua figura di ‘faccendiere’, potente intermediary between the teeming masses of unemployed and disenfranchised from all regions of Italy and the interests of a rapacious and savage capitalism. And Aurelio and Erminia, the least favored by a social condition, they will quickly fall to between bitterness of the struggle for existence. A real 'descent into Hell', which, if they lead to learn the hard way the inhumanity of the workers, first in the Stockyards (stockyards) to Chicago and then in the textile factories of New Jersey, will allow them to conquer self-awareness and the needs of collective action to assert essential values \u200b\u200bof humanity and solidarity. A story, that of Aurelio and Erminia, which begins in New York in the days of the first of Puccini's Fanciulla del West - is December 10, 1910 - and also in New York has its tragic conclusion .. Yes, because it ends up loving the adventure of a couple of Ponte Moriano in the new West Indies: end, however, proletarian triumph for the community of Paterson, which, by now, the two are organically part. Why even in Madison Square Garden of the American metropolis, in the midst of a fierce labor dispute against the employers and trade unions in the textile trade-offs and dropouts, the workers of Paterson able to stage and shouting, loud and clear, its reasons of social justice .
Nelle sue pagine, Giancarlo Micheli, sotto la forma del romanzo, ci spiega di “che lagrime grondi e di che sangue” la società che si andava forgiando oltre Atlantico nei primi anni del secolo scorso. E lo fa alla sua maniera, personalissima. Facendo parlare uomini e donne posti ora ai gradini più bassi, ora ai vertici della scala sociale, colti nelle loro miserie e grandezze, egoismi e generosità. Felici invenzioni narrative si intrecciano con una puntuale e dettagliatissima ricostruzione storico/documentaria. Bella, per esempio, la descrizione della comunità di Paterson, uno dei punti di riferimento dell’emigrazione italiana negli Stati Uniti: oltre 20.000 mila persone che, oltre a conservare un tenacious bond of identity with their country of origin, the adoption of concrete were able to practice in the values \u200b\u200bof working class solidarity and a strong and consistent commitment to the fight for the job and a life worth living. Well-known historical figures such as Giacomo Puccini, the socialist writer Jack London, the journalist John Reed, the agitator anarchist Carlo Tresca, the union leader Big Bill Haywood, the Morgan banker, intellectual and philanthropist Mabel Dodge meet so many people 's invention. Remain in memory and heart as well as the two protagonists, Aurelio and Erminia, Venancio, Olga and her family of Piedmontese origin, who made the Botto solidarity class a reason and a way of life ... Also notable is the language chosen by Micheli: composite, a real boiling pot that mix languages \u200b\u200band dialects of Italian and European emigration to which counterpoise the reflections of the author expressed sentences in the complex syntax, which does not hesitate terms cultured, literary, philosophical. Because, although if you tell stories of men and women driven by simple and basic reasons, for instance, the struggle for life, the interpretation of the facts has always complexities, intricacies, nuances very human.
Luciano Luciani
other texts on the novel can be found at:
Literary.it / authors
Alleo.it
Bazarweb.i-node.it
"West Indies" by Giancarlo Micheli (Campanotto publisher, Pasian di Prato, Udine, September 2008, ppg. 224)
http://www.ibs.it/code/9788845610042/micheli-giancarlo/indie-occidentali . html
http://www.bol.it/libri/Indie-occidentali/Giancarlo-Micheli/ea978884561004/
http://www.libreriauniversitaria.it/indie-occidentali-micheli- giancarlo-campanotto/libro/9788845610042
http://www.webster.it/libri-indie_occidentali_micheli_giancarlo_campanotto-9788845610042.htm
http://www.amazon.it/Indie-occidentali-Narrativa-Giancarlo-Micheli/dp/8845610047 / ref = sr_1_2? s = books & ie = UTF8 & qid = 1291729036 & sr = 1-2
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