Bruno Arpaia

Parte male (come si fa a citare la trasmissione tv "le iene" come fonte attendibile? come si fa a citare oggi Richard Florida come se fosse l'ultima novità), poi piano si riprende, con osservazioni non banali sul dibattito (vedi l'interpretazione del libro Kulturinfarkt) e una lettura più ampia dello stato dei beni culturali in Italia, che riconduce i tagli e i generali problemi economici alla politica di non sviluppo intrapresa dall'Italia per la sua economia dagli anni '60. Nel suo genere, uno dei migliori.… (more)

I found this a book that was depressing to contemplate reading but engrossing when I did. The story of the flight of Walter Benjamin from German to Paris and then as war spreads across France is interwoven with that of Laureano, a Spanish Communist who himself faces civil war then flight and exile. Their stories provide different perspectives on war and the experience of being a refugee, a displaced person without nationality or a place to call home. The younger man survives thanks to his youth and physical abilities and the burning sensuality and memory of the woman he desires; Benjamin is tortured by the intellectual and personal failures that he perceives surrounding him, the darkness of his melancholy pressing in upon him more than the imminent dangers that gradually surround him. The stories of these two eventually converge in the Pyrenees in the final chapters and the fate of each is determined. This novel gave a lyrical voice to refugees and their depravations and was all the more poignant to read alongside the news of the hundreds of refugees still losing their war-ravaged lives attempting to cross Europe's borders.… (more)