A Very Normal Man

Comincia in maniera grottesca, fra mediocrità di vita d'impiegato e volontà di crescita borghese, un po' come un Fantozzi più realistico e meno iperbolico (gli anni sono gli stessi, così come la stessa è l'Italia raccontata: il libro di Villaggio è del 1971, questo del 1976). Poi prosegue come dramma totale di nevrosi, vendetta e solitudine. Il racconto è secco, con toni altalenanti e brutalità linguistiche. In generale, risulta - e probabilmente è stato voluto così - freddo e distaccato, senza generare le emozioni che l'omonimo film di Monicelli, tratto da queste pagine nel 1977, riesce a trasmettere, principalmente grazie all'incarnazione del protagonista in un Alberto Sordi forse mai così ispirato.

Dark, cynical story set during Italy's Years of Lead. Tells the story of a man who’s married, happily enough, and has a 20-year-old account-trained son, Mario, of whom he is very proud. Our man has been a public servant in the Ministry, the Office for Retirement Pensions, for 40 years, and at the start of the novel he is about to retire. First, however, he wants to get Mario a job in the Ministry. It’s the least he deserves, he believes. And thereby hangs this tale! For my full review, please see: https://whisperinggums.com/2015/12/31/vincenzo-cerami-a-very-normal-man-review/

As the translator Isobel Grave explains in the Preface, Vincenzo Cerami (1940-2013) was an Italian novelist, poet and screenwriter, best known internationally for his 1998 film Life Is Beautiful. But in Italy, it was his first novel, Un borghese piccolo piccolo, published in 1976 that brought him instant acclaim. Within a year, it was made into a successful film, and it was subsequently translated into multiple languages. But not into English. For that, we had to wait almost forty years—until professional translator and interpreter Isobel Grave was appointed Cassamarca lecturer in Italian language and literature at the University of South Australia, and for the South Australian indie publisher Wakefield Press to publish Grave's show more translation as A Very Normal Man in 2015.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbNxE-7g_1c[/embed]

Although this trailer is in Italian, it's worth taking a quick look at it to see Cerami's comic touch in the scenes where the central character Giovannia Vivaldi joins the Masons and, using secret signs, tries to convey his membership to those who matter. But the trailer does not convey the horror that descends in the second half of the story.

For, if Giovanni is indeed an ordinary little middle-class man, the world is in trouble. When the book opens, he is a public servant in Rome, anticipating not just his retirement (with pension attached) but also his only son Mario's advancement into his vacated place. To secure this appointment requires some manipulation of the system, but Giovanni knows who to ask, and all goes well.

To read the rest of my review (which, sorry! does have spoilers) please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/01/17/a-very-normal-man-by-vincenzo-cerami-transla... show less

Cerami zal wellicht vooral bekend blijven als scenarioschrijver (o.a. van La vita è bella). "Un borghese piccolo piccolo" uit 1976 was zijn eerste roman die een jaar later ook werd verfilmd. Giovanni Vivaldi is het klein burgermannetje, een bediende op een of ander ministerie uitkijkend naar zijn nakend pensioen. Intussen probeert hij zijn zoon op het ministerie binnen te krijgen maar dat toekomstbeeld wordt brutaal verstoord waarna, kort maar hevig Giovanni's duistere kant op de voorgrond komt, om nadien zijn onbeduidende leven weer verder te zetten. Na lezing vroeg ik mij uitzonderlijk eens af of de film hier niet een keer beter is dan het boek.