Move over squid game
Plus, some Garibaldian folklore and love for Naples
A couple of weeks ago I made a passing reference in this newsletter to a new Italian Netflix series by the comic book artist Michele Rech (aka Zerocalcare) called Strappare Lungo i Bordi [Tear along the dotted line]. Well, having now watched the show - and in a single sitting I should add - I feel an overwhelming urge to add to the chorus of praise the production has been receiving. It really is fantastic; and it totally lives up to the hype. Over the course of six episodes we follow the narrator’s loose Gen-X ramblings about life in Italy, taking in everything from the G20 in Genoa to the banal comforts of pizza margherita to the quasi-Siberian air conditioning on TrenItalia to punkabestia hits. What I wasn’t expecting, though, is that there’s also a deep, dark and profound thrust to the core plot which gradually creeps up on you as you’re watching it, and which by the conclusion, personally, had me on the verge of tears. I should point out that the Roman dialect is a big part of the appeal in the Italian version [see below for an example why]. Having said that, I did have a look through the English release before recommending the show here, and can confirm both the translation and dubbing are top quality. In fact, everyone involved seems to have done incredible work. So whatever you think you think about animated shows, or your prejudice against Italian TV, or whatever else, put them to one side. This one is five stars; and totally worth your time.
The Guardian published a good Italy-related article this week as part of their otherwise rather hit and miss series ‘This is Europe’. The piece, by Angela Giuffrida, gathers together some genuinely inspiring ’migrant success’ stories, about young Africans - principally with refugee backgrounds - who have succeeded, against considerable odds, in making sustainable lives for themselves in Naples. We learn about the experiences of Mozeh Keita, a musician, Mame Thiafour Ndiaye, a DJ and producer, and Yankuba Fatty who has set up his own, private, English language school. I particularly enjoyed reading about Paboy Bojang, a 29-year old who, having fled the dictatorship in the Gambia, arrived in Italy just before the pandemic hit. Since then, in the midst of the health emergency, he’s set up his own textile business for high profile clients called ‘In Casa by Paboy’. Not only has the initiative proved successful, he’s also decided to focus on employing other migrants, to provide people with such backgrounds with a fair wage outside of a system which, elsewhere in the market, is all-too-often predicated on exploitation. Read his, and other, stories here.
A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of speaking with Violet Moller about Garibaldi and Italian unification as a guest on the Travels through Time podcast. To prepare for the show, I was asked to take a deep dive into a single year in history, so I chose 1860; the peak of the Risorgimento. Specifically - predictably - I also chose to focus on Sicily and three particular moments: the Expedition of the Thousand’s landing in Marsala; the revolution in Bronte, on the slopes of Mount Etna, and the plebiscite that, supposedly, gave birth to the new Italian nation. As a bonus, at the end, I was even given a few minutes to extoll my love of Neapolitan desserts. It was a lot of fun to record, and I hope you’ll enjoy listening as much as I did babbling on. The full episode is available on their website, or via your usual podcast provider.
Arts and culture: A Girl Returned
Earlier this week I got myself down to the cinema to watch Giuseppe Bonito’s film adaptation of L'Arminuta by Donatella Di Pietrantonio. Now, I’ve read the novel a couple of times, in the original Italian and in the English translation (which was published in 2019 by Europa editions). In fact, I reviewed it for the TLS a while back. The plot itself is rather oblique: a girl who has been brought up in a comfortable middle class family by adopted parents finds herself ‘returned’ to her birth mother, in a poor rural family from Abruzzo. That’s about it. What follows is a meditation on identity and abandonment, sisterhood and the struggle to find autonomy - as a woman - in a patriarchal society. Bonito’s adaptation deviates from the source text in a few fun and inventive ways which I won’t spoil here. And while I have to say the film doesn’t quite pack the emotional punch of the book, it’s well worth checking out if you can find it online anywhere.
A friend has just flagged a book to me that wouldn’t have been on my radar otherwise. Francesco Pacifico, whose work I know mainly as a journalist and translator, has got a new novel out called The Women I Love: A Novel. The title, is, for anyone raising eyebrows, purely satirical. As the blurb describes: “Marcello cannot write plainly about love. Instead, he tries to write into the complexities of his many relationships: Eleonora, the junior editor, his former protege, and sometime lover; Barbara, his claustrophobic girlfriend; his estranged gay sister; his elegant mother.” Apparently, through this device, Pacifico set out, consciously, to try and subvert the ways canonical male writers “gaze at, and somehow fail to see women”. That all sounds excellent to me. It’s out on 7 December and is available to pre-order here.
Recipe of the week: Roman flatbreads, with cabbage, radicchio, grape and goat’s cheese salad
Rachel Roddy has a particularly splendid food column in The Guardian this week, celebrating the pleasures of cabbage salad. This vegetable was, of course, much loved by the ancient Romans who prepared it in just about all its forms. In fact, she tells us, they wrote entire tomes celebrating the diversity of textures, flavours, and so on that are just waiting to be unlocked in this apparently modest ingredient. Roddy’s suggestion, to add radicchio, grape and goats cheese to a simple salad, along with dill and pine nuts, is, as far as I know, something true to the ancient palate and for that reason alone I’ve added it to my roster for the week. She suggests serving with chicken, which does sound lovely. Personally, though, I’ll be rustling it up as a mid week lunch alongside some simple garlic flatbreads. If you fancy following suit or just bookmarking the salad recipe, it’s online here. And here’s a reliable link for the bread.
That’s it for this week - as ever I do hope you enjoyed this instalment. If you haven’t already, please do follow the ‘Week in Italy’ Facebook page, or my twitter, for a few extra links and easy-access to the substack archive. If this email was forwarded to you, or you’re accessing on the web and would like to receive further updates, you can subscribe using this link below. Thanks!
About Me
My name is Jamie Mackay (@JacMackay) and I’m an author, editor and translator based in Florence. I’ve been writing about Italy for a decade for international media including The Guardian, The Economist, Frieze, and Art Review. I launched ‘The Week in Italy’ to share a more direct and regular overview of the debates and dilemmas, innovations and crises that sometimes pass under the radar of our overcrowded news feeds.
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