The Red Brigades and the Black Right: a retrospective echo of the extremism that is unsettling the present

‘In medio stat virtus’ is a famous adage of classical origin, but two recent Italian novels instead reveal a fascination and attraction for the extreme, for that which moves away from moderation and stands at its polar opposite. L’inevitabile accade by Alessandro Gazzoli (Nottetempo) and La nostra giovinezza by Andrea Oriente (Sellerio) illustrate just how seductive the allure of that which subverts the normal course of society can be, and the sense of refuge that, paradoxically, the realms of the most extreme politics can offer, recounting respectively the world of the left-wing armed struggle and the Red Brigades, and that of the far-right – a gathering place for young people who seem to find in violence, arrogance and abuse of power (all clearly accompanied by distorted political and ideological undertones) the only possible path to free themselves from a present they reject.

There is an important element in these two books which, in some respects, ultimately unites them; it relates not only to the authors’ ages (Gazzoli is approaching forty whilst Oriente is in his early twenties, though both are making their narrative debuts here), but also to the chosen perspective, which combines a documentary style with a resolute questioning of the self. However, this is not a foray into the (now sadly overcrowded) territory of autofiction, because while both books draw on personal experiences, they do not offer an artificial retreat into the self; rather, they open up the reflection to the outside world, prompting the reader to consider what these distinctive stories might contribute to our everyday observation of reality – just as two recent books have done: La parte sbagliata by Davide Coppo and Mordi e fuggi by Alessandro Bertante, which focus on adherence to extremism as a contradictory protective filter against the violent actions of the 1970s.

In “L’inevitabile accade”, Gazzoli constructs a narrative that blends personal and collective history, depicting the protagonist’s quest—having always been fascinated by the history of the Red Brigades, at least since his secondary school essay entitled “Come il mondo divenne rosso”—to uncover the truth about a relative directly linked to terrorism and, through “La Sfinge” (the pseudonym behind which Mario Moretti hides), to the kidnapping of Aldo Moro. This broadly biographical element becomes the driving force behind an investigation that explores—alternating between more narrative chapters and others of a more directly historical nature—the ambiguous allure of armed struggle, the stigma faced by those who, through no fault of their own, have had to come to terms with the presence of violence within their families and, in order to survive, have had to leave everything behind – like the novel’s protagonist, Arianna, who, although uninvolved in terrorism, has a brother who was in it up to his neck.

Andrea Oriente’s book, on the other hand, is imbued with a different spirit, as it offers an uncompromising account of membership of a far-right group called ‘ScontroSistema’: the protagonist, who finds himself alongside his comrades in a space bounded by a low door that acts as a partition from the outside world (‘A threshold like a filter: you’re either in or out. No ambiguity’), discovers, amidst racism and violence, the group’s distorted idea (Oriente’s account of the rigid hierarchical separation between subordinates, new recruits and the leader sometimes seems ironic) of the group as a force and a shield for any action, whether lawful or not (“There is no such thing as the individual: there is the collective body that sacrifices itself”).

These two books do what literature should do: tell a story and draw the reader into the intricacies of a complex legacy and the fascination with violence. Yet it will be difficult for anyone approaching them not to sense the echo of the thirst for extremism that is stirring the present across the globe; one need only look towards the burning schools in France or, further afield, towards the American alt-right and Trumpian delusions. Literature, then, but also a significant slice of (disturbing) reality.