An Italian-style miracle

I recommend Giorgio Bocca. That is to say, a journalist – a profession prone to rapid obsolescence – who died fifteen years ago and was born over a century ago. And an unpleasant man, full of prejudices and oversimplifications. To top it all, I’m recommending a book from a series that I, as an aesthete and lover of luxury, find repulsive: Feltrinelli’s Universale Economica. I recommend "Miracolo all’italiana", a title that seems to come from another planet. I recommend it first and foremost to myself, to steer clear of living Italian writers. This summer, when I think of a living Italian writer, I think of the minibus from Bisceglie, the immense squalor behind the scenes of the Strega Prize and the immense futility of the winner – a highly talented yet deeply sad mannerist. I reckon half of all living Italian writers have taken part in the Strega Prize and that the other half can’t wait to do so, and this summer I want nothing to do with anyone who has had or will have anything to do with literary prizes. I reckon that Bocca, a misanthrope, perhaps even a misogynist, would never have set foot on the Bisceglie minibus. Or perhaps he would have done so just to insult everyone. Bocca made no effort to avoid appearing anti-gay: ‘Pasolini died because – however they choose to spin it – he was appallingly violent towards those whorish friends of his’. Anti-Southern: “Is Catania the city of a civilised country?” Anti-political: “As far as I’m concerned, the right and the left are equally stupid.” Scornful of dandyish journalism and eunuch-like literature, I choose the harsh, hateful Bocca as my hero. A hero long dead and gone, just like the economic boom. I intend to read “Miracolo all’italiana” because I appreciate miracles and Italy, and because Bocca liked money; he wrote with first-hand knowledge. Immediately afterwards, I intend to rail against all those thanks to whom we shall never see an economic miracle again: environmentalists, pauperists, socialists… If you do not belong to any of these three categories, the book might well be for you too.

Giorgio Bocca

Feltrinelli, 224 pp., €9.50