As a boy, Francesco and his mother moved to Sicily to start a new life when the political activities of his father came to the notice of the fascist authorities. He promises that he will never abandon her, that he will look after her, that he will grow to be a real man. He will follow his father’s advice. He will never give up.
But in Mussolini’s Italy “real” men have a very specific role to play - in the family and in the nation. They must produce children, they must be strong, they must be martial. There must be no repeat of the shameful rout at Caporetto, during the last war. Anything that undermines this “ideal” must be purged from society. And so it is that gay men are rounded up by the authorities who see them as a contagion that could endanger Italy.
In Catania, Francesco has had to keep his life as a gay man away from the wide boulevards and the bustling squares. He lives a hidden life at the small dance hall, under the railway arches, in the twisting alleyways. But he cannot stay hidden forever. Along with a number of other gay men he is arrested and confined on the island of San Domino, but how did the authorities find them so easily? And who is responsible for the death of the Catania police chief Molina?
His father told him that as long as he could see the sky he would always be free, but confined on an island in the Adriatic, the sky arching above him, this image seems to ring painfully hollow. Elena, an island girl, dreams of escape to the mainland, but she too is trapped, both by geography and culture. Only the birds soaring above the waves, inspiring Elena’s little paper imitations, seem truly free.
Sarah Day has taken a little known historical event and out of that moment she has forged a novel that ponders essential, human truths about sexuality, gender and societal expectations. It is a story of love, a story of compassion and hope, a story in which the political is personal. It is simultaneously deeply intimate and grand in scope. The prose is beautifully written. The characters are finely drawn. And as the story effortlessly skips between life on the island and their past in Catania, the truth is gradually and compelling revealed.
Mussolini’s Island is a wonderful book.
No comments:
Post a Comment