No need to repeat how much of a genius Pasolini
was, in every possible field. The book is simultaneously heart-warming and heart-breaking
in its simplicity, like many of the author’s movies.
I’m not quite sure whether the protagonist of
the novel is Riccetto or Rome itself. The book is a great display of love for
the city and for its borgatari, the
people of the popular neighbourhoods of the Italian capital (this is similar in
many ways to how I felt in many passages of Elsa Morante’s La Storia). Reading about the painful growing-up process of a boy
is also rather strange in a book that is definitely not aimed at young adults.
Having watched countless Pasolini movies, I can
just picture Riccetto played by Ninetto Davoli, one of Pasolini’s favourite
actors, and the death of Marcello felt so similar to that of Ettore in the
seminal Mamma Roma.
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