interview granted some time ago in Sci-Fi and Environs ( here), two-time Nebula Award Michael Bishop had told the clear letters. As much as I insist in offering " Time is the only enemy " as his masterpiece, Michael countered belief "Brittle Innings " his best book, and not hide in no way a rather negative opinion on all its types of works after all these years, both in terms of form than of substance, showing a time of intellectual honesty and ability to evolve as an author.
confess that at the time of the interview did not know this book because I did not know that there was an Italian edition published by Fanucci. After struggling to find a copy for collection at an acceptable price (the cover, in alto, è di Tiziano Cremonini ), e averlo letto, continuo in effetti a pensare che “ Il tempo è il solo nemico ” sia l’opera migliore del nostro, ma “ Fragili Stagioni ” (questo il titolo in italiano) ha meritatamente conquistato la seconda posizione.
Innanzitutto, va evidenziato che non possiamo considerare questo romanzo come un’opera di fantascienza. Anche inserirla nella categoria corretta, che potrebbe essere quella del soft-horror , non renderebbe giustizia a un autore che, pur avendo consacrato gran parte della sua carriera al genere, è oggi alla ricerca di un editore per il suo ultimo mainstream novel.
It is already evident in its Fragile Seasons Michael's will to cross the boundaries of the genre. In this novel, the reference to Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is measured in a way so that one must pass beyond one hundred and fifty pages to confirm that one of the characters, the mysterious Henry Clerval said " Jumbo", is indeed the creature of the famous Dr . Viktor Frankenstein.
survived through the centuries, the giant has landed in a daring world of baseball, which has established itself as one of the best minor league players of the USA during the period of austerity Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Poiché proviene dal passato, Jumbo si esprime con un inglese raffinato, elegante, incredibilmente ricco di sfumature, che possiamo divertirci a immaginare pronunciato con impeccabile accento britannico vittoriano. Ha inoltre trascorso molto tempo a leggere e studiare in solitudine, e la sua cultura è quindi sterminata e poliedrica.
La narrazione è insomma condita con piacevoli spunti dal tono grottesco; eppure, questo romanzo è ben più di un soft-horror dai sofisticati toni umoristici.
Inizialmente potreste spaventarvi al cospetto della mole di tecnicismi sportivi; sembra quasi di aver iniziato la lettura di un manuale di baseball. A meno che non siate degli esperti in materia, vi imbatterete in passages where you will not understand much. On the other hand, the same steps, in which the protagonist, Daniel Boles, measure and challenge himself in the diamond game, hoping to crown his dreams, once again contain a clear vision, positive and reassuring ' human being.
Daniel is a stuttering boy, and after a trauma becomes practically mute for most of history, at the same time reveals with an exceptional talent for baseball.
The whole story thus emerges as the progressive establishment of an identity. Using his knowledge of the sport as a breeding ground for original and unusual setting, Michael Bishop eviscerates the main dynamics of the human being without ever yielding to the (easy, I suppose) the temptation to give them a name. The envy of teammates, the fear of diversity of Jumbo, the difficult relationship with his father Daniel (with a detailed dreams), sometimes not clear the violence of some secondary characters, the principle of equality among all men (whites and blacks in particular), the desire towards women, their freedom, the need for self-fulfillment. To this was added a short but incisive allusions to the political situation of the period, with a claim of the futility of war and the ever clumsy satire on the patriotic rhetoric America of FD Roosevelt (protector of baseball during the war), in addition to the questions that arise from the comparison between the fate of children who die at the front and those who remained at home to do their job as players. The whole scenario of the rigid racial division of the 'Deep South American "(the story takes place in Georgia, where the author now lives), which reminds us of just half a century ago as the' apartheid was in accordance with usual the United States. An America, the one who lived the time of the Second World War such a great distance from the front, which in this novel is a detailed portrait and not at all superficial.
Se la cronaca della vicenda di Daniel, da un lato, rappresenta il vissuto concreto del protagonista, dall’altro, la ricostruzione graduale dei fatti che, attraverso i secoli, portano Henry/Jumbo nella grande casa colonica in cui alloggiano gli Highbridge Hellbenders , sembra invece voler alludere ad un percorso interiore.
Henry è scampato ai ghiacci artici dove si consuma l’epilogo della storia originale, ed è vissuto alla costante ricerca di un’accettazione sociale della propria diversità.
Per inciso, la ricostruzione di questi antefatti attraverso i secoli si svolge sottoforma di copiatura dei diari di Henry/Jumbo da parte di Daniel, che ne viene casualmente in possesso. It must be said on these pages (a few, unfortunately, but not the only ones that contain fantastic elements) on the vicissitudes of Henry / Jumbo, on his run into many different human communities, tribes that survive in the Arctic to the slums of modern cities, are real stories. Even with the use of a mannered narrator in stark contrast to nineteenth-century style with modern, fluid and declination in the third person of the rest of the work, they achieve a dignity that makes it almost self-narrative in the novel.
Henry is aware of its diversity of creation "not natural", but not limited to defend its life by the repeated assaults. The voltage to overcome the limitations of mere survival, and find full acceptance of self, leads him to take drastic measures, such as surgical shortening of their legs. Sometimes mistaken for a God, sometimes for a monstrous animal, Henry pursues tenaciously contact and relationship with humans. Fighting his alleged dis-humanity , and to this end decides to hold off their bestial instincts, murder, believes that arise from its creators (and not by himself), and which recognizes the wickedness. It is sincerely sorry for the murders he was forced to commit in its distant past, and has vowed not to kill more.
The culmination of this process of "humanization" is accomplished just in the meeting with Daniel, who arrived to Highbridge Hellbenders as a reserve player. Choosing him as a roommate, Henry can come last to enter his world and its history, finding in him a human being worthy of knowing the truth, feeling him as a friend who will not betray him. And when Daniel finds himself in a situation of insurmountable difficulties, the monstrous drives contained the risk of going long in coming.
It seems that Henry really seem like the unconscious representation of Daniel, the 'alter ego which embodies and expresses its deepest reactions to events of which the two friends are actors or victims. Henry gives voice to opinions that instead the boy, too shy and respectful of others, never expresses it openly: the hatred of war, rejection of oppression, the need for justice, respect for others. The long period of silence for Daniel became so instrumental in this ingenious narrative device: Henry makes external and understandable words, the inner experience of Daniel, who tries to keep a prudent distance from the dangers of a world too hostile.
In this sense, the turning point came when, by chance met his executioner, and rebelling, Daniel recover the use of voice, and gets rid of the heavy burden of an oppressive and violent father, becoming free to be "a real person." An evaluation
just enough of an author's complex and sophisticated as Michael Bishop can not in fact in any way apart from this novel, through a detailed description of the minimalist and the U.S. province of the South of almost seventy years ago, forces us once again to discover the presence of humanity in unexpected places.
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