Alessandro Baricco's Revolutionary Journey: 'Castelli di Rabbia' Hits Newsstands with Corriere della Sera

Italy - Ekhbary News Agency

Alessandro Baricco's Revolutionary Journey: 'Castelli di Rabbia' Hits Newsstands with Corriere della Sera

Corriere della Sera is continuing its distinguished cultural initiative by presenting a curated selection of works by the renowned Italian author Alessandro Baricco. This twelve-volume series, featuring a novel design by XxYstudio, commences with the release of 'Castelli di Rabbia' (Castles of Anger) on March 22nd. Originally published in 1991, this novel marked Baricco's literary debut and represented a bold narrative experiment that challenged the literary conventions of its time, revealing many of the distinctive characteristics of the author's exceptional style.

'Castelli di Rabbia' is set in the imaginary city of Quinnipak, a 19th-century locale that evokes a world outside of time. Here, the lives of unconventional characters intertwine with their talents, visions, and utopian aspirations. Within this setting, Baricco poses profound questions about the nature of reality, dreams, and the pursuit of the impossible. The novel begins with an unconventional approach, featuring its initial pages composed of rapid, direct dialogue, eschewing traditional descriptive introductions. This fast-paced, direct narrative style reflects Baricco's unique vision of storytelling, which would set him apart from his contemporaries.

Literary criticism highlights that Baricco, from his very first novel, demonstrated an extraordinary ability to create a musical rhythm in his prose. He employed unconventional vocabulary and phrasing, characterized by boldness and at times, self-deprecating irony. Baricco himself describes this style as a "musical beat of time," utilizing language freely and without constraints, often with an exuberant rhetorical arsenal, as seen in his description: "It was three in the morning and the city was drowning in the bitumen of its own night. In the foam of its own dreams. In the shit of its own insomnia. Etc."

'Castelli di Rabbia' serves as an entry point into Baricco's literary universe, which has continued to evolve and influence. Following this novel, Baricco published 'Oceano mare' (Ocean Sea) in 1993, which solidified his position as an authentic, if not unique, voice in the Italian literary landscape, earning him a devoted readership. Nevertheless, the departure from classic narrative structures was already evident in his debut work. 'Castelli di Rabbia' was shortlisted for the prestigious Campiello Prize and was translated into French as 'Châteaux de la colère.' In France, Baricco is among the most recognized and beloved Italian writers, having won the Prix Médicis Étranger.

The novel's characters, such as Mr. Rail, are portrayed as bizarre yet profound. Mr. Rail embodies the desire to own a train even without railways, asserting that "the only true meaning of a train is that a man gets on it and sees the world as he has never seen it before." The narrative also features other memorable figures, including the orphaned Pehnt, his father-figure friend Pekisch, the elderly Andersson, and the widow Abegg, who appear and disappear from the pages as if on a stage.

The novel masterfully blends elements of speculative fiction, the power of imagination, and the pursuit of the impossible, even as mundane reality occasionally intrudes. Pehnt, after leaving Quinnipak and becoming an insurance agent, grapples with questions about the necessity of living "always exposed, always on the ledge of things, searching for the impossible, spying for every loophole to slip away from reality? Is it really mandatory to be exceptional?"

Baricco views the act of narration as a civic duty, convinced that people need stories not merely to convey knowledge, but to sustain themselves and to live. Although his writing has undergone transformations over time, adapting, like Pehnt, to reality, the sense of wonder, enchantment, and the search for "the new" in narrative—whether in his novels or in his analyses of the digital revolution, such as 'I Barbari' and 'The Game'—has remained constant. Baricco has repeatedly stated: "I was born to tell stories; I couldn't have done anything else."

The series continues to showcase other significant works by Baricco. On March 29th, the 1996 novel 'Seta' (Silk), a story of love and travel that achieved great success and was adapted into a film, will be released. April 5th will see the publication of 'The Game' (2018), his provocative essay on the digital revolution. On April 12th, the 1994 theatrical work 'Novecento' (Nineteen Hundred), which inspired Giuseppe Tornatore's 1998 film 'The Legend of 1900,' will be presented. Subsequent releases include the novels 'Senza sangue' (Without Blood), 'City,' 'Questa storia' (This Story), 'Smith & Wesson,' and the tetralogy 'I Corpi' (The Bodies). The series will conclude with 'Il nuovo Barnum' (The New Barnum), the first historical collection of Baricco's articles and interventions on contemporary society.

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