The poet and intellectual from Rodi Garganico creates a sort of Spoon River Anthology of lost and forgotten objects by Michele Presutto
Can an old torch hold forth about the distant time when it lit up the rooms of houses and about daily life? And what about a book that has survived time and rough house moves? And how about a dusty, discolored western comic-book from the time when westerns were wild, but not yet pulp. And then there’s a strange alarm-clock that has broken the thread that tied it to time, which is now absent and empty, but because of that, terribly hard to bear.
These are some of the questions that arise when reading Sergio D’Amaro’s latest literary venture, which has the emblematic title La casa degli oggetti parlanti (“The house of talking objects”), published in 2015 in Nardò by Besa (94 pages, 13 euro).
The author, born in Rodi Garganico, is a respected, well-known, skilled poet, narrator and essayist with a rich cultural experience behind him. He is a specialist on Carlo Levi and also contributor, editor and director of various literary journals.
Sergio D’Amaro gives a voice to objects that live, breath and think. The book is organized in fourteen talking paragraphs, a sort of Spoon River, as the author himself has described it, of almost lost and forgotten objects. These objects quietly tell the story of their lives and of how they saw the lives of the men who surrounded them and used them. Daily life spills over into memory and has the smell of history. Great and small stories. From planes bombing during one of the last world wars to the return of an emigrant after many years of silicosis.
The background is houses, towns, roads and cafes. Real, tangible places, almost like google maps, but that are at the same time bearers of fantastic dreams. Places that smell of sea and lemons. The time of the past and of childhood, swirling faster and faster, made up of sensations and crossings, perceptions and spray from the waves in tumult.
The objects are used as pretexts, as justifications, to see the world from a special angle of observation, as it can only be seen by the unreal eyes of a book or the real ones of a child exploring the world and getting inexorably lost within it.
This is a book that one reads with a passion, full of strange, fascinating characters. The writing is sweet but also strong, as the author himself suggests when referring to an old alarm clock in which “the secrets of the cogs and wheels drive the complicated workings of the soul and make the pen into the good writer’s seismograph needle”.
Books Not even love transforms the Stock Exchange of destinies Books And the dream of conquest turned into a mirage of the desert Books Joseph’s Gargano Books The tragedy of Mattmark A book so as not to forget Books Journey through the gardens of Italy Books When poetry investigates “time” Books Amidst the storms of life it’s the strength of a loving heart that wins Books That valley in the Gargano so rich in history that must not be forgotten Books Grottaglie and its pottery through the life of the benefactor Vincenzo Calò Books Eighty years of joyful culture Books Sergeant Romano’s siege like in a movie Books The magnificent eighty Books San Marco in Lamis seen from its bell-tower Books A great love for splendid Castro Books Better not come home... Letters between Italy and America during the first World War Books Story of a poet between Puglia and America Books Worked to death under the sun of Puglia Books Masserie of Puglia Journey amidst Beauty Books An excursion into the Salentine dialect … Mai pe iabbu Books The moral revival of the South can start from its “best” Books Life, anyway! Books Rainbow of women Books Amidst the mountains of Val d’Aosta …in pursuit of the culprit Books …Once upon a time there was the past Writing about it to preserve the memory Books Disorder and experimentation in the museum-houses of Ignazio Apolloni Books Salento stories …in search of lost time Books Pietro Marti, the great standard-bearer of Salento culture Books Even tycoons cry Books If a “whale” island appears one night out of nowhere… Books From his ancestral Calabria to Roma Precious memories of a lifetime Books The importance of rediscovering “fraternity” Books In the wax museum to seek the dream of a better world Books Naples “Kissed by God and raped by Man” Books Once upon a time there was the padre-padrone Books Second World War The drama of the fallen Books On the Savannah lagoons …to heal Books The meaning of the 20th century in the saga of the Stille family Books In Fellini’s La dolce vita the germs of today’s Italy Basilicata Craco The “second life” of a ghost town Po Delta The Po Delta park Natural beauty and history Bari “Cieli americani” in Bari Verona Verona Shakespeare celebrated its beauty without ever having seen it Courmayeur Courmayeur All the charm of the low season Ferrara You can still dream in Ferrara Ferrara “Action!” Amongst Ferrara’s myriad sets Music Porretta Soul Festival The Italian Woodstock of black American music Matera Pasolini-Matera Fifty years ago the first Gospel in the Sassi Naples “Wood Stone and Friends” Jimmie Durham’s magic vitalism at the MADRE Naples Art miracles at Vigna San Martino Naples The Hermann Nitsch Museum From horror to awareness Bologna Do you want to be FICO? In Bologna you can Bologna Bologna “The Learned”, “The Fat”, “The Red” Bologna At the MAMbo Arte Povera on display Polignano From Brooklyn to Polignano Twelve artists out to conquer Europe Movies With The Revenant DiCaprio rises again and aims for the Oscar Movies Quo Vado? When the southern redneck turns politically correct Movies When the cinema returns to the future Best of Italy Andria Pietro Zito’s vegetable garden This is where his prize-winning dishes originate Best of Italy The best Milanese panettone is… Salentine San Marino “From Hopper to Warhol” on the gentle hills of San Marino San Marino San Marino Historic appeal amidst breathtaking panoramas Turin Reggia di Venaria Reale A treasure rediscovered Turin The Egyptian Museum of Turin The immortal appeal of the Pharaohs Turin “For President” Photogenic qualities will win the elections Padua So much… In the city of the three “withouts” Milan EXPO 2015 Not just food Milan The oneiric inspirations of Joan Jonas Milan “Autunno americano” Milan celebrates the States Milan MILAN The metropolis is still “to drink” (…and “to eat”) Rome “Empire State” New York is still the epicenter of art Venice The immortal charm of the “Queen of the Sea” Venice So many “Illumi/nations” with the Biennale d’Arte Rovigo History and Art In the capital of the Polesine Rovigo “Divisionism, the light of what is modern” 200 works on show in Rovigo