Francrois Bondy
LETTER FROM ITALY
Since 1974 the young publishing house of Adelphi in
Milan has printed no less than five novels by a hitherto unknown
author who is now considered the most remarkable literary discov–
ery.
Thejortuna,
as the Italians say, of his novels and the
caso
or life of
the author have been more widely discussed than any other literary
topic . Guido Morselli's first published novel ,
Roma senza Papa,
is set
around 1999. The growing ecumenism and the total surrender of the
Roman Church to modernity stand in its center: marriage is recom–
mended to the priests; the Pope-an American-has a "spiritual
friendship" with a Zen Buddhist lady; theological treatises are
turned out by computers. All this is seen through the eyes of an
elderly Swiss priest from Uri, who, although married, is a tradi–
tionalist and is shocked, saddened, or amused by what he encounters
in Rome, which the Pope has left without its main tourist attraction ,
having taken up residence in the drab suburb of Zagarolo. Both the
religious content and the glamor of the Church have waned and sur–
vive as quaint folklore. There is more melancholic irony than biting
satire in this picture of a Vatican
ridimensionnato-cut
to size to fit an
increasingly provincial Italy.
Morselli's second novel,
Controppassato prossimo,
takes place in
the second decade of this century, encompassing World War I, which
ends now with the victory of the Central Powers, thanks to the secret
building of a tunnel into Valtellina that allows the Italian army to be
wiped out from the start. A United Europe emerges, presided over
by Walter Rathenau. But postwar Europe is in chaos, so the fictive
ending is not much different from the real thing. With its many his–
torical characters, this novel is more of an intellectual game than is
Rome without the Pope.
Yet it is a novel, as is any book in prose that
cannot be otherwise defined .
Morselli's third published novel is called
Divertimento
1889.
It is
an imaginary chronicle of a love affair that places King Umberto in
the arms of a wealthy German lady somewhere between Andermatt
and Goeschenen. This novel nostalgically evokes the
belle ipoque
in all
its ruddy Piedmontese variety.
The fourth novel to be published,
Il Communista,
may be
Morselli's first masterpiece. There is no play with hypotheses; the
