It is curious how in the absence of the author on duty, what could have been a disruptive publication, an extravagance in life, ends up being a rarity for mythomaniacs after his death. But also a whole approach to laymen who perhaps never read the writer who not so long ago left the scene and who here synthesizes that famous why? of writing.
The point is that as in the case (recovered by proximity in their deaths) of Ruiz Zafon with his posthumous work «The city of steam», now comes out this singular book of Camilleri which is read with that point of idolatry and longing from which everything takes on new meaning.
And so everything has a place in a volume that compiles stories and experiences, the last of them all, in that mixture of reality and fiction that ultimately defines the writer dedicated to the cause of enlarging the trade for years and years ...
Despite having gone blind at the age of ninety-one, Andrea Camilleri was not intimidated by the dark, just as he was never afraid of the blank page. The Sicilian author wrote dictating until the end of his days, and with orality he found a new way of telling stories. From the beginning of his blindness, he applied himself to the exercise of memory with the same iron discipline with which he had worked all his life. With persistent lucidity, he dedicated himself to stringing together the memories of a long and prolific life, displaying a unique mental acuity and his particular vision of the world.
This book was born as an exercise to practice this new way of writing, a kind of vacation booklet: twenty-three stories conceived in twenty-three days. In them, the author recalls key episodes in his life, portrays the artists he held most esteem and reviews the recent history of Italy, which he has lived in the first person. A literary game where sounds, conversations and images intertwine that you can never get out of your head.
«I would like this book to be like the pirouette of an acrobat who flies from one trapeze to another, perhaps doing a triple somersault, always with a smile on his lips, without expressing fatigue, daily commitment or the constant feeling of risk that has made that progress possible. If the aerialist showed the effort that it took him to execute that caper, the spectator would certainly not enjoy the show. "
You can now buy "memory exercises", by Andrea Camilleri, here: