TALES OF CHILDHOOD Damnica - novel TALES OF A CHILD BETWEEN DREAMS AND REALITY '
volume Domenico Riccio In the story of a small town in southern Italy
(from The Newspaper of March 14, 2004)
trails that describe personal inner landscapes through a narrative register the fact of simple stories, popular, full of that old world charm that only know how to find our old rummaging in the memory. The stories of childhood Damnica (Maria Pacini Fazzi editore) written by Domenico Riccio, the current deputy mayor of Lucca, a cultured and refined narrator, is a beautiful book of twenty-three stories in which characters appear real, candid, made to live with brief but intense strokes between dream and reality.
The framework within which the characters move is the village of Valle Agricola, the birthplace of the author, in the province of Caserta, nestled in the western part of the Matese, a place forgotten by God and men, where power outage, the hospital, the water in the house and even the toilets.
Riccio manages to highlight a fact of everyday gestures of life, lived in the immediate solidarity, a sense of belonging to a community that make the Valley Agricultural topos of a community-pre-industrial rural society.
The author's choice to present this colorful and rich all in all reality through the eyes of a child, which is himself, turns out happy as relieving the reader from all over tinsel sociological and the immediacy of real life projects in a small town in the Deep South in the difficult Fifties.
Damnica a child is troubled with vivid and lively intelligence and remarkable creativity. Son of a wealthy family than the standard valley dweller, his father was mayor of the town, has a mill and a lathe, can in fact make ends meet without concern; easily intertwined social relationships with adults and children and lives So his childhood in a very balanced way.
Basil's shop and a bar of them attends Mimino Damnica often speaks with great ease, you feel comfortable with all the villagers. It is by no means certain that this happens to a child, are the environment and education that allow the respectful familiarity with who is bigger. This is also a hallmark of belonging to a community, a trait that clearly emerges from the pages of Domenico Riccio.
the mid-fifties progress peeps but it will still take many years for the echo of the economic boom, which carries with it a profound change in individual and collective behavior, adds up to Valle Agricola.
Places are still traditional ones and are described with great care by the author: "First of all the symbols of the country: the church and tower. At the foot of the mountain hat, the parish church in 1300, named after the patron saint San Sebastian Martyr, with its imposing stone facade of the Valley in the Romanesque style ...".
Listening to the murmur of the forest, the sounds of nature, the intoxicating rhythm that marks the passing of the seasons, the elements are always present in the book of Riccio, is part of a lost wisdom, typical of rural culture, a sense of community where the family membership, the country, the village, but also the district played a vital role in everyone's life, values \u200b\u200btoday sacrificed on the altar of consumerism, anonymity, the culture of Mc Donald.
Damnica through his memories in short sketches the distinctive characteristics of a world that no longer exists, a rural society that in its simplicity was the true economic and social framework of what is today, referring to Italy , define the country-system.
Domenico Riccio's characters resemble in some respects to those of Mario Tobin: immediate, full of humanity and even humor, in short, made of flesh and blood, remember the famous Ragazze di Magliano?
Particolarmente toccante è il racconto di Damnic sulla morte del padre. Un racconto elegante, leggero, che fa apparire la morte come il compimento inevitabile della vita che pian piano si consuma. Nessun piagnisteo, nessuna tragedia: "Quella stessa notte, il papà riuscì a tirarsi su con agile sforzo, allungò la mano, prese con sorprendente facilità un bicchiere d'acqua sul comodino, bevve un sorso con soddisfazione e lo rimise a posto. Sembrava quasi fosse guarito. Ora va bene - disse lentamente. Era sereno e soddisfatto. Si ridistese sul letto, si girò sul fianco destro e chiuse gli occhi. La mattina era ancora in quella posizione. Non respirava più". Damnic aveva solo dieci anni e il primo incontro-scontro con la morte segnerà la sua vita.
Il viaggio nell'immaginazione e nella memoria, che sono poi I racconti dell'infanzia di Damnic , si conclude con un avvertimento dell'autore: bisogna tener presente, ammonisce Riccio, che "i bambini vivono e vedono la realtà a modo loro", come dire che non sempre tutto corrisponde al vero.
Ma questa è la grandezza della storia e anche della letteratura.
Prof. Alessandro Bedini
I RACCONTI DEL PICCOLO DAMNIC
We read the novel in one go by Domenico Riccio
(from 29 October 2003 Il Tirreno)
A public administrator who writes well and is able to charm, page after page is something of every day.
company managed to Domenico Riccio, vice mayor of the town of Lucca, An, which shall enter more fully into the political-exclusive club of writers who deserve to be applauded and encouraged.
"The stories of childhood Damnica" (a curiosity: it is the real name of Curly) is a gentle novel, full of sensitivity, love, nostalgia. You read it in one gulp, and has a nice subject.
Yesterday Alexander Hotel in S. Giustina was presented the book, set in Valle Agricola, the birthplace of the deputy mayor who said: "I tried to tell with the words easier as you do with children, small events of little Damnica.
Valley Farm is the evocative setting of the vivid memories of Damnica, the protagonist of the story of a farming community that was about to disappear, leaving room for a modern, perhaps more comfortable, but no less full of human warmth. The town of Caserta, in the western part of the Matese, lived in the fifties felt isolated and forgotten by God and men, had to deal with the memories left by war, emigration, the lack of running water, electricity, a hospital, a station driveways and roads.
The villagers still forgotten by progress led a life with an ancient flavor, genuine and supportive, they looked after the family, home, fields and animals, joined in the festivities and in moments of danger or of death to bring together the weight of the daily difficulties and to enhance common joy in sharing.
So the first paved road in the country becomes an attraction for adults and children together and the symbol an imminent and inevitable change. The portrait of this country, its people and its remorseless transformation there is therefore provided by Damnica, child lively and boisterous like so many, but with uncommon sensitivity and intelligence, through reading the novel we see grow up, deal with the pain of life and lay the foundations for what will be the character of a man strong and independent.
