Giacomino no longer trusts in the new Vincensi novel

But to what extent can one trust one’s neighbor? When does the immune defenses drop completely and by making a U-turn do we lock ourselves in a hedgehog in order not to suffer further rip-offs? The theme is very tantalizing especially in these times, in which distrust and suspicions are the order of the day. “On the stage of life”, the latest novel by Antonio Vincensi from Salerno (La Caravella, publisher), stands on the dividing line between good and evil by telling the story of a loser, a “loser” as Giovanni would have defined Verga, who makes sympathy and tenderness if only for the impressive accumulation of misadventures that fall upon him never by the will of fate but always by the will of other people to whom the victim had “dared” to trust. «Humanity disgusts me», said the protagonist of a comedy by Peppino De Filippo, «Don Raffaele ‘ trombone», and Giacomino also arrives at this conclusion, the protagonist of the book, a very talented but grumpy and introverted cabinetmaker, who has chose to live in solitude, away from the malice and envy of the people.

The ironic style

«Everything is written in our DNA, indeed there are two different DNAs – it is his philosophy of life – the official one that defines our biological characteristics and our future pathologies; and then there is a hidden shadow DNA that determines our existential path». The cucumbers that Giacomino encounters numerous along the path of his life are not free from this other DNA as a metaphor for evil that is always lurking. A Fantozzian character, one might almost say, also for his extraordinary similarity in the ability to survive any oppression or adversity. Viucensi has an ironic and irreverent style (just read his biographical note to take note of it) and from the top of his many interests, from science to astronomy, he undertakes for a living to carry out the “most thankless professional activity that there can be »: the condominium administrator.