Milanese photo-novel | The paper

“Fotoromanzo Testori” is (also) a hymn to the Milanese spirit, the exhibition dedicated to the Lombard writer curated by his nephew and guardian of the family memoirs Giuseppe Frangi, in Novate Milanese. On the centenary of the birth and on the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Giovanni Testori (1923-1993) one arrives in Novate with the little train from Cadorna, the same one that he took, very comfortable, twenty minutes, even if he suffered the train, more than anything else the noise . It wasn’t yet the time of the disputes over Milan yes or Milan no, in fact perhaps they already existed, and he gladly moved to a residence in Porta Romana so as not to hear the clatter of convoys, or to the Palace of Varese or better still in the heimat of Lasnigo among the maternal memories. The house in Novate, today “Casa Testori” open to the public and scholars, a sober and charming 1930s villa in front of the railway, with a large magnolia in the garden that shines in the new Lombard sun, stands next to the family shed where even today the cousins they carry on the business of the beginnings (industrial fabrics, filters and felts) and this too is very Lombard. And there, coexistence between industry and literature and same-parent families of yesteryear: looking at the memorabilia and imagining the ménage, the amazing novel by Colm Tóibín “The Magician” just released by Einaudi on another exceptional industrial-literary dynasty comes to mind , the Manns, and there too wills, torments, burnouts, closures of businesses and firms.