“What I Know About You” in the Year of the All-Family Strega

On the same topic:

Last core sampling Strega. The reader knows that the cover flaps – often written or suggested by the author himself – are deceiving . What delicatessen owner would ever say that his ham is rancid? Marshall McLuhan suggests going to page 69, when the fireworks and initial performances have lost their grit and splendor. Nadia Terranova is a finalist this year with “Quello che so di te” (Guanda), presented by Salvatore Silvano Nigro . She had already entered the top five in 2019 with “Addio fantasmi”.

On page 69, there is the investigation into great-grandmother Venera. Interned a hundred years ago, as written in the incipit of the first part entitled “A strange power” (it is motherhood, suggests a quote from Virginia Woolf who never had children). It opens with two lines from a diagnostic manual: “Schizophrenia spectrum disorders and other psychotic disorders” . The doctor must evaluate the stress factors, possibly indicating whether the disorders began postpartum.

Diagnostic precision is hindered by reality: the birth of a stillborn baby. It should be considered an abortion, or a birth with consequences. “Venera, where are you?” asks Nadia Terranova. A quick glance at the previous page shows that we were reading the entry “PSYCHOSIS,” in Messina dialect “Scantàta.” Let’s move on to the entry, or rather the prefix, “HYSTERO-,” to be translated into dialect as “Scattiàta,” which means “agitated.”

We are at the uterus, “the cause of all women’s diseases” – according to the Corpus Hippocraticum, we specify it because no one notices the quotation marks anymore. “Pregnancy as an ideal condition that absorbs humors”. We move from the quotation marks of Hippocrates to the quotation marks of Nadia Terranova, in noble competition with the master: “Would Hippocrates be horrified or proud of my pages full of female secretions, from blood to milk?” . The reader watches perplexed at the singular contest. The reader is unknown, they have made us believe that she is a species apart.

Where the medical manual doesn't reach, there is a spell. It dates back to the mid-1800s, we peeked at page 98 to understand that the mysterious girl who on page 99 follows certain soldiers around Treviso comes from a circus. It is part of the Family Mythology, what Sigmund Freud more modestly called Family Romance. The circus gypsy is decidedly smart, Terranova attributes sensible, if not profound, thoughts to her: "She knows that whatever she says, they will take good luck for deception and bad luck for bad omen" . She writes numbers on small pieces of paper, the mangy bird she keeps on her shoulder will choose one for each consultant. "Do you want to know at what age you will die?".

Drum roll (we add it for suspense). The gypsy: “Do you want to know at what age you will die?” We are willing to bet – the sequel is rather predictable – that a brave ancestor will come forward. 2025 at Strega is the year of family. And of legacies, not just literary ones. On the evening of Thursday 3rd we will know who wins, and will drink the sponsor's liquor by the ounce.

More on these topics: