Infinite Summer
Page 28
And then he will decide that he doesn’t want to go home, but to the factory. He will go up to the swimming pool, strip off, dive into the water naked, and play dead for a while. He will look at the stars as the water gently enters and leaves his ears, making him pleasantly, intermittently deaf. Then he will get out of the water, wrap himself in a large white bathrobe, toast Arianna with his last bottle, and press that special button that makes all of his looms start work in unison so that their infinite beating might be his lullaby, and he will cover himself with his Irish linen sheet and fall asleep in that double beach bed which he had made precisely for these nights — and who knows if he is happy, who knows if he will ever be.
Ivo leaves and doesn’t know, cannot know, that Arianna is watching him from the balcony. After that last kiss she had to run into the bathroom so no one would see her cry, but as soon as she had locked herself in, she realized that she wouldn’t be able to say goodbye to him because, after what had happened, Ivo would surely want to get away immediately, and so she left the bathroom and ran back up to the balcony but could not find him anywhere in the club, so she looked outside and there he was, leaving alone into the night, in that car.
A dry sorrow erupts in her heart, and she curses her new ability to get used to everything and be bored by everything that has become the only certainty in her life: just a few days before she had started to wonder how she could put an end to the affair with Ivo, and at that thought she had felt dismayed and guilty, and she had desperately tried to drive that thought away, and forced herself to repeat over and over that there was no rush, no rush at all, because things can always change, but inside she knew it was over. The comet had burned out, and she wasn’t enjoying herself anymore.
So Arianna stays there, in front of the large balcony window, until the lights of the Pagoda turn toward the large pine grove and disappear. She dries her last tear, checks her reflection in the glass for any damage caused by that short-lived cry, and goes back to dance with Rosa as a bright, false smile spreads across her face, foretelling the life that awaits her.
The sky is perfect, so miraculously clear as to seem painted, and the sea is lightly rippled by a breeze coming from Corsica, its blue only slightly more intense than that of the sky, and you should see the smallest mountain range in the world, how it stands out splendid with its marble veins, now and forever protecting the coastline and the town that shines with a thousand tiny lights, tonight, and the brightest are those that bathe the famous dance club that looks like a house, there on the waterfront.
EDOARDO NESI is a writer, filmmaker, politician, and translator. He began his career translating the work of such authors as Bruce Chatwin, Malcolm Lowry, Stephen King, and Quentin Tarantino. He has written twelve books, of which Story of My People won the Strega Prize and L’età dell’oro won the Bruno Cavallini Prize. He wrote and directed the film Fughe da fermo, based on his novel of the same name, and translated David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest into Italian. In 2013 he was elected to the Italian Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies.
ALICE KILGARRIFF studied Italian and Spanish at Cardiff University before training as a translator and interpreter. She has worked with Bompiani publishing house, Welsh National Opera (Cardiff), Royal Opera House (London), and many academic institutions. She lives and works in Italy and Wales.
Also by
Edoardo Nesi
STORY OF MY PEOPLE
Translated from the Italian by Antony Shugaar
Winner of the 2011 Strega Prize, this blend of essay, social criticism, and memoir is a striking portrait of the effects of globalization on Italy’s declining economy.
Starting from his family’s textile factory in Prato, Tuscany, Edoardo Nesi examines the recent shifts in Italy’s manufacturing industry. Only one generation ago, Prato was a thriving industrial center that prided itself on craftsmanship and quality. But during the last decade, cheaply made goods — produced overseas or in Italy by poorly paid immigrants — saturated the market, making it impossible for Italian companies to keep up. In 2004 his family was forced to sell the textile factory. How this could have happened? Nesi asks, and what are the wider repercussions of losing businesses like his family’s, especially for Italian culture?
Story of My People is a denunciation of big business, corrupt politicians, the arrogance of economists, and cheap manufacturing. It’s a must-read for anyone seeking insight into the financial crisis that’s striking Europe today.
“Who would have thought that memoir and polemic could work together so well? A totally absorbing story, and a portrait of modern Italy.”
— Sarah Bakewell, author of How to Live
“A searing indictment of globalization’s failures, and the inability of politicians and pundits to consider its impact on real lives…much of the book is sad, honest, and biting; overall it is an important work.” —Publishers Weekly
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