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Some titles from the bibliography deserve special mention. For a panoramic vision of the Italian Social Republic, see La repubblica di Salò by Diego Meldi (2008); for a discussion of its internal security forces, I Servizi Segreti nella Repubblica Sociale Italiana by Daniele Lembo (2009); for a—very partial—analysis of Ezra Pound’s relationship to what was also called the “Republic of Salò,” Antonio Pantano’s Ezra Pound e la Repubblica Sociale Italiana (2009). Although The Cantos do not seem to be the most organized way to approach Ezra Pound’s ideas—if those ideas ever had an organization to them—they are essential, as are his Radio Rome broadcasts, ABC of Reading (1934) and Guide to Kulchur [sic] (1938), and the following books: The Pound Era by Hugh Kenner (1973) and A Serious Character: The Life of Ezra Pound by Humphrey Carpenter (1990). For more on Futurism, consult the books Dizionario del futurismo: Idee, provocazioni e paroli d’ordine di una grande avanguardia (1996) and Artecrazia: L’ avanguardia futurista negli anni del fascismo (1992), both by Claudia Salaris; Futurism and Politics: Between Anarchist Rebellion and Fascist Reaction, 1909–1944 by Günter Berghaus (1996); Futurismo: La explosión de la vanguardia, edited by Alessandro Ghignoli and Llanos Gómez (2011); and Estética y arte futuristas by Umberto Boccioni (2004). About and by the movement’s founder, Marinetti: Arte e vita futurista by Claudia Salaris (1997), Synthetic Forms of Futurist Expression, and The Necessity and Beauty of Violence. For a discussion of the state of literature during the Nazi period, see Literatur im Dritten Reich: Dokumente und Texte, Sebastian Graeb-Könneker, editor (2001); for a discussion of Spanish literature during early Francoism, the aforementioned anthology by José-Carlos Mainer and the fascinating Las armas y las letras: Literatura y Guerra Civil (1936–1939) by Andrés Trapiello (2010, third edition); for a history of French collaborationism in literature, Die französische Literatur im Zeichen von Kollaboration und Faschismus by Barbara Berzel (2012). There are dozens of books about the experience of the partisans in Italy; I recommend one of the most recent, by Sergio Luzzatto, Primo Levi’s Resistance: Rebels and Collaborators in Occupied Italy (2015). For those who want to dig deeper into the events of 1945 in Europe and the immediate postwar period, I recommend the hair-raising Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Keith Lowe and Year Zero: A History of 1945 by Ian Buruma (both 2013). On the Red Brigades, Europe’s Red Terrorists: The Fighting Communist Organizations by Yonah Alexander and Dennis A. Pluchinsky (1992) and Strike One to Educate One Hundred by Chris Aronson Beck, Reggie Emiliana, Lee Morris, and Ollie Patterson (1986); for the history of the Milanese Red Brigades, Le Brigate Rosse a Milano: Dalle origini della lotta armata alla fine della colonna “Walter Alasia” by Andrea Saccoman (2013). More about the anarchist scene in Milan can be found at https://federazione-anarchica-milanese-fai.noblogs.org/ and https://torchiera.noblogs.org/, for example.
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Much of this book was written at the Civitella Ranieri artists’ residency near Umbertide, Perugia. I want to thank my hosts, Dana Prescott and Diego Mencaroni, as well as those there with whom I shared conversations and experiences that are reflected in this book’s more positive aspects—if it has any—to some degree: Ed Bennett, Estrella Burgos, Mary Caponegro, James Casebere, Helene Dorion, Lise Funderburg, Dan and Becky Okrent, Russell Platt, Tonis Saadoja, and Gayle Young. I am also grateful to my editors, especially Diana Miller and Claudio López de Lamadrid (in memoriam); to my agents at William Morris Endeavor, Claudia Ballard and Laura Bonner; and to the translators of my books. Thank you to Mónica Carmona, one of the earliest and most talented readers of this book, and to Raffaella de Angelis and Graciela Montaldo, who let me attend a private viewing of the exhibition Italian Futurism: 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe at the Guggenheim in New York in exchange for pretending I was Sergio Chejfec: surprisingly, the ruse worked. Thanks also to everyone in the offices of Penguin Random House in Madrid and Barcelona, and to Rodrigo Fresán, José Hamad, Pablo Raphael, Anna Maria Rodríguez, Juan Cruz Ruiz, Iker Seisdedos, Javier Rodríguez Marcos, Andrea Aguilar, Daniel Gascón, Matías Rivas, and Eduardo De Grazia. This book, along with everything else, is for Giselle Etcheverry Walker: “All my powers of expression and thoughts so sublime / Could never do you justice in reason or rhyme.”
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Patricio Pron, born in Argentina in 1975, is the author of eight novels and six story collections that have been widely praised and translated into ten languages. He also works as a translator and critic. His fiction has appeared in Granta, Zoetrope: All-Story, and The Paris Review, and he has received numerous prizes, including the Alfaguara Novel Prize, the Juan Rulfo Prize, the Premio Literario de Jaén, and the José Manuel Lara Foundation Award for one of the five best works published in Spain in 2008. He lives in Madrid.
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Don't Shed Your Tears for Anyone Who Lives on These Streets Page 30
