Niccolò Ammaniti, translated by Kylee Doust
Text Publishing
Otago Daily Times, February 12th 2012
A novel reader by inclination and habit, I tend to forget just how powerful and intense shorter forms of fiction can be. Me and You is examples of such writing at its best.
Italian author Niccolò Ammaniti has been described as one of the best writers of his generation, and if this novella is anything to go by, this is not an unreasonable claim. It deals with a single week in the life of 14-year-old Lorenzo. For as long as he can remember, Lorenzo has been a loner. Inspired by a documentary on mantis flies he has learned to mimic his schoolmates well enough to fit in, but this is not enough for his parents, who want him to have friends, too.
When he tells his mother he has been invited on a ski week with a group from school she is so happy and excited by his news that he is trapped in the lie, and rather than disappoint her, he creates a hideout in the cellar of their apartment building where he intends to spend the time with his Marvel comics, play station, and a selection of Steven King novels. His solitude is interrupted, however, by the arrival of his estranged half-sister Olivia, who is in the early stages of heroin withdrawal and in desperate need of refuge. Over the next few days of intense, claustrophobic proximity Lorenzo learns as much about himself as he does about his sister, lessons that will change his life completely.
Although I was not entirely convinced by Lorenzo’s moment of epiphany, Ammaniti (and his translator) capture both the physical setting and the voice of the young narrator beautifully; the damp, mildewy cellar stashed with cans of tuna, artichokes and other supplies for Lorenzo’s sojourn, the thoughts and dreams of a boy who wishes he really was a wasp, not a fly dressed up as a wasp, and his helplessness and horror in the face of Olivia’s own solitary battle with herself.
All the more effective by being short enough to read at a single sitting, Me and You is, quite literally, a story that can – and ought –not be put down.
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