Il sogno di Walacek

by Giovanni Orelli

Italian

Genres: Fiction, Literature

156 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Giovanni Orelli (Bedretto, 30 ottobre 1928 – Lugano, 3 dicembre 2016) è stato uno scrittore e poeta svizzero in italiano e dialetto bedrettese. Studiò a Zurigo e alla Cattolica di Milano, dove ottenne la laurea in filologia medioevale e umanistica con Giuseppe Billanovich. Trascorse gran parte della sua vita a Lugano, dove - fino all'età del pensionamento - fu professore nel locale liceo cantonale. La sua carriera letteraria iniziò nel 1965 con il romanzo L'anno della valanga (Premio Veillon). Nel 1972, con il romanzo La festa del ringraziamento, Orelli fu insignito del Premio Schiller. Nel 1997 ottenne il premio Gottfried Keller per l'insieme della sua opera. Il 17 maggio 2012 a Soletta la Fondazione Schiller gli conferì, assieme a Peter Bichsel, il massimo premio letterario svizzero, il Gran Premio Schiller, per l'insieme della sua produzione letteraria.

Reviews

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Klee was dead. He] would no longer draw the interminable, the radiant, that which is irreducible to a prime number; vertiginous, a cavity-unfathomability-hiding place for the innocent, before or after the devastations of life, to play hide-and-seek in; that softest, most delicate, heavenly spiral: Phryne's navel. [...] He was cured of life.

Take the impossible theatrics of the Circe chapter of Ulysses (minus the subconscious stuff), add a little 'futbol', as they call it in Europe, and a little World War II history, and a few philosophers and mathematicians (Schopenhauer, Berkeley, Bertrand Russell) and give them the Herculean task of pondering a lesser-known Paul Klee painting called Alphabet I, and you have this book.

It wasn't an easy read for me, especially not knowing my history or my Schopenhauer as well as I could (also his constant parentheticals in the middle of long sentences about a subject which I knew very little didn't make things any easier... I almost lost my Wille). But even for an ignoramus like me, it was entertaining. Just don't get overly bogged down in the details and enjoy the parts you enjoy. Orelli is very good at telling funny stories (sometimes true, sometimes fictional) in between more serious, somber ones, and he knows very well when to switch it up, so that between lively arguments, stories, quotes, asides, self-reflexive musings, futbol line-ups, and odd facts, the book (although lacking any narrative thrust) rarely slows down.

Also, there's a lot of politics here, but it never felt preachy or self-righteous. Just enough subtlety to be effective, I thought.

Just a few of the high points: Sindelar playing Rotten Egg as a kid but not picking up Bubi's handkerchief, border crossing cows of Pedrinate, Walaschek's and Klee's personal biographies, the futbol player who balanced the ball on his forehead and ran all the way to the goal, Sindelar's death, the part where Cesare Rossi and Giulia Sismondi deliver the ashes to Klee's widow.

[my name is corey irl · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book fucken rules mates

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks corey

[Kobe Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is like LOST the TV show because the whole time you're waiting for him to tell you the meaning of the O in the painting and he never does