Recentissima nuova pubblicazione per la scrittrice Campana, Valeria Parrella ( Torre del Greco, classe 1974 ), che il 5 maggio 2022 si è ripresentata sulla scena letteraria con il suo libro “La fortuna” edito da Feltrinelli.
A rhistorical novel immersed in the reality of Ancient Pompeii whose protagonist, a boy named Lucio, And “fascinated by stories where humans and Gods mix”. A book that appears distant from the genre that Parrella's readers are accustomed to. In the background of the author's previous writings, in fact, there almost always stands out a Contemporary Naples populated by characters outside the box. Especially by women in search of their own identity, whose intimate engine is memory.
Writer, playwright and journalist, the author boasts a dense literary production with a conspicuous number of awards and finalist positions. This is the case for example of " By grace received ", which entered the Strega Prize 2005 final and of " Almarina " , written in 2019 and a finalist candidate for the Lattes Award and at the 2020 Strega Prize, winning, for the second, a very honourable third place.
In this novel, halfway between a coming-of-age story and an adventure story, the period during which Parrella gives voice to her protagonist is the one between 62 AD and 79 AD.
Those seventeen years are the period of time that passed between two catastrophic events that affected the city of Pompei: an earthquake characterized by gaseous exhalations, therefore considered a precursor to the famous eruption, and the eruption itself, which occurred with the population almost unaware of the volcanic nature of Vesuvius – “…here is Vesuvius, once covered with green vineyards, producer of fruity wines […] All this is under fire and incandescent ash … (Martial)
Lucio's story begins with his singular debut in life.
With its birth in Pompeii, in the imperial era, on the very night in which the earthquake of '62 AD was taking place: “…my mother always told me the same thing about my birth: that the house where they were guests began to sway and the torches went out as if a God had blown on the flames […] The earthquake passed, and I was born like this: under the starry sky…at the center of the earth”.
The life of this boy is outlined from the very beginning. Being the son of a proconsul, he is therefore a nobleman, in a Pompeii where freedom reigns, but which is still anchored to dogmas. And a scion of senatorial lineage is projected into political life.
Unable to avoid the family decision, he ends up at the school of Quintilian - orator and teacher of rhetoric - for his education and frequents the poet Martial. His destiny turns towards a senatorial career, but in his heart he cultivates a desire, which is actually a true vocation: the sea. Lucio in fact aspires to become the captain of a ship but, rank aside, another obstacle seems to exclude the possibility of his dream coming true: the malformation of one eye, which will deny him the sight that a sailor must have to effectively govern the wave motion of the sea.
Parrella defines her protagonist as a magical boy and says so because there is no compromise in him, he challenges his destiny already traced by others - one made even more urgent by nature that has deprived him of an eye - and manages to realize his dream.
Before arriving in Rome for his studies, Lucio, regardless of the prohibitions, and thanks to the favor asked of Cassio, a family friend, faces - completely unaware of his parents - an experience at sea with a blind sailor.
But it's with the Prefect Pliny the Elder, to whom he is entrusted on the journey to Rome, which consecrates his dream. He remains at the head of the fleet of which he is admiral when, moved by his thirst for knowledge, during the eruption, he decides to land at Stabia to observe and understand for himself what he identifies as a prodigy – which is, in fact, destruction – namely the majestic explosion of what the Romans they only consider it a mountain and instead it is a volcano.
Lucius tries to dissuade Pliny from his intent, partly also in view of the great responsibility he will have to assume with the command of the ships, but the Prefect himself encourages him by saying that “a limit is a limit only if one feels it as a limit, otherwise it is nothing.”
And then the protagonist fully enters into the role assigned to him and is the only one to orient himself among the ash that invades the sky and the sea. He crosses hell and becomes a fearless leader, who with nostalgia, from the quadrireme named Fortuna, looks towards Pompeii and thinks of his mother and all those who were dear to him in those places. It is from there that he observes the historic disaster in a desperate attempt to arrive in time to save lives.
“La fortuna” by Valeria Parrella, in its 137 pages, immerses the reader in the suggestive atmosphere of ancient Pompeii, but it does not have a purely descriptive value of the events. In reality it triggers in the reader an important reflection on the joy of living, even if this is achieved by going through traumas and pains that life presents. On the ability to take destiny into one's own hands, even if everything seems to be traced in an irrevocable way. Darkness becomes light when the individual makes choices and decides to be himself, to realize his own inclinations, his own desires.
A book that evokes history by telling it from the sea, in a change of perspective compared to how it has always been told to us. An ancient story told with a fluid style, capable of arriving in a simpler way.
Whoever decides to read this book will want to write down numerous sentences contained in it, for the expressive beauty, but above all for the significant contents that adhere to everyone's reality.
“There are two ways to live: one is to always be afraid […] Or to look at the fear and say: That thing scares me. That piece of life, that choice. […] It scares me … because I want it […] I have understood that the only way to overcome fear is to go through it”.
We also point out that the topics and characters of this book can be explored in depth through the interesting meeting with the author, which will soon be held as part of the Salerno Letteratura festival, now in its tenth edition. The event will be held in Salerno from 18 to 25 June.
Valeria Parrella will be the protagonist of the event scheduled for June 18th at 19,30:21 pm, at the historic Church of the Annunziata in Largo Abate Conforti, XNUMX.
Annamaria Cafaro
Article published on 7 June 2022 - 11:55
