Once upon a Time in England (di Helen Walsh) è la cruda saga di una famiglia mista nei sobborghi di Liverpool e copre un periodo di tempo che va dagli anni ’70 alla fine degli anni ’80. Robbie Fitzgerald è un operaio irlandese con la passione per la musica soul ed una gran voce mentre Susheela, sua moglie, è un’infermiera malese. I rimandi alla biografia personale dell’autrice, figlia di un camionista irlandese (ma anche batterista) e di una infermiera malese, sono fin troppo ovvi.
Dopo un quadro iniziale nel quale il lettore si mette a proprio agio negli ambienti e con i personaggi che lo accompagneranno per tutto il libro e proprio nel momento in cui è pronto ad affrontare la salita verso il successo di Robbie, la svolta drammatica è immediata e travolgente. La scena dello stupro è un pugno nello stomaco e stravolge tutte le aspettative del lettore, oltre a cambiare definitivamente la vita dei personaggi. Susheela e Robbie vivranno in una sorta di limbo per il resto della storia: Robbie perde l’occasione d’oro e rimane a fare un lavoro che detesta, affogando il risentimento nell’alcool; l’intenzione di Susheela di convivere con quanto le è accaduto senza coinvolgere i suoi familiari non va a buon fine e la vita di coppia si inaridisce progressivamente finchè non resta più nulla. Le aspettative dei genitori si riversano quindi sui due figli: Vincent ed Ellie. Problematico, intelligente ed amante dei libri il primo, vivace e bellissima la seconda. Purtroppo le disgrazie dei genitori, come spesso accade, ricadono anche sui figli: Vincent vive gli anni di scuola vittima di un duro bullismo al quale sopravvive rintanandosi in nascondigli segreti e luoghi ameni. Ellie, a cui tutto ciò viene risparmiato, vivrà la sua decadenza grazie ad Ecstasy e alcool.
L’inconscio fardello di Vincent affiora al livello cosciente in una improvvisa epifania, durante la quale rivive la scena dello stupro della madre ed il suo ruolo di testimone passivo: è il momento in cui impara ad esorcizzare il carico emotivo scrivendo.
Le dinamiche di relazione tra i membri di questa famiglia sono indecise, confuse, alternanti spesso tra amore e odio, con mille sfumature nel mezzo: risentimento, pietà, rabbia, orgoglio, disprezzo. In questo senso ho riscontrato una somiglianza tra i Fitzgerald e i Morel del romanzo di D. H. Lawrence, Figli e amanti (Sons and Lovers). In realtà le affinità si estendono anche al contesto sociale della storia e alla sua genesi, nel senso che anche Lawrence, come Helen Walsh, scriveva di ciò che conosceva bene, essendo lui stesso figlio di un minatore (come il suo protagonista) ed era considerato uno scrittore controverso per il crudo realismo e poiché trattava di sesso in maniera troppo esplicita (per la rigida morale borghese dell’epoca). Ho trovato diversi punti in comune tra i due libri:
- in entrambi i casi il naufragio del matrimonio vede la madre trovare consolazione nei figli, i maschi in particolare;
- i mariti hanno dei sensi di colpa per il modo in cui trattano le mogli e per i continui litigi, ma non riescono comunque a modificare il loro comportamento;
- anche Robbie (come Morel) non è mai completamente a proprio agio con i suoi figli, in particolare con Vincent;
- sia Robbie che Morel subiscono nel corso del romanzo una sorta di degenerazione rispetto a come erano all’inizio e si tratta di una degenerazione fatta di alcool, brutalità e ignoranza (Robbie non sa leggere);
- i litigi tra i coniugi vengono descritti usando metafore belliche (“They were now at battle-pitch. Each forgot everything save the hatred of the other and the battle between them” in Lawrence; “He wanted a fight” nella Walsh);
- l’odio dei figli maschi per il padre è identico, è un odio fisico, viscerale (“Paul hated his father” e “his father disgusted him” in Lawrence; “Vincent was beginning to despise him” nella Walsh).
La critica sociale di Once upon a Time in England è particolarmente crudele nei confronti degli skinheads, che costituiscono uno strumento di distruzione determinante nella vicenda: la loro cieca ottusità unita alla brutalità delle azioni è la chiave di svolta tragica sia all’inizio che alla fine della storia e lascia il lettore spiazzato e impotente… e nel mio caso estremamente contrariato. Il giudizio nei loro confronti è implacabile e viene messo in bocca a Vincent, che è la vittima principale delle loro azioni.
Premettendo che mi sono laureata con una tesi su Oscar Wilde e che lo ADORO, potete immaginare quale chicca sia stata per me trovare inaspettatamente una serie di riferimenti espliciti a Dorian Gray. Nonostante a scuola venisse soprannominato Gaylord, la sessualità di Vincent emerge solo nella terza parte del romanzo quando incontra Kenny, il quale fa emergere prepotentemente questo lato di Vincent chiamandolo Dorian Gray. Da quel momento in poi Vincent si identifica nel personaggio e porterà avanti questa sua interpretazione fino alla tragica fine. Il rapporto tra Vincent e Kenny inizia con questo gioco di ruolo, che si sviluppa a partire da una serie di citazioni dei famosi aforismi di Wilde (“It’s only shallow people who do not judge by appearances” - “To be popular one must be a mediocrity”- “I can resist everything but temptation”) ed arriva ad una totale incarnazione da parte di Vincent. Si tratta di un’incarnazione che preoccupa Kenny al punto di cercare di avvertire Vincent con una frase che, alla luce di ciò che accadrà alla fine, sembra una profezia: “This is your fatal error, Dorian. You value beauty far too higly”. Ho pianto per Vincent…
Musica e libri pervadono il romanzo: la prima è la vera passione di Robbie che, in qualche modo, riesce a trasmettere anche al figlio; la seconda, invece, è prerogativa di Vincent.
LA TRAGICA COMPILATION DI ROBBIE
Pete St. John, The Fields of Athenry
Percy Sledge, When a Man Loves a Woman
Don Maclean, Vincent
L'AUTOBIOGRAFICA COMPILATION DI VINCENT
Le musiche che Vincent ascolta lo rappresentano pienamente: il riferimento a Prince Charming è duplice poiché è il nomignolo con cui Sibyl Vane chiamava Dorian Gray, oltre a riferirsi all’ossessione per la bellezza che caratterizza Vincent nella parte finale del libro.
Adam Ant, Prince Charming
John Foxx, The Garden
Leonard Cohen, Famous Blue Raincoat
The Smiths, This Charming Man
The Cure, A Night Like This
David Bowie, Wild is the Wind
LA BIBLIOTECA DI VINCENT
I libri di Vincent non fanno che testimoniarne l’infelicità e le problematiche. Le tematiche di fondo di questa letteratura sono: droga, violenza, omosessualità, ribellione, pazzia e suicidio.
Nelson Algren, The Man with the Golden Arm (L’uomo dal braccio d’oro)
William Burroughs, The Naked Lunch (Il pasto nudo)
Hubert Selby Jr., Last Exit to Brooklyn (Ultima fermata a Brooklyn)
George Orwell, 1984
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (La campana di vetro)
Bret Easton Ellis, Less Than Zero (Meno di zero)
Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (Il giovane Holden)
Timothy Leary, The Psychedelic Experience
Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (La società dello spettacolo)
Philip Larkin, “This Be the Verse”
Jean Genet, The Thief’s Journal (Il diario del ladro)
Albert Camus, The Outsider (Lo straniero)
Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange (Arancia meccanica)
HELEN WALSH: ONCE UPON A TIME IN ENGLAND
Once upon a Time in England is Helen Walsh's tough story of a family in the suburbs of Liverpool set between the 70’s and the 80’s. Robbie Fitzgerald is an Irish worker with a passion for soul music and a great voice whereas Susheela, his wife, is a Malaysian nurse. There are obvious references to the author’s personal background, since she was the daughter of an Irish truck driver (who was also a drummer) and a Malaysian nurse.
After the introduction of setting and characters -just when the reader is about to relax waiting for Robbie’s success- there’s a sudden and cruel twist of fate: the rape scene is a gut punch and overturns the reader’s expectations… as well as the characters’ lives. Susheela and Robbie are stuck in some sort of limbo till the end of the book: Robbie misses his great chance and keeps on doing a job he hates and drowning his resentment in alcohol. Susheela can’t fulfil her resolutions and the whole family gradually but inexorably collapses. The parents’ expectations fall on their children: Vincent and Ellie. Troubled, smart and book lover the former, lively and beautiful the latter. Unfortunately they share their parents’ fate: Vincent is bullied throughout his school years and survives isolating himself in secret shelters and strange places; Ellie’s life is consumed by the abuse of ecstasy and alcohol. Vincent’s unconscious burden suddenly comes to surface during an epiphany, a sudden moment of clarity, when he goes through his mother’s rape again and realizes his passive role in it: from that moment he starts liberating himself writing.
The relationships among the members of this family are confused, often alternating from love to hate, with thousands of shades in between: resentment, mercy, anger, pride, contempt. I can see some similarities between the Fitzgeralds and the Morels of D. H. Lawrence’s novel Sons and Lovers. As a matter of fact the similarities goes well beyond that, regarding the social context and the genesis of the story. Lawrence, like Helen Walsh, wrote about something he knew very well as he had been a miner’s son (like his main character) and was considered a dubious writer for his crude realism and because he wrote explicitly of sex. I’ve found a few elements in common between the two books:
HELEN WALSH: ONCE UPON A TIME IN ENGLAND
Once upon a Time in England is Helen Walsh's tough story of a family in the suburbs of Liverpool set between the 70’s and the 80’s. Robbie Fitzgerald is an Irish worker with a passion for soul music and a great voice whereas Susheela, his wife, is a Malaysian nurse. There are obvious references to the author’s personal background, since she was the daughter of an Irish truck driver (who was also a drummer) and a Malaysian nurse.
After the introduction of setting and characters -just when the reader is about to relax waiting for Robbie’s success- there’s a sudden and cruel twist of fate: the rape scene is a gut punch and overturns the reader’s expectations… as well as the characters’ lives. Susheela and Robbie are stuck in some sort of limbo till the end of the book: Robbie misses his great chance and keeps on doing a job he hates and drowning his resentment in alcohol. Susheela can’t fulfil her resolutions and the whole family gradually but inexorably collapses. The parents’ expectations fall on their children: Vincent and Ellie. Troubled, smart and book lover the former, lively and beautiful the latter. Unfortunately they share their parents’ fate: Vincent is bullied throughout his school years and survives isolating himself in secret shelters and strange places; Ellie’s life is consumed by the abuse of ecstasy and alcohol. Vincent’s unconscious burden suddenly comes to surface during an epiphany, a sudden moment of clarity, when he goes through his mother’s rape again and realizes his passive role in it: from that moment he starts liberating himself writing.
The relationships among the members of this family are confused, often alternating from love to hate, with thousands of shades in between: resentment, mercy, anger, pride, contempt. I can see some similarities between the Fitzgeralds and the Morels of D. H. Lawrence’s novel Sons and Lovers. As a matter of fact the similarities goes well beyond that, regarding the social context and the genesis of the story. Lawrence, like Helen Walsh, wrote about something he knew very well as he had been a miner’s son (like his main character) and was considered a dubious writer for his crude realism and because he wrote explicitly of sex. I’ve found a few elements in common between the two books:
- in both stories a dreadful marriage is the reason for the mother’s strong attachment to a son;
- even if the husbands feel guilty for their treatment of their wives, they can’t change their behaviour;
- Robbie, like Morel, is never completely at ease with his children, in particular with Vincent;
- both Robbie and Morel degenerate throughout the novel to a corrupt and vicious state due to alcohol, brutality and ignorance;
- in both books the fights between husbands and wives are described with military metaphors (“They were now at battle-pitch. Each forgot everything save the hatred of the other and the battle between them” in Lawrence; “He wanted a fight” in Walsh);
- both sons feel the same hate for their fathers, it’s something physical, visceral (“Paul hated his father” and “his father disgusted him” in Lawrence; “Vincent was beginning to despise him” in Walsh).
The social criticism in Once upon a Time in England is particularly strong towards the skinheads, who are a relevant agent of destruction: their narrow-mindedness together with the brutality of their actions bring a tragic twist both at the beginning and at the end of the story leaving the reader taken aback and helpless… and in my case extremely upset. Walsh’s opinion on skinheads is relentless and comes from Vincent, who is their main victim.
Let’s begin this second series of similarities I’ve found with the premise that I graduated with a B.A. on Oscar Wilde and that I ADORE him. Now, you can imagine how easy it was for me to find some references to Dorian Gray. At school he was nicknamed Gaylord, but Vincent’s sexuality comes to surface only in the third part of the novel when he finally meets Kenny, who calls him Dorian Gray. From that moment on he gradually identifies with Wilde’s character until the very and tragic end. The relationship between Vincent and Kenny begins with some sort of role play, starting with some quotations by Oscar Wilde (“It’s only shallow people who do not judge by appearances” - “To be popular one must be a mediocrity”- “I can resist everything but temptation”) and going on with Vincent being a total embodiment of Dorian. At some point Kenny is worried about that and tries to drag Vincent into reality with a sentence that sounds like a prophecy: “This is your fatal error, Dorian. You value beauty far too highly”. I can only add that I’ve cried for Vincent…
Music and books permeate the story: the former is Robbie’s passion and he can pass it on to his son; the latter areVincent’s prerogative.
TO GET INTO THE SPIRIT OF THE BOOK
ROBBIE’S TRAGIC COMPILATION:
Pete St. John, The Fields of Athenry
Percy Sledge, When a Man Loves a Woman
Don Maclean, Vincent
VINCENT’S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL COMPILATION:
Vincent’s favourite music really represents him: there’s a double reference to Prince Charming, being the name that Sibyl Vane used for Dorian Gray and referring also to Vincent’s obsession for beauty towards the end of the book.
Adam Ant, Prince Charming
John Foxx, The Garden
Leonard Cohen, Famous Blue Raincoat
The Smiths, This Charming Man
The Cure, A Night Like This
David Bowie, Wild is the Wind
VINCENT’S PERSONAL LIBRARY:
Vincent’s books testify his misery and his problems: their main themes being drug, violence, homosexuality, rebellion, madness, and suicide.
Nelson Algren, The Man with the Golden Arm
William Burroughs, The Naked Lunch
Hubert Selby Jr., Last Exit to Brooklyn
George Orwell, 1984
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Bret Easton Ellis, Less Than Zero
Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
Timothy Leary, The Psychedelic Experience
Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle
Philip Larkin, “This Be the Verse”
Jean Genet, The Thief’s Journal
Albert Camus, The Outsider
Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
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