Senza pudore di Helen Walsh mi ha lasciata senza parole. Mentre lo leggevo il mio cervello registrava ritmicamente le seguenti impressioni: schifo, bello, bello, schifo, bello, bello, schifo… e a dire la verità sono ancora molto combattuta. Così ho tastato il polso della rete: ho girellato tra blog, chat, siti e forum per farmi un’idea di come è stato accolto. Non avrei dovuto farlo. Non avrei dovuto perché mi sono imbattuta nel blog di Mia ed ho scoperto che mi ha letteralmente rubato le parole di bocca (o dovrei dire dalle dita). Eppure per me è stato proprio così. Ho ingoiato questo libro come una pasticca di Ecstasy, mi sono calata tutti gli undici capitoli uno dietro l’altro e… lo sballo dell’Ecstasy non lo conosco, ma quello che mi ha procurato questo libro è stata un’altalena di emozioni: dal rifiuto, alla pietà, alla comprensione, al rigetto (in alcuni punti anche alla nausea), in un continuo susseguirsi e avvicendarsi di impressioni spesso contrastanti.
Anche l’idea di arrendersi alla lettura senza farsi domande l’ho trovata molto azzeccata. In un certo senso, la scrittura della Walsh ti costringe a fare proprio questo, perché non ti lascia il tempo di pensare, di razionalizzare. Ti scarica addosso il flusso di pensieri e azioni dei suoi personaggi senza darti tregua, senza lunghe descrizioni per farti respirare e così ti trovi pagina dopo pagina ad assistere agli eventi senza riflettere. In un paio di occasioni mi sono ritrovata con lo stomaco ed i muscoli in tensione per quello che stavo leggendo: ho avuto giusto il tempo di rendermene conto, rilassarli… e riprendere la lettura, che è corsa via veloce fino alle ultime parole.
Ma veniamo alla storia: Millie O’Reilly è la figlia di un professore universitario ed è iscritta all’università. E’ inelligente e bellissima, ma l’università è l’ultimo dei suoi pensieri: la sua vita ruota attorno al sesso (è bisessuale), all’alcool e alla droga che condivide con il suo grande amico Jamie. Una sorta di gorgo di perversione la inghiotte, pagina dopo pagina, fino a risputarla fuori proprio all’ultima pagina, quando ormai la daresti per persa.
La storia è ambientata nella Liverpool degradata (ma anche nella Liverpool studentesca) verso la quale l’autrice, così come Millie, ha un rapporto di amore/odio.
Direi che Helen Walsh ama la musica: in Once Upon a Time in England la musica pervadeva il testo e pensavo che fosse per caratterizzare i personaggi, qui mi rendo conto che è l’impronta della scrittrice.
Ancora una volta, per immergersi nelle atmosfere del libro…
Aretha Franklin, I Say a Little Prayer
Van Morrison, Moondance
Van Morrison, Brown Eyed Girl
Nick Drake, Fruit Tree
Joy Division, Love Will Tear Us Apart
P. J. Harvey, One Line
Bob Marley, Jamming
New Order, Crystal
Ministry, The Land of Rape and Honey
HELEN WALSH: BRASS
Brass by Helen Walsh really left me speechless. While I was reading my mind went ‘disgusting’ ‘nice’ ‘disgusting’ ‘nice’ ‘nice’ ‘disgusting’... and I’m still not totally convinced whether one of the two has prevailed. So I took a peek in the net… blogs... forums… chats… websites… to get an idea of what other people had thought of it. I shouldn’t have. I shouldn’t have because I came across Mia’s blog and I found out she took the words right out of my mouth (in this case… my fingers). Exactly. Like she said, I swallowed this book like Ecstasy pills, I dropped each of the 11 chapters one after the other and… even if I have no idea of what MDMA highs are… I can say that this book has really been a ballet of emotions: from rejection, to mercy, sympathy, disgust… in perpetual rotation. I agree with Mia again when she suggests that the reader surrenders the book completely, without question. Ms Walsh’s style leaves the reader no time for thinking, or rationalize… the whole stream of a character’s thoughts and actions dumping on you without pause… without long descriptions to relieve you or explanations of any kind. In some points I found myself with my muscles tensed due to what was happening in the story and when I realized that I had to stop reading to relax…
But let’s come to the story: Millie O’Reilly is a professor’s daughter and studies at university. She’s intelligent and beautiful, but she doesn’t care about her studies: her thoughts are all on sex (she’s bisexual), alcohol and drugs. Her life is driving down the side of a whirlpool of perversion, page after page, and then that same whirlpool spits her out right in the last page, when you are certain she’ll be lost forever.
The story is set in a degraded Liverpool the author seems to love and hate at the same time. I would also say Helen Walsh loves music: in Once Upon a Time in England music permeated the pages and I thought it was used to bring vitality to her characters, but I realize now that’s part of her style.
To get into thespirit of the book:
Aretha Franklin, I Say a Little Prayer
Van Morrison, Moondance
Van Morrison, Brown Eyed Girl
Nick Drake, Fruit Tree
Joy Division, Love Will Tear Us Apart
P. J. Harvey, One Line
Bob Marley, Jamming
New Order, Crystal
Ministry, The Land of Rape and Honey
HELEN WALSH: BRASS
Brass by Helen Walsh really left me speechless. While I was reading my mind went ‘disgusting’ ‘nice’ ‘disgusting’ ‘nice’ ‘nice’ ‘disgusting’... and I’m still not totally convinced whether one of the two has prevailed. So I took a peek in the net… blogs... forums… chats… websites… to get an idea of what other people had thought of it. I shouldn’t have. I shouldn’t have because I came across Mia’s blog and I found out she took the words right out of my mouth (in this case… my fingers). Exactly. Like she said, I swallowed this book like Ecstasy pills, I dropped each of the 11 chapters one after the other and… even if I have no idea of what MDMA highs are… I can say that this book has really been a ballet of emotions: from rejection, to mercy, sympathy, disgust… in perpetual rotation. I agree with Mia again when she suggests that the reader surrenders the book completely, without question. Ms Walsh’s style leaves the reader no time for thinking, or rationalize… the whole stream of a character’s thoughts and actions dumping on you without pause… without long descriptions to relieve you or explanations of any kind. In some points I found myself with my muscles tensed due to what was happening in the story and when I realized that I had to stop reading to relax…
But let’s come to the story: Millie O’Reilly is a professor’s daughter and studies at university. She’s intelligent and beautiful, but she doesn’t care about her studies: her thoughts are all on sex (she’s bisexual), alcohol and drugs. Her life is driving down the side of a whirlpool of perversion, page after page, and then that same whirlpool spits her out right in the last page, when you are certain she’ll be lost forever.
The story is set in a degraded Liverpool the author seems to love and hate at the same time. I would also say Helen Walsh loves music: in Once Upon a Time in England music permeated the pages and I thought it was used to bring vitality to her characters, but I realize now that’s part of her style.
To get into thespirit of the book:
Aretha Franklin, I Say a Little Prayer
Van Morrison, Moondance
Van Morrison, Brown Eyed Girl
Nick Drake, Fruit Tree
Joy Division, Love Will Tear Us Apart
P. J. Harvey, One Line
Bob Marley, Jamming
New Order, Crystal
Ministry, The Land of Rape and Honey
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