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FROM THE NOVEL:.. After half an hour of chaos the bar fell silent again. Then the waitress arrived to collect the order. Giuseppe, who was drifting in his thoughts and far-reaching impossible fantasies, tried to answer but the words remained deep in his throat as suddenly a woman materialized in the doorway, as if from nowhere. She was wearing clothes the colour of which had never been seen before. Her face was light-skinned and framed by flowing hair of amber. Incredibly, that apparition seemed to have sprung out of his imagination; she was the person he had always looked for. She was the personafication of all the woman in the world. He would have liked to talk to her on some pretext, but his nature was not that of a playboy. Moreover, he was fearing a possible banal answer from the woman, which would have broken the spell that her apparition had cast on him. She was very beatiful, her face recalled that of a mermaid, her eyes were like the cutting eyes of a cormorants and her body was as harmoniosus as that of a scytale.She could have been a melody disguised as a woman. After a moment's confusion, Giuseppe began to suspect that such a creature could not possibly exist on Earth. Where did she come from? Why had she come? He thought she might be an illusion or even some hallucination of his mind. In the meantime, she walked out of the bar after having had a cup of coffee. At that point, Giuseppe, to get rid of all doubts, turned on his movie camera furtively, following her without furter hesitation. He started to film her. As she was twisted around the calling railing before the ravine, she smiled at him, a smile both happy and sad at the same time. A strange one, a very strange one. Whit a close-up of the profile he filmed every little detail or her face. Her forehead was wide and it came down to shape a nose so finely that it was totally imperfectible. Also her lips, her cheeks, the upper part of her neck and even the pores of her skin reminded him of a calculated creation. The sum of grace and perfection concentrated in an imperturbable face served to make all that vague and ambiguous splendour deceptive. Suddenly, she resumed her trip. He climbed robot-like into the car and began following her. On the highway a long story was born between them. A story reaching to the outermost limits of the world. A story rooted in overtakings, chases, images reflected in rearview mirrors, entries and exit of tunnels, lights, shadows, slowing down, braking, sighs, acceleration and some unbearable loos. They seemed two cormorants in love, chasing each other across the sky, above the ocean...


Back Matteo Pappalardo, Gazzetta del Sud, 12.9.1996 : THE INTERIOR PATHWAY OF A SOUL