Franco Battiato: L'arca di Noè
CD Audio I have it ★★★★
Fred Uhlman: Un'anima non vile
Cartaceo Not intrested
This rereading of the events in 'L'Amico ritrovato' from Konradine's perspective is cute, but in my opinion, it remains fundamentally unnecessary, nothing more than a (superfluous) appendix to the moving original story. The problem, in my view, is that Hans and Konradine are practically on the same wavelength character-wise and intellectually, so the feelings and emotions recalled by Konradine regarding his friendship with Hans and the happy school months spent with him are virtually the same as those of his friend, which makes this novella nothing more than a pale imitation of the original. Even the theme of remorse stemming from his uncomfortable position—being the son of Nazis with a Jewish best friend—which would be the "unpublished content," appears redundant, as it is already very much perceivable in 'L'Amico ritrovato.' I don't know; to me, it's a piece of writing that adds nothing to the original material and, in fact, only emphasizes its incisiveness and beauty.
Third novel in the trilogy of The Friend Who Was Found, which is effectively a continuation of the first story: Hans – who in this version is called Simon Elias – now aged and disillusioned, returns to his hometown and meets with his old classmates who still carry, beneath their manners and polite formalities, the seeds of Nazism. For me, it’s somewhat the same discussion as 'A Not Vile Soul': it’s a "sequel" that honestly didn’t seem necessary considering that The Friend Who Was Found ended with the bitter reflection of the adult Hans, who had effectively repressed the years spent in Germany and the memories tied to them; this story merely expands on this theme, but the result, in my opinion, is frankly rhetorical, at times repetitive. I repeat, the strength of The Friend Who Was Found lies precisely in its succinctness: in just a few lines it adequately touched upon all the present themes, and being such a brief story – almost symbolizing the transience of the friendship destroyed by Nazism – guarantees a considerable emotional impact. "Less is more": the two subsequent stories were probably only useful to Uhlman to exorcise the traumas of his own past.