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Rating: Instant book that couldn't be more instant.
Objectively, bought as soon as it came out, it contained news from the week before. Almost like a weekly magazine.
Judging by the sales charts, one of the most appreciated reads by Italians this summer.
Before judging (or, in our small way, reviewing) such a work, it seems necessary to understand some basic concepts.
First of all: it is legitimate to earn with a work of this kind. The answer, which I believe is unanimous, can only be yes. Political books, whether instant or historical, have always existed and will always exist. The problem, if anything, is the truthfulness of what is written inside. But for that, there is criminal law, when necessary.
The second question, obviously much more fraught with potential controversy than the first, is: are we living in a time of democratic emergency in Italy? Is the information, both public and private, skewed, falsified, misrepresented? Is it true that 80% of Italians get their news from television, less than 20% from newspapers, and only 2.7% from the internet (the only anarchic source and therefore potentially more truthful than others?)? Recently published data would say so. Is it true that in Italy one person decides most of what we see on TV (private television, 2/3 of the public, Endemol which produces almost all successful and mass programs for both), in the cinema (Medusa, nearly monopolist of film distribution), and what we read (almost all newspapers, directly or indirectly, except those linked to the Espresso-Repubblica group, and Mondadori-Einaudi, i.e., over 70% of large book distribution on the territory)?
If the answer to the question I've posed above is positive, then this book, like all similar ones, has its reason for being.
Indeed, you can read in it an impressive amount of data not disproven by credible facts (nor by well-rounded facts, one might say...), and indeed proven by an infinity of circumstantial and probative material, which Italians, despite having the sacred right, have not had the opportunity to know.
So, although the thing might indeed seem grotesque, under the beach umbrella might have arrived a synopsis of all that our fellow citizens, not frequenting blogs and not buying l'Unità (and not even buying Repubblica...: it takes a year's sales of Repubblica to reach the audience of just one week of Rete4...), have not had the chance to read, see, or hear.
And, perhaps, once the book is read, one might also discover that online you can find recordings, photographs, and films, in other words, all that material which in any Western country would be more than enough to send our little man home. But, on the other hand, nowhere else in the Western world could such a character have even thought of running.
But let's get back to the book, which is also what we must talk about.
How is it written? Is it worth it?
Regardless of the content (from which, however, one cannot and should not be independent) the book is well conceived, flows very quickly, even in its "material" thickness, and basically is easy to read.
Undoubtedly the fawning nature of the instant book is also evident in the patient and surgical work of "cut and paste" of articles, wiretaps, depositions, interviews, etc., which makes the truly "written" part very reduced compared to the evident thickness of the object.
But it is unfortunately, or fortunately, the content that cannot be absolutely disregarded. If one agrees, or even if one is just curious, it is a necessary read, today.
Undoubtedly, one might not even make the three authors earn money by finding every detail on the Internet. But, as we know, Italians don't do it. And so, in the absence of other means of communication currently very scarcely available, a book that our fellow countrymen should know is welcome.
At the very least, even just to counter its content. But, my friends, if the embattled and overpaid lawyers of the premier couldn't manage to counter these tragicomic data, can our little barroom discussions succeed (even if, to read them well, even the defensive lines of "Mavalà" Ghedini certainly belong more in a bar than in a court)?
That's how the world goes... (for now). Kisses
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