Rocco Tanica
Scritti Scelti Male

Oh dear! Elio e le Storie Tese have done it again! No, I'm not reviewing the brand new single "Storia di un bellimbusto" (which, by the way, is worryingly flat and lacking in ideas). In fact, I should say that Rocco Tanica has done it again. Yes, Rocco has written a book.

"Scritti Scelti Male" (2008) is a humorous collection of writings (precisely) assorted in an absolutely disorderly and poorly manner (exactly).

The first literary effort of our Rocco-Sergio Tanica-Conforti surprisingly mirrors his group’s discography: many, many strokes of genius and a few falls (of style) into the trivial and the boring. All held together by an extremely surreal comedic vein.

There is also a nod to the "Zelig" type of comedy (Rocco is a great friend of Claudio Bisio and the Elii are often guests on the show), as in the poem "Ti ho dato-1" which I have written at the conclusion of this review. This book has everything, from story to "short reviews of works and judgments on people", from poetry to unpublished revelations about the Kennedy assassination or Charles Manson. And Rocco uses everything to make us smile: even the dedication. As already mentioned, there are truly pointless moments in this book, but they are redeemed by flashes of absolute genius, just to name one, the "great classics in a maximum of a hundred words using Word's auto summary function" (the summaries of "I Promessi Sposi" and especially of Goldoni's "La Locandiera" are Oscar-worthy).

Highly recommended for die-hard fans of the Elii, although this remains a hilarious book, and therefore I urge everyone to give it a read, with the disengagement and light-heartedness it deserves.

Ti ho dato - 1

I gave you a hundred euros

And you didn’t want to make love

I gave you two hundred euros

And you didn’t want to make love

I gave you three hundred euros

And you didn’t want to make love

I gave you four hundred euros

And you wanted to make love

I thought:

I’ve figured out how it works.

The next time

I first gave you four hundred euros

And you didn’t want to make love

I was left with egg on my face

I gave you seven hundred euros

And you didn’t want to make love

Huh?

I gave you six hundred euros

And you wanted to make love

It really is a world

Beyond my understanding.