Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Live Bait- Fazio Genovesi

Live Bait
Fazio Genovesi; Michael F. Moore (translator)
Other Press, Jul 1 2014,
ISBN 9781590516812

Nothing of significance (good or bad) ever happens in the small Tuscan town Muglione.  Teenager Fiorenzo is like all of the young as he struggles with his future though atypical since he had the misfortune of losing a hand in a childhood accident.  Currently he skips school to work at his widowed father’s bait shop and to sing with his band Metal Devastation.  

Nineteen years old Fiorenzo meets thirtyish beautiful, brilliant and bored Tiziana, who runs the local youth center.  The teen and the older woman appear as opposites, yet they connect because in each other they find an honest soul seeking to escape ennui.

Live Bait is an engaging look at contemporary Italian youth with Fiorenzo representing every teen facing seemingly no future, surviving a boring past and dealing with a nothing present.  By being the exception to what the rest of the young masses confront, a top level teenage cyclist emphasizes this hopeless phenomenon.  Leisurely-paced and at times slow, readers will enjoy a glimpse of life in Italy for the millenniums.

Harriet Klausner

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