See under the verb to love

Enrico Galiano «Eppure cadiamo felici» [Yet We Fall Happy] Garzanti 2017

I was curious to read books by Professor Galiano who has become so famous for novels about adolescence. I chose the first one Eppure cadiamo felici [Yet We Fall Happy] that recounts the story of red-haired Gioia Spada who has an important encounter with a strange and enigmatic boy called Lo (who later turns out to be called Luca). This encounter is capable of bringing them out of the survival strategies in which they have both taken refuge to face the harshness and consequences of family life with a hard but fragile heart. If at first the narrative dynamics seemed similar to those of many other coming-of-age stories, I had to change my mind halfway through the book. I am glad that it did not resort to the simplification of feelings that solve all problems. Love can be an impetus to look oneself in the face, to call by name what one experiences on one’s own skin and try to invent life, but then one needs to interpret it with the mediation of adult figures. The welcoming and reacquainted family, of course, remains the desire for a landing place, but in the complex world of adolescents, who need new stories to read so as to fit fully into the life of these years that are different from all the others, the offerings are very often insufficient.