2024-05-14 01:08:51
sad tiger Of Neige Sinno (Neri Pozza, trans. Luciana Cisbani) is certainly one of the novels of the moment. It is written by a woman, who traces a story of abuse suffered by her stepfather between the ages of 7 and 14. At 19, she made the decision, supported by her mother, to report her rapist, who ended up in prison. For Sinno, the beginning of a new life, far from France, her native country, first in the USA and then in Mexico. A new life also as a writer. Which does not erase what has happened, on the contrary: because writing, in this case, digs and questions. How could this happen? Who was the man who abused her? What do you say to the victim about her, during the years of abuse? How is it justified? And the victim, why her? Did what created the lamb also create the tiger?
The mind of the criminal, especially in cases like these, is more interesting than that of the victim, Sinno writes. But this man’s mind, in the end, is not so special. It presents many similarities with that of the protagonist of “Lolita”, the masterpiece of Nabokov. She justifies herself by saying she loves. She also says that the little girl likes what is happening, even if she doesn’t admit it. What is surprising in “Triste tigre” are, if anything, the crazy details. The man, the stepfather, loves the mountains, has the cult of virile friendship, does his utmost in mountain rescue, drives ambulances. It wouldn’t seem like the portrait of a monster, and in fact he doesn’t feel like one, even after the court’s conviction.
Sinno’s novel is a memoir. On this ground in recent years, many stories like this have emerged. Harsh, heartbreaking stories, stories often told “femininely”. I think the danger today is excess supply. Many narratives play on the pair of male executioner-female victim (to which are added those of the journalistic news, of course). What makes the difference is the language. Lucid, anti-romantic. Made of short sentences, of dry judgments. Very similar to that of Annie Ernaux, Nobel Prize for Literature 2022. So much so that it sometimes seems like a model of him. Moreover, Ernaux did not hold back: «Reading ‘Sad Tiger‘ – she wrote – is like descending into an abyss with your eyes open. It forces you to see, to really see, what it means to be a child abused by an adult, for years. Everyone should read it. Especially teenagers.” Moreover, Ernaux in her turn recounted (among other things) a limiting experience, that of a clandestine abortion, in France in the 1960s, when abortion, like in Italy, was still a crime. The closeness between the two authors is not just stylistic.
Traumatic experiences may pass, but they remain. They mark forever. This seems to me to be one of the lessons that can be drawn from this reading. The judgement, the consideration expressed by the protagonists, however, can change over time, because life continues anyway, modifying memories and emotions. This is in some ways scandalous. It is scandalous that life continues along apparently ordinary tracks after (and even during) the violence, the abuse of minors, the massacres of civilians, Auschwitz. How is it possible? This is what we ask ourselves when reading works like “If This Is a Man”, and perhaps, although on an obviously different scale, like “Triste tigre”.
2024-05-14 01:08:51