Giorgio De Maria (1924–2009)

I had high hopes for this book, having heard about it through one of John Coulthart’s frequent links, and then reminded of it from an article in the Verge (https://www.theverge.com/23863059/social-media-20-days-of-turin-giorgio-de-maria). Alas, it did not terrorize me the way others claimed it terrorized them.

To be fair, it takes a lot for a book to get under my skin—perhaps a lack of imagination on my part, or the distancing effect of reading—and _Twenty Days_ has some interesting ideas and a nice sense of growing (and justified) paranoia. It is, I think, a bit Pynchonesque, but perhaps too short and vague to really build up to the level of creepiness that it could have reached.… (more)

This book by Giorgio de Maria is a classic. On the face of it, the tale is simple - a man investigating the events in Turin many years ago. Someone set up a library in an asylum, and you have the diaries of people in the library.

No one wants to talk of those days or speak of the library. As the book continues, a sense of menace and foreboding will go through you, and the author escapes at the end.

Or, does he? Does he escape? What is he escaping from? You will never know.

Can we escape from ourselves? We will never know.

The writing is simple. Very simple. This simplicity masks the mastery of the writing.

This book is relevant, scary, dystopian and a classic.… (more)

My first comment is this: Giorgio De Maria deserves a wide audience. It is a travesty that he is almost forgotten.

I was shaken when I read the first novella, "The Transgressionists." The story may seem far-fetched, but it is not. A bunch of people with almost telepathic powers seeking to infiltrate and control the world may seem fantastic. However, when you think about this, you will realize that many people seek to control our minds through the sheer force of their personalities. When such people do so almost in silence, it becomes altogether frightening. And it happens in broad daylight.

The second story tells the tale of a psychological experiment by Stalin on a poet.

The third is about a group of artists who use corpses as art objects. The fourth is of a crazy General, and the fifth is a teleplay.

The stories play upon the horrors of the human mind, almost evil experiments, and psychological games. The stories are disturbing because they live within the realm of plausibility.

I read some of the stories two times, and they stay with me. Read the stories. Buy the book.… (more)