Books in Brief: Berlinguer and the Professor

Berlinguer and the Professor, by Anonymous (Viking, 117 pp., $6.95).

The Professor is Amintore Fanfani, sachem of the Christian Democrats; Berlinguer is the leader of the Italian Communists; Anonymous assumes the fictional role of Fanfani’s long-time secretary, writing the account of Italy’s transition from the First to the Second Republic in the years 1977-80, with a brief mention of the succeeding Great Leap Forward and, in 1982, the triumphant Great Reconstruction. This is a surrealist fantasy Italian style, a verbal analogue of a de Chirico painting. In 1977 the rich families solve the kidnapping problem by importing Gurkhas, whose presence in a household becomes the prime status symbol. Two thousand young people, calling themselves Vigilantes, “sometimes supplied with chains and bars, sometimes with guitars,” squat in the Quirinale Palace, the residence of the President, to protect him, they say, from right-wing commandos, and incidentally to prevent his leaving. The unions have set up toll-charging roadblocks across all the Tiber bridges to finance ongoing strikes. The College of Cardinals, after a 73-day deadlock, elects as pope a deaf German who can’t understand Italian but insists on its being spoken. And so on. Henry Kissinger and the Pope join with Berlinguer and Fanfani to haul Italy through the shambles. The central point is left obscure. The satire slashes in many directions, but cuts most deeply into the Social Democrats. Berlinguer is made to give the indictment flatly: “You’re too fatuous to tear yourself away from your posts. You’re too cynical not to be available for anything. And too cowardly to face our anger.” Berlinguer, in fact, is the only persona presented, in the end, as serious…. Perhaps that is the point. JAMES BURNHAM

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James Burnham

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Berlinguer and the Professor, by Anonymous (Viking, 117 pp., $6.95).

The Professor is Amintore Fanfani, sachem of the Christian Democrats; Berlinguer is the leader of the Italian Communists; Anonymous assumes the fictional role of Fanfani’s long-time secretary, writing the account of Italy’s transition from the First to the Second Republic in the years 1977-80, with a brief mention of the succeeding Great Leap Forward and, in 1982, the triumphant Great Reconstruction. This is a surrealist fantasy Italian style, a verbal analogue of a de Chirico painting. In 1977 the rich families solve the kidnapping problem by importing Gurkhas, whose presence in a household becomes the prime status symbol. Two thousand young people, calling themselves Vigilantes, “sometimes supplied with chains and bars, sometimes with guitars,” squat in the Quirinale Palace, the residence of the President, to protect him, they say, from right-wing commandos, and incidentally to prevent his leaving. The unions have set up toll-charging roadblocks across all the Tiber bridges to finance ongoing strikes. The College of Cardinals, after a 73-day deadlock, elects as pope a deaf German who can’t understand Italian but insists on its being spoken. And so on. Henry Kissinger and the Pope join with Berlinguer and Fanfani to haul Italy through the shambles. The central point is left obscure. The satire slashes in many directions, but cuts most deeply into the Social Democrats. Berlinguer is made to give the indictment flatly: “You’re too fatuous to tear yourself away from your posts. You’re too cynical not to be available for anything. And too cowardly to face our anger.” Berlinguer, in fact, is the only persona presented, in the end, as serious…. Perhaps that is the point. JAMES BURNHAM