To understand the significance of this long story of Michele Brancale you can not ignore the numerous collections of poems that precede it: The fountain of steel (Polistampa 2007); Psalms metropolitan (Edizioni del Leone, 2009) The Pearl of Lolek (Giuliano Ladolfi, 2011) and the recent a mild breeze regime (LucaniArt Cultural Association, 2012)
In each I breathed pure oxygen, as if reading were open before me in all their clarity horizons too often submerged or hidden by the fog of indifference and habit. Almost the society in which we live had placed his hands over his eyes and at the same time he raised up the volume of noise that disturbs us every day, thereby suffocating other visions, other sounds, other voices.
The poetic writing of Michael returns them to us. It is a journey within man, his values, places that lives, with particular attention towards the past, the most uncomfortable, the most ignored by society, because most consider it would create disorder.
You write a deeply human, civil, in the noblest sense of the term, its connotation of social engagement on several fronts, the message that we receive is hard, I would often raw, albeit cloaked in musicality and, rarely found in poetry today, by the rigorous aesthetic grace.
To confirm, however, that the urgency of the saying is not afraid to rely on any possible form of expression of the word, we find, among the poems, even some works in fiction, such as the delicious tale Soave and aged (Polistampa, 2007).
Almost a must read before tackling the reading of The bracelet Toledo.
In an unexpectedly light and lively style, full of colors and sounds dialect, you will make the acquaintance of a bizarre and tender character, Giuseppe D'Amore, reporter apparently absent-minded, attracted by '"useless" poetry like flies to honey, in reality tenacious and determined in trying to understand the true meaning of what happens: the alter ego of Michael, a projection of his ego (but not only) with which the author likes to move between pages.
An alter ego who regularly find also starred in The bracelet Toledo. This is the beginning in which he outlines a description:
“Sotto il ponte all’Indiano, nel tratto terminale che immette in Scandicci, non si capiva se era la campagna a resistere o se quel verde che si vedeva rappresentasse l’evidenza residuale di un passato se non glorioso, almeno dignitoso, con tanto di chiesetta in pietra. Tra fili di ferro, rottami qua e là e spezzoni di lamiere, D’Amore, cronista e pennivendolo, aveva cercato asilo in una zolla verde, dove si era accovacciato a prendere appunti. Era così diventato uno dei punti semianimati che si guardano in corsa da quel ponte, omaggio fiorentino al ponte di Brooklyn, riuscito peraltro piuttosto benino.
“È un caro ragazzo, un po’ suonato”, deduceva il capo della mobile Barabei percorrendo il ponte con la volante, in direzione Firenze, e vedendo una specie di piccione accovacciato a scrivere su una zolla d’erba. Lo aveva lasciato lì poco prima, su sua esplicita richiesta. “Devo raccogliere le idee”, aveva sentenziato D’Amore rivolgendosi all’amico poliziotto, che se l’era portato dietro alla periferia della città, tra gli isolotti lunari della frazioni di Mantignano e Ugnano, per “sfrattare” un ex operaio, con mansioni di cuoco alla mensa aziendale, licenziato due settimane prima.”
Start reading a book is always a 'adventure. What will you encounter? Which characters will leap off the page? What places? What will tell us, or what silence will be highlighted?
Picking up a book for the first time, even before the reading can satisfy every curiosity, there are many grips that you may use to try to anticipate the content: author, title, publisher, any illustrations ... And here the footholds there. The task is even easier in this case, the complicity of the numerous drawings of Paul Penko that go hand in hand with the narrative portraying artistic, meaningful details and views of the city. The story is also accompanied, in the end, to be a very interesting iconographic essay edited by Anita Valentini on the meaning and symbolism in the course of time, attributed to the pomegranate and its fruits, in close relation to the figure of Eleanor, on the front cover.
However, until reading is complete we can never say we have an appropriate book, although in this case, in part, I had already made an idea by reading the dedication written by Michele fist in hand me his book: " For Annalisa ... this story of friendship possible in the streets of the city. " The author had emphasized the words friendship and cities.
The Toledo bracelet comes in an elegant layout where stands the beautiful portrait of Eleonora of Toledo, pictured, almost recreated for the naturalness of expression that make it seem almost alive, by the skilled hands of Bronzino.
Eleonora di Toledo, daughter of the wealthy viceroy of Naples, in the spring of 1539, just seventeen, she married Cosimo I de 'Medici. Although the marriage had been, as was customary at the time, combined and was intended to strengthen the political and economic position of Cosimo, the couple loved sincere love and enduring giving birth to a numerous offspring and ensuring a family descendants at least the next two centuries.
Eleanor, already famous for its beauty and majesty of the innate behavior - as reflected in a dazzling portrait from - accompanied by a brother and a series of jails in tow, sailed from Naples to arrive at Livorno in June of 1539 .
A few days later, the ducal couple made his solemn entry in Florence, which was followed by the sumptuous celebration of the marriage. Cosimo and Eleonora took up residence in the Palazzo Medici of the then Via Larga, now Palazzo Medici Riccardi in via Cavour. The entry of Eleonora marked a revolution in the habits and life of the Medici family, much less opulent and refined the newcomer, for the multitude of knights and ladies of which she liked to surround himself and for the attention he showed towards arts and culture, including poetry.
Who knows, maybe still lingers in the halls of the palace, so rich in art treasures and where they are frequently organized cultural events, the good ghost of Eleanor, always ready to cover with his wing, in hard times, those who love poetry, literature , painting, a bit 'as it is perceived in all the pages of the book, as the reading continues. An invisible but decisive in the emergence of the story and that, with the wanderings of Joseph D'Amore, slowly creeps in Florence today, dusting off old splendor.
The book unfolds like a long walk addressed as a sign of respect and friendship for a rising homelessness, the rediscovery of the city's historic streets and shops, reconstructing a wide geography and enjoyable Florentine, from the periphery to the center up to the immediate surroundings in the Chianti region, in search of a non-existent bracelet. A wander but will lead to the discovery of another. Research that aims, however, towards the end of the story, to materialize in unusual way, you will not have been in vain. In a strange dimension a little 'dreamy, a bit' full of past glories, a little 'charge current problems, our protagonist looks around in new ways, turning to look attentive and amazed of the forgotten corners of Florence, in particular on some survived workshops, including that of the master goldsmith Paul Penko, author of the beautiful designs and possessor of hands capable of giving art form not only in gems and precious metals.
The raid in these workshops by the protagonist reminds us, among other things, that this territory has historically seen a board bearing the Florentine economy in crafts and art object created by the artisan, inspired by ancient models , is considered a valuable seal between past and present. Neglect it would be a real insult to history and common sense.
This strange walk Giuseppe D'Amore reminds me of a wonderful book, entitled The walk their own, by Robert Walser, one of the greatest writers in the German language, lived at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is a short story, highly poetic, set in the Swiss town, birthplace of the author. In one day, or the time for a long walk, in an elegant, light and dreamy, the author manages to make us partakers of the elusive beauty, enchantment of every meeting, every detail that draws its attention. He is aware of the bottom of inescapable misery of life, but can smoothly it behind them, to dissociate, to make room for a joyful inner peace. Gives us a different way to exist, to see with the eyes and mind.
Even Joseph D'Amore, in his wanderings Florentine, learn to lay eyes on his city in a different way. Does emerge from the darkness of indifference places and people, leads to acceptance and full dignity of friendship a chance encounter, making us reflect on the condition of the homeless, silently leaving us to imagine the army of outcasts behind this figure, men and women abandoned by society, shamefully Florence swallowed up by a blind and deaf, made invisible to our eyes from the mists of selfishness, superficiality, indifference, if not intolerance. A finding his bitter, but also a complaint positive, courageous and peaceful that suggests possible avenues of hope, as the happy ending of the story points out.
Annalisa Macchia