"Gomorrah" - Roberto Saviano

Om Savianos bok har det skrivits så mycket att jag bara tillåter mig att kommentera hans stil. Först blir jag glatt förvånad, Saviano skriver anfått, som om hela camorran flåsade honom i nacken. Mycket effektivt. Sedan blir jag irriterad över anaforerna och textens historiska presens. Och alla dessa namnkataloger. Allt oftare hoppar jag över raderna av Raffaele Amato, Gennaro Marino McKay, Arcangelo Abate, Giacomo Migliaccio, Giovanni Cortese, Enrico D'Avanzo, Cosimo Di Lauro och så vidare i all evighet. Tills The Nations Henry Farrell förklarar:

"[Italian] investigative journalists--even the best ones-- use nicknames coined by insiders to refer to prominent politicians and ministries, and they frequently hint that they know much more than they can tell. Scandals are never fully described or resolved; instead, they always point to even wider scandals that will forever remain undisclosed. The result is a pervasive cynicism among newspaper readers. The Italian language even has a word, dietrologia, to denote the belief that everything important happens behind the scenes, away from the public eye."

Savianos rapande av namn är alltså både unikt och nödvändigt. Ingen dietrologia i hans bok. Här ska varenda person nämnas vid sitt rätta namn. Okej, men uttryckssättet då? Henry Farrell kommenterar också det:

"Gomorrah's rhythms aren't properly those of the English language. The book deploys words in ways that sometimes reflect their Italian cognates more than their ordinary given meanings. [---] Saviano hasn't written a sociological treatise about the Camorra. He doesn't state a thesis and draw carefully specified conclusions. Nor does he play coy. He's not only trying to understand the system of power that has ruined Campania but also doing his bit to attack and destroy it. His book pits his own form of writing--call it Savianologia--against the Camorra and the pervasive public attitude that nothing can be done about it."

Jag fattar. Och beundrar.