Review: The House on Via Gemito by Domenico Starnone

The house of the title is a modest apartment on Via Gemito that smells of paint and turpentine. Its furniture is pushed up against the wall to create a makeshift studio and drying canvases are moved from bed to floor each night. Federí, the father, a railway clerk, is convinced that he possesses great artistic promise. If it weren’t for the family he must feed and the jealousy of his fellow Neapolitan artists, nothing would stop him from becoming a world-famous painter. Ambitious and frustrated, genuinely talented but also arrogant and resentful, he is scarred by constant disappointment.

Based on the story of Federico Starnone whose masterpiece, The Drinkers, is featured on the novel’s cover, this is a sour portrait of the man. Born into an impoverished household but with a strong passion for art, Federico finds his life path derailed by economic and political circumstances. Due to his ongoing troubles with anger, jealousy, and excessive bragging, he causes a great deal of suffering for his family. After all this time, the narrator still can’t clear his mind of the scenes of his parents fighting and of his father hitting his mother. The patriarchal mindset and the subjugation of women in the Italy of the period is masterfully shown in the novel.

“Of course I remember everything about him; he filled my head with his words and thoughts. I have none of my mother’s words though, none of my mother’s thoughts… No, my mother’s voice, even if it wound its way into every single fiber of my child’s body, ultimately gave out, was too fragile. She, who unquestionably played with me, sang to me, and made toys for me, didn’t have it in her to leave me with any sounds. She was quickly reduced to the words that her husband screamed at her from the moment he came home from work until late at night.”

Naples functions as a supporting character and Starnone uses vivid imagery and a colloquial style to skillfully bring the streets and piazzas of the city to life. Intimate observations are used to depict the way of life there during World War II and the ensuing period of social and political unrest.

Having spent his whole life attempting not to resemble his father, the narrator now sets out to solve the mystery of his own existence after his father’s passing. A plethora of memories are brought back by his visits to art museums to view his childhood home and the senior Starnone’s artwork. The narrator seeks out a single piece of art in particular, The Drinkers, where he also served as his father’s model. As a child, the experience had helped him understand how his father’s infatuation with art had plagued him.

“I hadn’t been able to explain to them that it wasn’t our father’s talent that was up for discussion. For many reasons, I loved his paintings at least as much as they did, but I was confusedly searching for something else. I was trying to understand how life decays when we’re overpowered by an obsession for results. That’s why I wanted to find The Drinkers; I recalled it as being full of decay. The dregs of all that torment and unhappiness and violence and disdain and arrogance and desperation and even love existed in the bodies of his children, in the teeming images that crowd your mind before you fall asleep and which then turns into either dreams or nightmares”

It takes a lot of bravery to write a tale about the covert violence in one’s own family with this much honesty and sincerity. Starnone had wanted to write this novel for such a long time that it must have felt like an act of emancipation when he finally did. This is a magnificent work of literature that will endure.

Hritik Verma is an independent reviewer. He blogs at allayingart.wordpress.com. He is @Hritik38233434 on Twitter and @allayingart on Instagram

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One of Italy’s most accomplished novelists, Domenico Starnone’s The House on Via Gemito has finally been translated into English by Oonagh Stransky. Hailed as a masterpiece of contemporary Italian literature and awarded the country’s highest literary honour, the Strega Prize in 2001, this grand autobiographical novel looks through the prism of the author’s childhood at his disturbed artist father, Federico Starnone.

The house of the title is a modest apartment on Via Gemito that smells of paint and turpentine. Its furniture is pushed up against the wall to create a makeshift studio and drying canvases are moved from bed to floor each night. Federí, the father, a railway clerk, is convinced that he possesses great artistic promise. If it weren’t for the family he must feed and the jealousy of his fellow Neapolitan artists, nothing would stop him from becoming a world-famous painter. Ambitious and frustrated, genuinely talented but also arrogant and resentful, he is scarred by constant disappointment.

Based on the story of Federico Starnone whose masterpiece, The Drinkers, is featured on the novel’s cover, this is a sour portrait of the man. Born into an impoverished household but with a strong passion for art, Federico finds his life path derailed by economic and political circumstances. Due to his ongoing troubles with anger, jealousy, and excessive bragging, he causes a great deal of suffering for his family. After all this time, the narrator still can’t clear his mind of the scenes of his parents fighting and of his father hitting his mother. The patriarchal mindset and the subjugation of women in the Italy of the period is masterfully shown in the novel.

“Of course I remember everything about him; he filled my head with his words and thoughts. I have none of my mother’s words though, none of my mother’s thoughts… No, my mother’s voice, even if it wound its way into every single fiber of my child’s body, ultimately gave out, was too fragile. She, who unquestionably played with me, sang to me, and made toys for me, didn’t have it in her to leave me with any sounds. She was quickly reduced to the words that her husband screamed at her from the moment he came home from work until late at night.”

Naples functions as a supporting character and Starnone uses vivid imagery and a colloquial style to skillfully bring the streets and piazzas of the city to life. Intimate observations are used to depict the way of life there during World War II and the ensuing period of social and political unrest.

Having spent his whole life attempting not to resemble his father, the narrator now sets out to solve the mystery of his own existence after his father’s passing. A plethora of memories are brought back by his visits to art museums to view his childhood home and the senior Starnone’s artwork. The narrator seeks out a single piece of art in particular, The Drinkers, where he also served as his father’s model. As a child, the experience had helped him understand how his father’s infatuation with art had plagued him.

“I hadn’t been able to explain to them that it wasn’t our father’s talent that was up for discussion. For many reasons, I loved his paintings at least as much as they did, but I was confusedly searching for something else. I was trying to understand how life decays when we’re overpowered by an obsession for results. That’s why I wanted to find The Drinkers; I recalled it as being full of decay. The dregs of all that torment and unhappiness and violence and disdain and arrogance and desperation and even love existed in the bodies of his children, in the teeming images that crowd your mind before you fall asleep and which then turns into either dreams or nightmares”

It takes a lot of bravery to write a tale about the covert violence in one’s own family with this much honesty and sincerity. Starnone had wanted to write this novel for such a long time that it must have felt like an act of emancipation when he finally did. This is a magnificent work of literature that will endure.

Hritik Verma is an independent reviewer. He blogs at allayingart.wordpress.com. He is @Hritik38233434 on Twitter and @allayingart on Instagram

“Exciting news! Hindustan Times is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!” Click here!