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La Grande Rivolta #2
The Unseen
For a brief explosive period in the mid-1970s, the young and the unemployed of Italy’s cities joined the workers in an unexpectedly militant movement known simply as Autonomy ( Autonomia ). Its “politics of refusal” united its opponents behind draconian measures more severe than any seen since the war.
Nanni Balestrini, the poet of youth rebellion, himself a victim of that repression, has invented a remarkable fictional form to express the hopes and conflicts of the movement. In spare but vivid prose, The Unseen follows Autonomy’s trajectory through the eyes of a single working-class protagonist—from high-school rebellion, squatting and attempts to set up a free radio station to arrest and the brutalities of imprisonment. This is a powerful and gripping a rare evocation of the intensity of commitment, the passion of politics.
Nanni Balestrini, the poet of youth rebellion, himself a victim of that repression, has invented a remarkable fictional form to express the hopes and conflicts of the movement. In spare but vivid prose, The Unseen follows Autonomy’s trajectory through the eyes of a single working-class protagonist—from high-school rebellion, squatting and attempts to set up a free radio station to arrest and the brutalities of imprisonment. This is a powerful and gripping a rare evocation of the intensity of commitment, the passion of politics.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
30 people are currently reading
1248 people want to read
About the author
Nanni Balestrini
66 books77 followersNanni Balestrini was an Italian experimental poet, author and visual artist of the Neoavanguardia movement.
Nanni Balestrini is associated with the Italian writers movement Neoavanguardia. He wrote for the magazine Il Verri, co-directed Alfabeta and was one of the Italian writers publishing 1961 in the anthology I Novissimi. During the 1960s, the group was growing and becoming the Gruppo 63, Balestrini was the editor of their publications. From 1962 to 1972, he was working for Feltrinelli, cooperating with the Marsilio publishers and editing some issues of the Cooperativa Scrittori.
Balestrini's political activities are also noteworthy: in 1968, he was co-founder of the group Potere operaio, in 1976 an important supporter of the Autonomia. In 1979, he was accused of membership in the guerilla and fled to Paris and later Germany.
Balestrini got known by a larger public thanks to his first novel in the beginning of the 1970s We Want Everything. It describes the struggles and conflicts in the car factory of FIAT. In the following years, the social movements of his time continued to be his subject. With the book The Unseen, he created a literary monument for the "Generation of 1977". It shows the atmosphere of rapid social change during this years, concretising in house occupations, the creation of free radios and more, and also shows the considerable repression by the state of these movements. Other important works are I Furiosi, dedicated to the football supporters culture of the AC Milan, and The Editor, dealing with Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. His non-fiction book The Golden Horde, co-written with Primo Moroni, deals with the complex nature of the Italian communist movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
Nanni Balestrini is associated with the Italian writers movement Neoavanguardia. He wrote for the magazine Il Verri, co-directed Alfabeta and was one of the Italian writers publishing 1961 in the anthology I Novissimi. During the 1960s, the group was growing and becoming the Gruppo 63, Balestrini was the editor of their publications. From 1962 to 1972, he was working for Feltrinelli, cooperating with the Marsilio publishers and editing some issues of the Cooperativa Scrittori.
Balestrini's political activities are also noteworthy: in 1968, he was co-founder of the group Potere operaio, in 1976 an important supporter of the Autonomia. In 1979, he was accused of membership in the guerilla and fled to Paris and later Germany.
Balestrini got known by a larger public thanks to his first novel in the beginning of the 1970s We Want Everything. It describes the struggles and conflicts in the car factory of FIAT. In the following years, the social movements of his time continued to be his subject. With the book The Unseen, he created a literary monument for the "Generation of 1977". It shows the atmosphere of rapid social change during this years, concretising in house occupations, the creation of free radios and more, and also shows the considerable repression by the state of these movements. Other important works are I Furiosi, dedicated to the football supporters culture of the AC Milan, and The Editor, dealing with Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. His non-fiction book The Golden Horde, co-written with Primo Moroni, deals with the complex nature of the Italian communist movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
February 19, 2017
Έπρεπε να αγωνιστούμε με τα μόνα όπλα που είχαμε στη διάθεσή μας. Η εξέγερση ήταν μία ξαφνική πυρκαγιά που είχε κάψει τα πάντα... για τις παρέες των δρόμων το βράδυ.. ένα γκράφιτι που δεν σταματά με σχέδια και φράσεις που ανακατεύονται αλληλεπικαλύπτονται πάνω σε όλους τους τοίχους ενάντια στα αφεντικά ενάντια στην παράνομη εργασία ενάντια στο γκέτο στην εκκλησία στο δήμαρχο στο συνδικάτο στην ηρωίνη στους φασίστες στους μπάτσους στους δικαστές στο κράτος στη φυλακή στη λιτότητα στην ανία
January 17, 2016
This book is so beautiful and devastating. I urge all of my friends to read it, if not for it's poetry than for the heavy lessons that can be gained from it.
November 28, 2020
Τό βιβλίο αυτό αποτελεί μία συγκλονιστική μαρτυρία ενός ανώνυμου αντιεξουσιαστή στα τέλη της δεκαετίας του '70 στην Ιταλία, καί βασίζεται σε αληθινά γεγονότα.
Ο Balestrini παρουσιάζει ένα χειμαρρώδες κείμενο, χωρίς σημεία στίξης, κόμματα καί τέλειες, που αποτυπώνει πλήρως τίς εμπειρίες τού πρωταγωνιστή από τίς απαρχές τίς πορείας τού στις συνελεύσεις καί στις καταλήψεις, καθώς καί μετέπειτα την μόνιμη παρουσία του στις διαδηλώσεις καί την κατάληξη τού στην φυλακή.
Τό γράψιμο είναι νευρωδες καί αληθινό. Μυρίζεις τά δακρυγόνα, νιώθεις στο σώμα σου την απάνθρωπη συστημική βία τών αστυνομικών στις φυλακές,την μεροληψίας τού Ιταλικού σωφρονιστικού συστήματος, την τοξική ασυνεννοησία καί τίς φράξιες μέσα στο ελευθεριακο κίνημα,καί τελικά την αδιαφορία μίας κοινωνίας πού τα πολιτικά ιδανικά της τσαλαπατηθηκαν.
Είναι ενα βιβλίο διαχρονικό για τόν ταξικό αγώνα, πού παρόλη την έντονη κινητικότητα καί την αντίδραστικοτητα πού τό διαποτίζει, αφήνει ένα τεράστιο αίσθημα ματαιότητας στο τέλος.
"Οι αόρατοι" είναι ένα πολύ θλιβερό βιβλίο πού όμως έχει και θά έχει μεγάλη αξία .
5/5
Ο Balestrini παρουσιάζει ένα χειμαρρώδες κείμενο, χωρίς σημεία στίξης, κόμματα καί τέλειες, που αποτυπώνει πλήρως τίς εμπειρίες τού πρωταγωνιστή από τίς απαρχές τίς πορείας τού στις συνελεύσεις καί στις καταλήψεις, καθώς καί μετέπειτα την μόνιμη παρουσία του στις διαδηλώσεις καί την κατάληξη τού στην φυλακή.
Τό γράψιμο είναι νευρωδες καί αληθινό. Μυρίζεις τά δακρυγόνα, νιώθεις στο σώμα σου την απάνθρωπη συστημική βία τών αστυνομικών στις φυλακές,την μεροληψίας τού Ιταλικού σωφρονιστικού συστήματος, την τοξική ασυνεννοησία καί τίς φράξιες μέσα στο ελευθεριακο κίνημα,καί τελικά την αδιαφορία μίας κοινωνίας πού τα πολιτικά ιδανικά της τσαλαπατηθηκαν.
Είναι ενα βιβλίο διαχρονικό για τόν ταξικό αγώνα, πού παρόλη την έντονη κινητικότητα καί την αντίδραστικοτητα πού τό διαποτίζει, αφήνει ένα τεράστιο αίσθημα ματαιότητας στο τέλος.
"Οι αόρατοι" είναι ένα πολύ θλιβερό βιβλίο πού όμως έχει και θά έχει μεγάλη αξία .
5/5
April 8, 2023
A vivid, fast-paced account of the militant struggles of the youth, workers, and unemployed led by the Italian Autonomist Marxists in the 1970s.
The book gives us a slice of life of the people who were caught in the current of this powerful movement which stood up against the bourgeois state at a time when the official communist party and its politics of class collaboration could no longer serve as a channel of workers' resistance.
Nanni Balestrini's prose form of free flowing statements arranged in blocks with no punctuations strangely helps rather than impede the novel's exhiliratingly racy and forceful movement.
We read the great sacrifices and oppression endured by an entire generation of youth, which is depressing.
We get a glimpse of the exploits and weaknesses of the Autonomists' horizontalist organization, direct action, lumpen antics, uncompromising posturing, and later on a form of armed focoism.
But most importantly, we are told the story of the class struggle that raged in Italy's prisons by political prisoners--"The Unseen."
Balestrini never fails to point out the creativity, dynamism, and solidarity of people enmeshed in a collective endeavor to transform an unjust society even in the most hopless and repressive conditions.
This is a stunning masterpiece. A must-read!
The book gives us a slice of life of the people who were caught in the current of this powerful movement which stood up against the bourgeois state at a time when the official communist party and its politics of class collaboration could no longer serve as a channel of workers' resistance.
Nanni Balestrini's prose form of free flowing statements arranged in blocks with no punctuations strangely helps rather than impede the novel's exhiliratingly racy and forceful movement.
We read the great sacrifices and oppression endured by an entire generation of youth, which is depressing.
We get a glimpse of the exploits and weaknesses of the Autonomists' horizontalist organization, direct action, lumpen antics, uncompromising posturing, and later on a form of armed focoism.
But most importantly, we are told the story of the class struggle that raged in Italy's prisons by political prisoners--"The Unseen."
Balestrini never fails to point out the creativity, dynamism, and solidarity of people enmeshed in a collective endeavor to transform an unjust society even in the most hopless and repressive conditions.
This is a stunning masterpiece. A must-read!
September 11, 2025
the Great Ultraleft Novel.
"all round the centre the streets are busy all the time with groups of comrades the evenings are high-spirited lively noisy with our sounds shouts songs music they're made colourful by our jackets scarves skirts hats the walls are one long stretch of graffiti drawings writing all muddled together all with slogans one on top of the other against the bosses against sweated labour against all work against the ghettos against the clergy against the mayor against the trade unions against the parties against the city council against men against heroin against fascists against cops against judges against the state against poverty against the family against school against sacrifices against boredom"
"all round the centre the streets are busy all the time with groups of comrades the evenings are high-spirited lively noisy with our sounds shouts songs music they're made colourful by our jackets scarves skirts hats the walls are one long stretch of graffiti drawings writing all muddled together all with slogans one on top of the other against the bosses against sweated labour against all work against the ghettos against the clergy against the mayor against the trade unions against the parties against the city council against men against heroin against fascists against cops against judges against the state against poverty against the family against school against sacrifices against boredom"
November 18, 2018
leggere "gli invisibili" piomba il lettore in un'epoca remota eppure vicinissima: la stagione a cavallo tra anni '70 e anni '80, subito dopo il '77.
osserviamo la vita -raccontata non in ordine cronologico- di un ragazzo: militante di quel movimento che non aveva confini precisi e riuniva persone con le più diverse esperienze (e di cui vedremo, attraverso i suoi occhi e quelli dei suoi compagni, le ultime azioni, la decadenza e la sparizione), finito in carcere per una casualità e tra i protagonisti di una rivolta in un carcere speciale, partito parte di una massa e finito solo.
la sua parabola è quella di una generazione arrivata dopo il lungo "'68" che ha segnato l'italia dal '68 al '77 e che si trovo schiacciata tra il terrorismo, l'eroina e la repressione: non tutto quello che il protagonista compie mi trova favorevole (la disintegrazione della scuola, ad esempio, pur partendo da idee condivisibili si riduce ad una farsa), ma riesce a comunicare l'insoddisfazione di chi voleva una vita e un futuro diversi.
lo stile di balestrini -rapido, fatto di immagini, vicino più al parlato che alla narrativa- è perfetto per la storia e sembra davvero di trovarsi difronte ad un reduce di quegli anni che ti racconta la sua storia.
consigliato per chi è interessato a quel periodo storico, affianco a "boccalone" di enrico palandri e ad "altri libertini" di pier vittorio tondelli.
ah, ad un certo punto mi sono imbattuto in un passaggio familiare: divenne infatti una strofa di un pezzo degli ak47, posse romana proveniente dal primo nucleo degli assalti frontali.
osserviamo la vita -raccontata non in ordine cronologico- di un ragazzo: militante di quel movimento che non aveva confini precisi e riuniva persone con le più diverse esperienze (e di cui vedremo, attraverso i suoi occhi e quelli dei suoi compagni, le ultime azioni, la decadenza e la sparizione), finito in carcere per una casualità e tra i protagonisti di una rivolta in un carcere speciale, partito parte di una massa e finito solo.
la sua parabola è quella di una generazione arrivata dopo il lungo "'68" che ha segnato l'italia dal '68 al '77 e che si trovo schiacciata tra il terrorismo, l'eroina e la repressione: non tutto quello che il protagonista compie mi trova favorevole (la disintegrazione della scuola, ad esempio, pur partendo da idee condivisibili si riduce ad una farsa), ma riesce a comunicare l'insoddisfazione di chi voleva una vita e un futuro diversi.
lo stile di balestrini -rapido, fatto di immagini, vicino più al parlato che alla narrativa- è perfetto per la storia e sembra davvero di trovarsi difronte ad un reduce di quegli anni che ti racconta la sua storia.
consigliato per chi è interessato a quel periodo storico, affianco a "boccalone" di enrico palandri e ad "altri libertini" di pier vittorio tondelli.
ah, ad un certo punto mi sono imbattuto in un passaggio familiare: divenne infatti una strofa di un pezzo degli ak47, posse romana proveniente dal primo nucleo degli assalti frontali.
tasted
April 15, 2019Stylistically, this is a truly excellent novel. Its reasonably short paragraphs consist of run-on sentences without any punctuation. Like the recent Milkman by Anna Burns, Balestrini's paragraphs often contain multiple versions of sentences and thoughts. But the narrator here has far less personality and the content of this book is the opposite of Milkman, whose narrator stands apart from her city’s violence and conspiracies. Here the conspiracies and violence are the novel’s content (in late 70s Italy). Where Milkman is intensely personal, this novel is intensely abstract, just as the students are essentially without ideology. Students keep demonstrating, and the narrator ends up in a prison whose occupants take over the prison. Nothing means very much, and the violence is as senseless as it is horrible.
For me, the problems with this novel were (i) the abstract nature of the content caused me to lose interest in what was happening, and the prose, as it good as it is, couldn’t hold my interest alone; and (ii) the violence was overwhelming, even though not grisly, for the most part. After about 2/3 of the novel, I felt I’d experienced enough of it. I’m very glad I read it, and highly recommend it, especially for those who would like to see how this approach can work in a way and context the opposite of Milkman.
For me, the problems with this novel were (i) the abstract nature of the content caused me to lose interest in what was happening, and the prose, as it good as it is, couldn’t hold my interest alone; and (ii) the violence was overwhelming, even though not grisly, for the most part. After about 2/3 of the novel, I felt I’d experienced enough of it. I’m very glad I read it, and highly recommend it, especially for those who would like to see how this approach can work in a way and context the opposite of Milkman.
February 7, 2018
This book cut deep into me, more than any other book I can remember. It's an incredible testimony to the lost generation of autonomia, lost to repression, murder, suicide, drugs, armed struggle, betrayal, and the banality of a life that goes back to normal. This loss is all the more devastating because of shining star (or galaxy) that was autonomia at its height in 77. This is easily one of the best books I've ever read and likely will read.
April 9, 2018
At times haunting, at times amusing, always conflictual and full of life. A moving portrait of the autonomia generation at both its peaks and valleys, which conveys the beautiful spirit of that time and place before its trampling by the boots of repression and history. Don’t let the lack of punctuation turn you away, after a few pages it gives the text a relentless momentum which I found really enhanced its impact. Very highly recommended.
February 17, 2012
Read this book if you want a breathtaking account of certain parts of the movements emerging and declining in 1970s Italy. Do not read this book if your about to go to jail.
Read
June 22, 2020!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 26, 2021
Non credo che consiglierei mai questo libro. Concluderlo è stata una lotta con me stessa, ho fatto fatica a seguirlo e a seguire il flusso.
Ci sono passaggi che mi hanno coinvolta di più, soprattutto quelli relativi al processo e alle vicende giudiziarie del protagonista ma per il resto è un libro in cui ho faticato a tenere le fila del discorso
Ci sono passaggi che mi hanno coinvolta di più, soprattutto quelli relativi al processo e alle vicende giudiziarie del protagonista ma per il resto è un libro in cui ho faticato a tenere le fila del discorso
March 17, 2023
italian novel-in-punctuationless-blocks-of-text about communist radicals in the 70s and 80s, when the pci had committed to its compromise strategy and the state was mobilising all of its forces to crush any remaining militant communist groupings. unfortunately, the state succeeded in its brutal destruction of these movements and so the novel is a bit of a downer, but it's an excellent and vivid portrayal of the time and place nonetheless.
December 29, 2023
sabes estos libros que están escritos así todo junto sin comas ni puntos ni nada entonces no sabes cuando empiezan las frases ni cuando acaban y al principio igual cuesta un poco leer y entender pero luego ya te haces y es como bastante placentero pues este es uno de esos libros
“no conseguía pasar por aquel agujero salir afuera al otro lado para ver fuera para ver donde estoy donde estáis cuando éramos mil”
“no conseguía pasar por aquel agujero salir afuera al otro lado para ver fuera para ver donde estoy donde estáis cuando éramos mil”
July 24, 2012
This novel is perfect and essential. It has already been tragic that it remained out of print for so long, but it is even more tragic that it has yet to be considered the masterpiece of world literature that it is.
Read
March 6, 2021Brutal
September 16, 2025
Incredible fictional account filled with lessons and insight into what it meant to fight against the final snuffing out of solidarity, to try and stoke its waning embers in the Years of Lead Italy. The narrative loops between the spontaneous activity of students and the unemployed, bright-eyed and full of revolutionary vigor to transform social space and relations according to a new vision, and the movement in the claws of the state, dissolving in the aftermath of its targeting by state-sponsored terror.
Its form is punctuation-less, contained in discrete paragraphs with prose that sometimes bleeds over into the lyrical. Not typically a fan of this stream-of-conscious long ribbon of text, but here it works as both the heightened state of revolutionary mania and later as the desperate concision of scrawling on a napkin or whatever necessary in a squalid cell.
The passages that detail the life and struggle in prison are gut-wrenching, and feel like the dispatches of somone witnessing a global cancellation of hope for the future. The true war within the war, to maintain a vision of solidarity that can withstand the fire and the making of hell.
Its form is punctuation-less, contained in discrete paragraphs with prose that sometimes bleeds over into the lyrical. Not typically a fan of this stream-of-conscious long ribbon of text, but here it works as both the heightened state of revolutionary mania and later as the desperate concision of scrawling on a napkin or whatever necessary in a squalid cell.
The passages that detail the life and struggle in prison are gut-wrenching, and feel like the dispatches of somone witnessing a global cancellation of hope for the future. The true war within the war, to maintain a vision of solidarity that can withstand the fire and the making of hell.
November 14, 2023
Ένα βιβλίο για την ιταλική αυτονομία χωρίς ονόματα και σημεία στίξης. Βαθιά πολιτικό, περιγράφει τη ζωή στο κίνημα,την πολιτική δράση, την επιβίωση στις φυλακές (που στη συνέχεια έγιναν υψίστης ασφαλείας), τις προσπάθειες για χαραμάδες ελευθερίας.
July 19, 2022
the transition from pride to despondency. devastating
July 13, 2025
Absolutely brilliant and devastating
November 19, 2014
Nanni Balestrini writes:
but look I told him I don’t know why but I sounded annoyed but you know I really can’t stand any more I really mean it that we’re still stuck here with this bullshit still with this bullshit about winning or losing and it seems to me that it’s always really been our big misfortune that every time we’ve thought the thing that mattered was basically just winning or losing when instead the things we’ve really done have never had anything to do with winning or losing it’s clear that here we’ve already lost everything and not just in the last five minutes but the fact is that I think and a lot like me think so too that deep down we’ve never had not only have we never had any notion or desire to win but not even any notion that there was anything to be won anywhere and then you know if I really think about it now to me the word winning seems exactly like dying
And then there is this review from Pierce Penniless - http://piercepenniless.wordpress.com/... :
The Unseen is written in unpunctuated paragraphs interspersed with different voices, differing levels of narrative intervention, reading at times as a stream-of-consciousness recollection, stitched together across jumps in time. This is not literary pretension, but technique serving its object: in other words, it is the literary form taken to best embody the narrative – sensitive to the individual’s relation to history and politics, rendering its questions always in terms of individual suffering, immediate relationships rather than political abstractions. Its technique is then in service of the ethical-political axis that drives its story, in the achievements and suffering of its nameless narrator; this shift of the ethical axis away from the ragged contemporary consensus on the ‘responsibility’ of Autonomia for the repression undertaken by the Italian state and instead toward the individual political subject (replete with intense political bonds of friendship, love and solidarity) is perhaps what most outraged its early critics.
but look I told him I don’t know why but I sounded annoyed but you know I really can’t stand any more I really mean it that we’re still stuck here with this bullshit still with this bullshit about winning or losing and it seems to me that it’s always really been our big misfortune that every time we’ve thought the thing that mattered was basically just winning or losing when instead the things we’ve really done have never had anything to do with winning or losing it’s clear that here we’ve already lost everything and not just in the last five minutes but the fact is that I think and a lot like me think so too that deep down we’ve never had not only have we never had any notion or desire to win but not even any notion that there was anything to be won anywhere and then you know if I really think about it now to me the word winning seems exactly like dying
And then there is this review from Pierce Penniless - http://piercepenniless.wordpress.com/... :
The Unseen is written in unpunctuated paragraphs interspersed with different voices, differing levels of narrative intervention, reading at times as a stream-of-consciousness recollection, stitched together across jumps in time. This is not literary pretension, but technique serving its object: in other words, it is the literary form taken to best embody the narrative – sensitive to the individual’s relation to history and politics, rendering its questions always in terms of individual suffering, immediate relationships rather than political abstractions. Its technique is then in service of the ethical-political axis that drives its story, in the achievements and suffering of its nameless narrator; this shift of the ethical axis away from the ragged contemporary consensus on the ‘responsibility’ of Autonomia for the repression undertaken by the Italian state and instead toward the individual political subject (replete with intense political bonds of friendship, love and solidarity) is perhaps what most outraged its early critics.
June 27, 2013
This is the novel I've been looking for.
the unseen is fast and furious and perfectly captures the excitement that's endemic to being part of a larger movement part of a larger group part of a scene that is bigger than you but that supports you and loves you and wants to change the world for the better
that's the way it's written with fast and punchy paragraphs that are devoid of punctuation but are filled with propulsion speeding you forward with a sense of everything-at-once and sense of fullness and violence all at the same time
The book zips between a few turbulent years. The start of the Autonomia movement at school, then to a wild cat march which he captures perfectly especially when the cops turn violent and everything is chaos and fear but still with the sense of infinite possibility, and then to a massive prison strike, and his trial, and his upbringing, and attempts to join with the labor unions, and his time learning how to survive in prison, and learning to live communally with a sense of boundlessness, and the suddenness of the feminine movement within the larger movement, and on and on, just stop reading this and pick up this book...
because it really is that good and it really does get the excitement of a new world even if the book ends on a dour note wondering if anything they did was really worth it but of course it is even if they failed this came out and this can inspire me to go out to carry on to not give up...
(BTW, this is the second novel I've read about the Italian "Years of Lead". The first was Time On My Hands , which concentrated on three precocious and amoral 11 years old obsessed with The Red Brigades, and next up is The Flamethrowers which I know little about, but I know it's roughly about the years of lead.)
the unseen is fast and furious and perfectly captures the excitement that's endemic to being part of a larger movement part of a larger group part of a scene that is bigger than you but that supports you and loves you and wants to change the world for the better
that's the way it's written with fast and punchy paragraphs that are devoid of punctuation but are filled with propulsion speeding you forward with a sense of everything-at-once and sense of fullness and violence all at the same time
The book zips between a few turbulent years. The start of the Autonomia movement at school, then to a wild cat march which he captures perfectly especially when the cops turn violent and everything is chaos and fear but still with the sense of infinite possibility, and then to a massive prison strike, and his trial, and his upbringing, and attempts to join with the labor unions, and his time learning how to survive in prison, and learning to live communally with a sense of boundlessness, and the suddenness of the feminine movement within the larger movement, and on and on, just stop reading this and pick up this book...
because it really is that good and it really does get the excitement of a new world even if the book ends on a dour note wondering if anything they did was really worth it but of course it is even if they failed this came out and this can inspire me to go out to carry on to not give up...
(BTW, this is the second novel I've read about the Italian "Years of Lead". The first was Time On My Hands , which concentrated on three precocious and amoral 11 years old obsessed with The Red Brigades, and next up is The Flamethrowers which I know little about, but I know it's roughly about the years of lead.)
June 20, 2017
"but look I told him I don’t know why but I sounded annoyed but you know I really can’t stand any more I really mean it that we’re still stuck here with this bullshit still with this bullshit about winning or losing and it seems to me that it’s always really been our big misfortune that every time we’ve thought the thing that mattered was basically just winning or losing when instead the things we’ve really done have never had anything to do with winning or losing it’s clear that here we’ve already lost everything and not just in the last five minutes but the fact is that I think and a lot like me think so too that deep down we’ve never had not only have we never had any notion or desire to win but not even any notion that there was anything to be won anywhere and then you know if I really think about it now to me the word winning seems exactly like dying"
December 6, 2010
Highly recommended. The lack of punctuation put me off at first, but after a while I really liked how dreamy and poetic it made the book. So much at stake, so much horror, so much defeat; yet to be in that whirlwind where it seems like everything is up in the air and the whole world could change in an instant--isn't that what we all really want?
May 3, 2023
"los cinco estábamos hasta los cojones de estar con la familia de seguir viviendo esos fragmentos de tiempo con la familia que además se limitaban al momento de comer y de dormir al momento de comer en el que no había nada que decirse en torno a la mesa no había ninguna comunicación no había ningún interés ni participación y aparte de esos fragmentos de tiempo vacíos y extraños que pasábamos en familia todo el resto del tiempo lo pasábamos por ahí como vagabundos"
"pero antes queremos aclarar todo lo mierdas que sois pedazos de mierda como todos los demás hombres aunque os deis aires de revolucionarios y hagáis de vanguardias del proletariado pero en las relaciones con nosotros sois unas retaguardias al nivel de mi padre y de mi abuelo"
"le dije a veces me pregunto qué ha significado toda esa historia nuestra todo lo que hemos hecho él dijo no creo que sea importante que todo haya terminado pero creo que lo importante es que hemos hechos lo que hemos hecho y que creemos que ha sido justo hacerlo eso es la única cosa importante creo yo"
"pero antes queremos aclarar todo lo mierdas que sois pedazos de mierda como todos los demás hombres aunque os deis aires de revolucionarios y hagáis de vanguardias del proletariado pero en las relaciones con nosotros sois unas retaguardias al nivel de mi padre y de mi abuelo"
"le dije a veces me pregunto qué ha significado toda esa historia nuestra todo lo que hemos hecho él dijo no creo que sea importante que todo haya terminado pero creo que lo importante es que hemos hechos lo que hemos hecho y que creemos que ha sido justo hacerlo eso es la única cosa importante creo yo"
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August 16, 2022generalizzare l'offensiva significa radicalizzare l'insubordinazione a qualsivoglia gerarchia esercitare la nostra creatività distruttiva contro la società dello spettacolo sabotare le macchine e la merce che sabotano la nostra vita promuovere scioperi generali selvaggi a tempo interminato riunirsi sempre in assemblea in tutte le fabbriche della separazione eleggere delegati sempre revocabili dalla base collegare costantemente tutti i luoghi di lotta non trascurare tutti i mezzi tecnici utili alla comunicazione liberata dare un valore d'uso diretto a tutto ciò che ha un valore di scambio occupare in permanenza le fabbriche e gli edifici pubblici organizzare l'autodifesa dei territori conquistati e avanti musica
September 25, 2023
Nanni Balestrini (1935, Milà- 2019) cronista del moviment obrer autònom italià dels anys 70.
Lectura fluida, tot i que no hi ha signes de puntuació. Fer la revolució. Sempre la lluita. No cal esperar resposta. Actitud enfront a la injusticia social. La col.lectivitat enfront del benestar individual. 1977 joves a Italia. Narració en 1a perona. No hi ha referències històriques ni geogràfiques.
Context: les manifestacionz, la universitat, el magatzem, la fàbrica, la presó, i l'especial, la comissaria, el judici le cel.les d'aïllament.
"La escritura de mi libro se opone al orden".
“En mis novelas el personaje es una voz que cuenta una historia colectiva”
Lectura fluida, tot i que no hi ha signes de puntuació. Fer la revolució. Sempre la lluita. No cal esperar resposta. Actitud enfront a la injusticia social. La col.lectivitat enfront del benestar individual. 1977 joves a Italia. Narració en 1a perona. No hi ha referències històriques ni geogràfiques.
Context: les manifestacionz, la universitat, el magatzem, la fàbrica, la presó, i l'especial, la comissaria, el judici le cel.les d'aïllament.
"La escritura de mi libro se opone al orden".
“En mis novelas el personaje es una voz que cuenta una historia colectiva”
November 25, 2024
No estoy en mi mejor época de leer libros y tal vez por eso no me ha enganchado tanto.
El libro en si está bien, sobretodo si piensas en que todo está basado en hechos reales (y por ello el final devastador)
Es un libro importante para saber qué pasó en la época de las revueltas sociales en Italia que fueron tan brutalmente eliminadas y de las que apenas quedó información.
Por eso me esperaba más "chicha" en la historia. Pero la historia es la que hay, la del protagonista, la del escritor.
Eso sí la forma en que está escrito... Sin puntos ni comas ni ningún signo de interrogación, precioso. Una vez que te acostumbras ni los echas en falta.
El libro en si está bien, sobretodo si piensas en que todo está basado en hechos reales (y por ello el final devastador)
Es un libro importante para saber qué pasó en la época de las revueltas sociales en Italia que fueron tan brutalmente eliminadas y de las que apenas quedó información.
Por eso me esperaba más "chicha" en la historia. Pero la historia es la que hay, la del protagonista, la del escritor.
Eso sí la forma en que está escrito... Sin puntos ni comas ni ningún signo de interrogación, precioso. Una vez que te acostumbras ni los echas en falta.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 9, 2024
Es la segunda vez que me lo leo. Se lo regalé a mi hijo adolescente que empieza con el activismo de izquierdas. Relata muy bien la lucha obrera “contra los patronos contra el trabajo negro contra todos los trabajos contra el ghetto contra el clero contra el alcalde contra el sindicato contra los partidos contra la junta municipal contra los machos contra la heroína contra los fascistas contra los maderos contra los jueces contra el estado contra la miseria contra la represión contra la cárcel contra la familia contra la escuela contra los sacrificios contra el aburrimiento”
September 1, 2025
Un viatge al que podriem anomenar pasat però que a mesura que avança el llibre te moltes pincellades del present i del futur. Una història de lluita, de solidaritat, de repressió, però també de derrota.
En certes part aconseguix motivar, però també produix l'efecte contrari a mesura que avança.
Lo millor: Conté experiències molt interessants d'agitació i propaganda, a banda de moltes altres experiències sobretot comunicatives en moments de repressió.
Lo pitjor: Al principi costa agafarse a una lectura sense simbols de puntuació i que està escrita de forma continua.
En certes part aconseguix motivar, però també produix l'efecte contrari a mesura que avança.
Lo millor: Conté experiències molt interessants d'agitació i propaganda, a banda de moltes altres experiències sobretot comunicatives en moments de repressió.
Lo pitjor: Al principi costa agafarse a una lectura sense simbols de puntuació i que està escrita de forma continua.
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