‘The Cursed Friend’ by Beatrice Salvioni  (2023) – 218 pages         Translated from the Italian by Elena Pala

‘The Cursed Friend” is a novel about a young girl Francesca Strada coming of age in the city of Monza in northern Italy during Italian fascist times around 1935. At the age of 12, she develops this friendship with another girl her age, Maddalena Merlini, who is reviled by nearly everyone in town and is often referred to as the Cursed One. Instead of behaving like most of the girls in town do, Maddalena hangs out on the River Lambro with a couple of guys her age. She is caught stealing fruit from the corner grocery store. Maddalena also is not afraid to confront the ruling fascists in town. I suppose Francesca is attracted to her by the wayward freedom of her life.

“If she hasn’t done anything wicked yet, she will soon enough.”

Francesca’s parents are mostly not political, but they do have to please the powerful local fascists in town in order for her father’s hat business to prosper. They are not at all happy when their daughter becomes friends with the Cursed One.

Mom. by contrast, would always doll up, caught in the solemn atmosphere around town. She’d teach me how to hold my fingers and elbow straight for the Fascist salute. “We are part of something bigger,” she explains and must look our best.”

We do get some of the local color of the town of Monza as it hosts a Grand Prix auto race in the novel.

For me, the novel ‘The Cursed Friend’ lacked depth and there was no room for ambiguity. It is too obvious in its plotting and there is no subtlety. The fascists are depicted as fascist pigs as you would expect. Everything that happens in the novel is just a little too predictable.

The author makes up for this lack of nuance by increasing the level of the violence and the outrages on the characters. I found this novel way over the top in its plotting.

Of course later, on April 28, 1945, the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini and his mistress were shot by his own people, and their bodies were hung upside down from the roof of an Esso service station.

Grade :   B-