The difficulty of finding one's place in the world

A birthmark under the left eye, dark like a ripe grape set in very pale skin. Thus was born Uvaspina, the sensitive and fragile little girl, who everyone calls by that name that identifies him with his stain. He is able to get used to almost everything: to the notary Pasquale Riccio, his father, who only comes home for meals and is ashamed of him; to Spaiata, his mother, who after having framed Pasquale Riccio can't rest for having lost his charm and pretends to die every time he leaves the house. But above all Uvaspina is used to his sister Minuccia, who is slightly younger. Fierce petit to the point of cruelty, who keeps his brother in check with his physical strength, with his spite, with the acumen of someone who knows how to strike at the point of maximum fragility. And yet, only Gooseberry knows the deep trigger that makes her sister a strummolo, a spinning top capable of hurting with its whirling metal tip. And only Minuccia intuits Gooseberry's dreams, when the instrument keeps her awake and can scrutinize her very fine features in her sleep.

Brother and sister are the two protagonists of Uvaspina (Bompiani, 2023, pp. 432, also e-book), Monica Acito 's sanguine literary debut. Naples moves around the two characters, the city with seething bowels, with quarters stretched towards the sky, with long tentacles immersed in that sea that faces and penetrates it. It is precisely on this border between the city and the sea, between history and myth, that Gooseberry meets Antonio, the fisherman with eyes of two different colors, who reads books and is not afraid of blood. The purity of their meeting, however, will not be able to hide for long: the city draws them to itself, Minuccia turns like an instrument and his snare will unite their destinies forever.

We asked Monica Acito how this novel of hers with strong passions was born:

«I started writing the novel in November 2020: I remember that the name 'Uvaspina' came to me out of nowhere, as if a part of my body had already known the shell of that name. There wasn't a real push, it's as if I had been chewing these suggestions for a good decade, in a completely unconscious way: writing them was an automatic process, which took place almost under dictation. Uvapina I met him without knowing him, I met him when I was ready to welcome him».

Are there any writers or writers who inspired you?
«The first writer who marked me on an epidermis level was undoubtedly Gabriel Garcìa Màrquez. His ancestral, rude, primitive, very sweet and obscene Macondo was my first literary home: I lived all my adolescence and youth within the perimeter of that imaginary city. The primitive rites of archaic Colombia are so related to those of Campania that it has always been natural for me to make this equation and to feel a consanguinity between the two universes. Among the others who have influenced me are Elsa Morante, Anna Maria Ortese, Domenico Rea, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, Ruggero Cappuccio».

The language she uses in her novel is particular... this is how, for example, she describes Minuccia, telling us that: «Everything in Minuccia was movement and rotation, like a wooden toy: when Minuccia's eyes became dull like the dust in the alley Belledonne, then Gooseberry understood that the instrument was enchanted. When Minuccia jammed it wasn't enough to pull the string or the cord because she started spinning like crazy, and in her trajectory she became an ace catch-all, she played the game of the broomsticks and the grimace. Everything was captured, beautiful Minuccia: the diamonds and the hearts, the cups and the sticks, the black eyelashes of her brother and the double chin of the Spaiata...».

How would you define the language you use?

«Mine is an omnivorous tongue, which takes and captures everything, chews it up and spits it out. It has no half measures, it is very raw and animalistic and tender at the same time, it can also be disturbing. In reality it wasn't born in a precise moment, I've always written like this, I think it was built and stratified over the years between Cilento and the historic center of Naples».

What role does Naples play in the novel?
«I would like to say that this is not a novel about Naples, but at the same time Naples lives and throbs against the light, like a beast that devours everything and digests it in the alleys and in the dark waves. The belly of Naples contains the parable of Gooseberry: there is the popular and bold Naples, the shameless one of Spaiata, the forcellara Naples, the bourgeoisie of Chiaia, then there is also the Cilento with its woods, the Amalfi Coast, the Sannio with Guardia Sanframondi and its Seven Year Rites, the island of Procida. I like to say that this book, among other things, is also a brutal and passionate letter to all of Campania, my region».

Which of your characters are you closest to and which do you identify with?

«I see myself so much in Graziella la Spaiata, the mother of Uvaspina and Minuccia. I too am an unbridled smoker like her, I started writing and smoking when I was practically a child, funerals and the world of the dead have always fascinated me…my uncle has a funeral home. One of my favorite places in Naples is the Fontanelle Cemetery, where there are capuzzelle and pezzentelle souls. La Spaiata has an absurd literary breadth, she is a plebeian woman from Forcella but at the same time a Roman praefica, who earns her living by pulling her hair out for the dead she doesn't even know. Like Spaiata, when I fall in love, I too become a bit pathetic and theatrical in my gestures, but in the end I always end up waiting. And while I wait, I usually look out the window and light a cigarette too, but not a smuggled one».