Danilo Pagliaro, Andrea Sceresini
Ed. Chiarelettere
pp. 224
I have to admit, when I started reading Danilo Pagliaro's book I didn't understand what I had in my hands.
It will be "the fault" of the cover, or the fact that I don't usually read the preview of the book, but I was expecting a war novel. Fortunately this was not the case. I started reading the book yesterday and finished it today. I must agree with Nunzio, the reader who commented on the book. You can read it all in one go.
But then, if it is not a novel, what is it?
The thing that this book is most like is a biography. But not only the biography of a legionary of the Foreign Legion, a soldier named Danilo Pagliaro aka Pedro Perrini, but also the biography of the same Foreign Legion.
Who will read the book, and I hope that there will be many, will find an enormous amount of information on the Legion, starting from those necessary to enlist in the main operations in which the author participated personally, in addition to the human story of Danilo .
Danilo Pagliaro is Italian so many references and comparisons are made with Italy. The story of the aspiring legionnaire Danilo Pagliaro begins in Italy in 1994, when a man who probably has little to lose decides that the time has come to change his life. The story of the legionary Pedro Perrini begins in the same year, in Aubagne, a French town seat of the General Command of the Foreign Legion.
The author recounts the phases of his enlistment and the hard military training that will slowly lead him to become a kepì blanc.
However, Danilo does not stop at the descriptive aspect alone but tries at every opportunity to make the reader understand the spirit of the legionary, he tries to make people understand what it means to be military, not hiding his ideas about deserters, even compatriots.
The life of the legionary is hard, even if in recent years, according to the author's admission, it has changed, for the better in some respects, for the worse for others. Society has changed and with it the values, he tells us. Personally, I almost entirely share his considerations on the decline of modern society.
Ultimately the book is definitely worth reading, it makes you discuss and reflect not only on Foreign Legion but on modern society and the Armed Forces in particular.
Congratulations and good luck Danilo!
Alessandro Rugolo
