Giuseppe Sfacteria: Of Sea and War

Giuseppe Sfacteria
Ed. Libertà Edizioni
pp. 130
 

Who is the author?
The commander Giuseppe Sfacteria says of himself: "I am Ligurian and I think of Liguria, I behave like a Ligurian. The Ligurian is armed with only one real weapon: concreteness. "

And I won't say anything else about him because those who, like me, know him, do not need descriptions, those who do not know him from these few words I think can get an idea. Then I will spend some other words to talk about another commander, Giuseppe Aonzo, also from Liguria, a gold medal for military valor during the Great War.

Of the commander Aonzo, Giuseppe has made the narrative voice of a collage of stories of pure fantasy. "In the following pages there is nothing true, except the summary and colloquial description of the action that led Luigi Rizzo and Giuseppe Aonzo to deserve the gold medal."
Action mentioned in the preface by Andrea Tirondola.

The MAS, that is SVAN Army Boat, where SVAN is the symbol of the Venetian shipyard that produces these motorboats, is the vehicle used by Aonzo and Rizzo for their company. MAS is also the abbreviation that D'Annunzio had associated with words Memento Audere Semper, or "remember to always dare".
In these pages, the "memories" of the commander Aonzo intermingle with the stories and reality and fantasy are confused, indistinguishable.

"On this earth, as far as I'm concerned, I consider the degree a scale of increasing measure of duties. I know well that I am unconventional, but I also know that I am not the only one who thinks so and I very much hope that one day all the children of this beloved homeland will keep this rule. "
The thought of Aonzo is mine too!
I feel like saying aloud, also thinking about the sacrifice of so many Italians in uniform.
Thus, the story continues on the train that takes Aonzo home from Ancona to Savona.
Our Aonzo tells little Egil the adventurous and heroic feat that saw him as a co-protagonist, under the command of his MAS 21, with commander Rizzo, of Premuda's company against battleships Santo Stefano e Teghetoff.
And reading, I too learn the story! It's never too late.

Then it is the turn of the memories of the comrades, chief Esposito, Mulargia, Salvi, chief Izzico, Mistretta, real or invented that they are, they are however soldiers. You can tell from the words that the author presents us, we understand it from the comradeship spirit, from the spirit of service, from the description of moments that, even if of fantasy, refer to facts that every commander of men cannot, at least once in their life , not having lived.

Thanks Giuseppe, thanks for your book. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to know, or remember, a piece of Italian history.
Thank you for giving me a few hours of interesting and pleasant reading.
And finally, Giuseppe, I greet you, waiting for your next book ...

Alessandro Rugolo

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