Book Review Domenico Starnone Ties

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2014 – Europa Press –Translated from the Italian by Jumpha Lahiri – Spoiler alerts. The story of a bitterly dysfunctional family, not so much like the Simpsons as like the Taylor-Burton pairing in the film version of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? After a middle-age crisis affair with another woman, Aldo is separated and divorced by his wife but they reunite years later to keep their son and daughter happy, but the lack of love is all too apparent. After a domestic robbery appears to make the family cat run away, all the hatreds rise to the surface again in unexpected ways. The shifting narration, giving each family member’s point of view at different stages of the drama is used to great effect, and the characters retain your interest despite being intensely unlikable. Though there are no murders, the story has more twists and turns than many a whodunit. There is a sense of people trapped together, contained and compressed, unable to break free or escape the consequences of their own failings. There is quite a claustrophobic feel to the story. Outsiders, including Aldo’s lover, are rarely seen. The focus keeps dragging the reader back to the central mess that is this awful family. You wouldn’t want to know them, but you can’t take your eyes off their behaviour either. Arthur Chappell