The Silver Book
By Olivia Laing
Review by Renata
Laing’s second novel is set in the 1970s dream palace of Italian avant garde cinema, Cinecitta Studios. They convey the intensity and rigor that went into the creation of Federico Fellini’s Cassanova and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salo and the sinister circumstances leading to the violent murder of Pasolini only weeks after Salo’s completion.
In reimagining the events leading to this event, Laing explores both the conditions that enable fascism, and the power of art to hold a mirror to the society that forms it. The novel combines detailed historical research with insightful imagination to create a haunting story of desire, creative obsession and repression. It powerfully conveys the way that secrecy and shame expose the marginalised to risk and danger. A coolly observed but passionately felt story.
