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In a portrait of the city at once poignant and intimate, we find artistic witness to the customs, dialect, squalor, and beauty of the ancient imperial capital that has succumbed to modern warfare, marginalization, and mass culture. The sketches portray the impoverished masses that Pasolini calls "the sub-proletariat," those who live under Third World conditions and for whom simple pleasures, such as a blue sweater in a storefront window, are completely out of reach. Pasolini's art develops throughout the works collected here, from his early lyricism to tragicomic outlines for screenplays, and finally to the maturation of his Neo-realism in eight chronicles on the shantytowns of Rome. The pieces in this collection were all published in Italian journals and newspapers, and then later edited by Walter Siti in the original Italian edition.
Author: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Paperback. Published May 21, 2019
Reviews:
““It's an enriching experience to read through this collection and feel Pasolini passionately responding to the city, the culture, the people, and the country he knew like he knew his own skin. His voice is like no one else's--immediate yet grounded in a brilliant and completely individual perspective, lyrical but never blindly romantic.” —Martin Scorsese “Pasolini should be better known in English as a writer--as a poet, novelist, and journalist--and this volume provides a good introduction.” —The New Yorker