I read this some time ago, when I was still at a rather abusive job and didn’t have much time to read save for the occasional comic book. I didn’t have much to say about it then – I liked it, but what more was there to say about this one that I hadn’t already said about the previous books by the same author?
So I never published that post.
Now (well more than) four years have passed since my reading of this. I remember this story better than most of the others by ZeroCalcare. And yet, I sit in front of my keyboard to write out a review and I struggle to put any words down.
Un Polpo alla Gola – “A tentacle at the throat” refers to that sensation one gets when having to have a difficult confrontation and you feel your throat close, not wanting to say what must be said. In this tale, it follows a young Calcare from a childhood event, and how that event continues to impact his relationship with a childhood friend as they grow up. There is a wonderful “all’s well that ends well” to this story – the whole thing was mostly in the protagonists head, and he should have come clean to his friend a lot sooner. When he does, she barely cares.
But you don’t notice it, and that is the magic of this. It is well written enough that you ignore that part of your brain that seems to scream to you that ‘this is all rather silly childhood fears’, and you just kind empathize with the protagonist. Right up until the end. Only then does the spell break, and you realize that you were both worrying about nothing.
It might all be just in my head, but whenever I read one of these I feel like I am speaking with my cousin, whom I am rather close to. And now living more out of Italy than in, my enjoyment of these things might be nostalgically fueled. But I do think ZeroCalcare does a few things very well. One if balancing the sort of indifferent male pride – the one that instructs us from early childhood that we are not meant to show emotions – with the overwhelming emotions of childhood that tend to blow everything out of proportions. The other is just a very accurate description of a suburban preadolescent/adolescent life. If you recognize it, you will likely enjoy it. But again, nostalgia. Not that this is a bad thing.
