It is a novel that looks not so much to the great story, also present in his tragic facts, but rather to his shadows that envelop a protagonist of the fascism “Gloria” (Solferino) of the Calabrian writer and engineer Mimmo Gangemi, already author, among other things, of “The lady of Ellis Island” and “The Meschino judge” (Einaudi), from which a TV series was taken from Luca Zingaretti.
Of those who think big and have the air of those who expect a lot from life, although among the mutuals of history, he speaks “to me the glory”, which since the title, with the emphasis of the pronoun, alludes to the personal fate of Galeazzo Ciano, count of Cortellazzo and Buccari (after his father Costanzo, an example of heroism rewarded by the Duce with noble title). A novel in which the tragedy of the war is not silent (characters such as Balbo, Starace, Grandi, Pavolini, Farinacci, Bottai) paradoxes, even if the paradox of Ciano’s personal war prevails to obtain glory. It is 1930, the Duce appears to be the head of the destinies of the Italians and the young and fascinating Galeazzo, a diplomat recently returned from China, is a guest in the splendid salons of the Roman palace of the Valguarnera di Villemosa: you drink, smoke, look at each other, you give in to the chatter in that living room where aristocrats of Antico Casato watch the new aristocracy, and where two destinies are met, by Edda Mussolini, the firstborn of the Duce, and of Galeazzo. A few months after the marriage, which prides Ciano, making him foreshadow future glories, then the choice to return to China as a general console in Shanghai, not being satisfied to be “hereditary prince without throne prospects”. Three happy years in which excellent work at the consulate to promote business between Italy and China, social life and concessions to libertine life are added. And then there is the return to Rome, the birth of the children and the need to always have the approval of the father -in -law (Defilate is instead the mother -in -law Rachel, with its rustic distrust), aspiring Galeazzo, between worldly frequentations and machismo exhibited, to increasingly “higher” actions.
It is necessary to go on proof on the test, the supine acceptance of evil is inevitable: from the war of Abissinia with daring flights (“he demands his first bomb on ABISINIA”) to the civil war in Spain and Albania to too much closeness with Hitler’s Germany, to the fascist laws and the notorious steel pact. Many yes these rancor towards the errors of the father -in -law and vanaglorious superficiality, “his immense ego, the obsessive desire to be handed down like a giant of history”. From the “I frieze” of Petrolini to the “I don’t care” damn to the tragedy of the war and the great advice to dismiss the Duce, and to escape with Edda and the children and to the arrest in Verona, where everything is consumed, the moral ambiguity redeemed by disillusioned courage in front of the platoon of execution.
