Menotti Lerro
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Menotti Lerro - MA University of Reading, (UK) - is the youngest author of the Giubbe Rosse's collection. He was born in the province of Salerno in the 1980s. The first book of Menotti Lerro, Ceppi Incerti, was published for the Giubbe Rosse at the same time with the book of the most famous poet of the Giubbe Rosse's collection: Mario Luzi.
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[edit] Job and Studies
In the 2005 he started to work for Mondadori in Milan (Italy) and since the same year he has been a free lance journalist. In the 2006 he got a post-degree Grant by the Università di Salerno (Italy) in order to study at the University of Reading. Previously, in the 2002 Lerro already studied in England at The Oxford Brookes University as part of his first degree in foreign languages and literature.
[edit] Criticism
Many critics (we can remember particularly Giorgio Bàrberi Squarotti and Roberto Carifi) have appreciated his poetry and both Squarotti and Carifi have considered his poetry without "lights" and "hope" where "the only hard 'reality' is the misery of the world".
[edit] Magazines
- Poesia, Crocetti, 2002, 2003, 2006
- Albatros, 2003
- Lo specchio della stampa, 2006
- Il foglio clandestino, 2006
[edit] Works
- Ceppi Incerti, Giubbe Rosse, Firenze 2003
- Passi di liberta' silenziose, Plectica, Salerno 2004
- Senza Cielo, Guida, Napoli 2006
- E' per questo che non ti scrivo, Il Melograno, Milano 2007
- Aforismi, Il Melograno, Milano 2007
- Un'autobiografia, Il Melograno, Milano 2007
- I Battiti della notte, Il Melograno, Milano 2007
- Augusto Orrel: memorie d'orrore e poesia, Joker, Novi Ligure 2007
[edit] About his Novels and Poetry
- The first book written by Menotti Lerro, Ceppi Incerti, is a collection of poems where we still can find the use of the classical rhymes: (e.g "Come una coperta di lino/adagiatami sul cuore/riavvolgimi malinconia bambino/placa il mio tremore"). In his preface to the book, Lerro is asking for society to answer to his questions: who are mad people of the world? And what is the concept of madness? Why does human being tend to laugh about mad people? Is it maybe because madness is a pathology less honourable?
Moreover, Lerro has presented poems full of personal observations whose aim is let reflect readers about his previous questions, suggesting some personal answers to “the problem”. Talking about this book in the magazine Poesia, Roberto Carifi said that the ability of Lerro was to be able to communicate – thanks to poetry – hells that otherwise are impossible to express. (Inferni altrimenti indicibili).
- After this book, Lerro published Passi di libertà silenziose, which presents poems dedicated to the death of his grandmother, two novels, aphorisms, pieces of theatre and thoughts.
- In the 2005 the editor Mario Guida offered to Lerro the opportunity to publish his new book of poems: Senza Cielo (Without Sky), which will be very appreciated by important Italian critics. Giorgio Bàrberi Squarotti, writes: “His poetry is dark in its dramatic nature to which Menotti wishes. The world represented by Lerro is poor in lights and the only truth is the pain and the evil. The result is very often remarkable, supported by a persuasive fantasy. Il perché che non trovammo is admirable".
(La poesia di Menotti Lerro è aspra e cupa nella drammaticità a cui efficacemente aspira. Il mondo che rappresenta è povero di luce e l’unica verità è la pena e il male. Il risultato è molto spesso notevolissimo notevolissimo, sorretto com’è da un’inventività suasiva. Il perché che non trovammo è mirabile”). An important stilistical chose has made in this book because for the first time Lerro adopts a fragmented metric without any rhymes. Therefore according to Giorgio Barberi Squarotti and Roberto Carifi, poetry of Menotti Lerro in Senza Cielo shows the rude reality of our current century. A world and a self without sky and hope. Without sky, in fact, means basically three things: 1) The absence of sky in metropolis (Milan in this case) because the smog is covering the natural blue. 2) The absence of God for people in this kind of society. 3) A personal inner dimension.
- However among his 8 books, maybe, the most important is Augusto Orrel, which is the autobiography of the homonym Italian writer Augusto Orrel (who has published the book Storie, Il Melograno, Milano 2007, which has experienced the big sorrow to grow up with a father suffering from deep psychological problems).
In the book of Lerro, Auguso Orrel, rules underlined by Philip Lejeune - which are necessary to consider a book such as an autobiography - are in some way subverted, but probably we can still talk about this book such as an autobiography. In the book there are many elements of complexity:
- 1) the narrator is a second person (Lerro) telling the history using the first person.
- 2) Each chapter is introduced by a poem.
- 3) In the book there are also real letters written by Augusto Orrel’s sister who gives another point of view to this problem: father’s insanity that destroys his children’s mind.
- 4) In the text we can find also the book of another Italian writer such as Serse Monetti.
- 5) The book contains more than 50 poems, therefore we can talk also about a “book in the book”.
In the end – we can say – that this book has not been written just by one author but we can assert by four authors: Menotti Lerro (main voice); Serse Monetti (author who has published the book: Storia di un cilentano in giro per il mondo, inserted in the Augusto Orrel); Augusto Orrel (the main character of the story and also the character counting to Lerro his life which afterwards has been written in the first person by Lerro; Mary Orrel (Augusto’s sister and author of the letters contained in: E’ per questo che non ti scrivo.
[edit] External links
- [1] (The Book of Menotti Lerro published by Giubbe Rosse)
- What is the Giubbe Rosse? [2]
