Emilio Isgrò's 'Autocurriculum' Reviewed as a Medicine Leaflet

Isabella Pedicini reviews Emilio Isgrò's 'Autocurriculum' (Sellerio, 2017) in a playful format mimicking a pharmaceutical leaflet. The book is presented as a remedy for impatience, uncertainty, depression, fear of the future, graphomania, dysgraphia, dysorthography, logorrhea, verbosity, improper word use, sore throat, night cough, and bronchitis. It is recommended for visionaries, bibliophiles, semiologists, strong readers, readers between the lines, and contemporary fiction editors. The composition is described as not an autobiography, memoir, or diary, but a self-curriculum in which Isgrò narrates his own life through encounters with illustrious figures, including statesmen, writers, artists, parliamentarians, actors, relatives, family, friends, and anonymous citizens. The book traces his adventurous life from childhood in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, Sicily, to his interests in poetry, literature, and theater, his career as a cultural journalist in Venice and Milan, and his revelatory relationship with visual art. His signature erasure (cancellatura) is framed not as violence against language but as a way to problematize discourse and restore freedom. Isgrò states that moving to Venice made his interest in visual arts irresistible, and he cured himself by erasing both words and images, becoming a full-time eraser. The review lists side effects: dizziness, pallor, and laconism. The book costs €14, ISBN 9788838937408.