Roberto Gramiccia's New Novel Blends Art, Medicine, and Life

Roberto Gramiccia publishes "La notte più buia. Cronache di una generazione" (Mimesis Edizioni, 2022), a dense work merging memoir, anthropology, and art criticism. The book adopts three lenses—medicine, art, and politics—to traverse post-war Italy, the protest years, and contemporary social transformations. Gramiccia employs irony and non-linear flashbacks, evoking Marina Ballo Charmet's decentered photography. The narrative intertwines encounters with artists Jannis Kounellis, Ennio Calabria, and Renato Mambor, and critiques the current art system's capitalist and show-business vacuity, building on his earlier "Se tutto è arte…" (Mimesis, 2019). The novel is framed as a "dreamed autobiography" (Gérard Genette) and uses "denarration" (Vanni Scheiwiller, 1960s). It references cinema (Fellini, Monicelli, Scola, Sorrentino) and Jungian sensuality. The text connects to Italian literary tradition (Pavese, Vittorini, Natalia Ginzburg, Fabrizia Ramondino). Published by Mimesis Edizioni, Sesto San Giovanni, 290 pages, €22, ISBN 9788857584164.