The Silver Book (Olivia Laing)

I just finished reading: The Silver Book by Olivia Laing 📚

The Silver Book is a beautiful novel that I couldn’t, won’t let go of. Queer love intertwined with 1970s Italian filmmaking, and the march of fascism in the background.

The writing is exquisite, I ate up every word. The emotion was not just put on a stage for us to see, it’s wrapped around us, forcing us to feel as deeply and openly as Nicholas and Danilo did.

The spectre of impending grief is on every page, but so is the teasing of ecstasy. Life is cruel, uncertain, and exhilarating in equal measure.

One of the strongest themes of the book for me was the false hope in running away. Burying experiences, our feelings, is more of a snooze button than an off switch. They lay beneath our conscious day, and we beat them down quickly when they show signs of waking up. But it is inevitable that they will one day exhaust you in to giving in to their confrontation.

Nicholas has run away to a situation he knows, Danilo knows, is unlikely to hold forever. Nicholas’ time in Italy always feels temporal, like an extended holiday. Neither of them even pretend that “it’s different for us”. The longing is eternal, circumstances are not.

The entire cast’s celebration of queerness even evokes a temporary reprieve from captivity. Fascism looms. Might the party end? Camp and its excess of joy begins to feel the boot on its throat.

Complete fiction, I’m sure.