The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan by Domenico Starnone

The book opens with a retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Euridice. Euridice dies young and Orpheus, who loved her desperately, goes to the Underworld to bring her back--the only thing he has to do is to not look at her while he is escorting her out--but he fails to follow that one rule and Euridice is doomed. In this book a young boy in Naples named Mimí sees himself in Orpheus. As a child, he watches from the kitchen window as the girl from Milan dances on her balcony. He resolves that, should the girl fall to her death, he would go to the underworld and rescue her. His obsession with her infects his friends and they have great fights over who she belongs to, despite them never speaking to her or knowing her all. She is almost literally mythical for him. The next layer in this book is one of class. The author reminds us that not so long ago Italy was not one country but many regions that were united under one language, which is not the one he grew up speaking. Since Mimi grew up speaking the Neapolitan dialect at home, Italian is his second language and he is desperate to join the ranks of the great poets he reads in class. It is only once he grow up, becomes educated, and learns the girl died shortly after she left his neighborhood that he want to transport the girl from Milan's story from the Neapolitan, where it lives in his head, to Italian, where others can hear it too. This is short and fascinating.