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| CARLO BONINI La Repubblica “La Scala Spezzata (The Broken Ladder) is a precious novel. A journey into the solitude of man, into his soul and his environment – the ground he treads upon and the infinite heavens that stretch over him, which one man finally took it upon himself to challenge. That man was Charles Augustus Lindbergh. The true story of his very real drama represents the narrative thread of this novel, connecting warped realities, ‘provincial’ ambitions, unexpected catharses, and heroic acts accomplished in silence. A solid plot that supports the element of “fiction” interwoven into its pages. The events are set in the America of the early ’30s with its phobias and earnest naiveté, and are recounted with a cultivated interest for detail that testifies to passionate and thorough research. “This book maintains its pace with crystal-clear narration and a lot of first-rate journalism. It is lucid, without prejudices, truly reflecting the way Marco Bardazzi has been bringing America to us for years. Appropriately, the curtain opens to nervous striking at the white metal-edged keys of a black “Royal” typewriter, a soundtrack that is maintained throughout. Each development of this happening story is seen through the wide-open eyes of a crime reporter, used to adrenaline and sleepless nights. Here, the “truth” is almost never as it seems, or as the cynicism of the “trade” would make it.” |
| PRAISES FOR "LA SCALA SPEZZATA" |
| ALESSANDRO BANFI Deputy editor-in-chief TG5 (Italian national Tv network) “It is as if, by dint of recounting captivating stories from America time and again, Marco Bardazzi has locked into the quintessence of a journalistic account. In his novel La Scala Spezzata (The Broken Ladder), the great transatlantic flight hero Charles Lindbergh remains such, even in his most difficult moment: the abduction of his son, and impending tragedy. He faces life’s difficulties without being overwhelmed, from the discovery of the barbaric murder, right up to the trial. “Yet the story doesn’t read like a historical account; the events in Bardazzi’s book are related with the excitement of breaking news, lived out in the present. There is the heroic epic of the flight, but there is also the profile of the reporter’s profession. The real protagonist of the account is Sherwood Forbes, nicknamed Chuck, the “shoveler”, as he is called in the book, a reporter who admits to being something less than a good-hearted man with the talent of Hemmingway. He lives in the legendary world of pre-television journalism, looked upon with a bit of nostalgia from the present day, with the accelerated traveling speed of news via Internet, 24-hour TV news stations and text messaging. It represents a dive in the world of Oscar Wilde, with that press room in the garage in Hopewell, where it seems Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau could pop out at any moment. “This book also contains the metaphorical autobiography of someone who, like Bardazzi, has followed trials and investigations, murders and abductions in a profession that remains forever the same, regardless of technological evolution. The task is to recount the story of man in all his complexity. At one point Chuck runs into a Nobel prizewinner for medicine, Alexis Carrell, who is a friend of Lindbergh in the novel. This meeting leads him to the conclusion that life requires a lot of observation and very little reasoning. This verdict certainly indicates an anthropological and existential viewpoint which can be used to interpret journalism as well as life. “However, journalism and aviation history are not the only elements in this story. There is also faith and ethics. America of the twenties and thirties is teeming with both. And there are the odors of New York, of Italian and German immigrants; it is the air of that overseas promised land where Bardazzi and his family have also landed. “This is a book worth reading, where the reporter will discover the tools of his trade and any reader will be won over by the events of the story as they unravel, as well as by the reflections on life. Starting out is always difficult, even for a writer, but Marco “Chuck” Bardazzi is right on target.” |