The Dark Heart Of Italy
(Tobias Jones)
The Dark Heart of Italy is an attempt by British expatriate journalist, Tobias Jones, to unearth and explain the more animate and often neglected features of Italy. After immigrating to Parma in 1999, Jones? discovered an Italy at odds with both his expectations and also of the countless literary descriptions written by centuries of visitors to the ?Bel Paese?. Far from just the land of refined art, sublime cuisine and pastoral bliss of which it is renowned, Jones found a country of staggering complexity and deep contradiction. The Dark Heart of Italy is, in effect, Jones attempt to come to grips with his Italy, a land known for both beauty and Berlusconi, the birthplace of modern law and organised political chaos, a country which begs questioning but remains defiantly enigmatic.
Drawing on his journalistic background, Jones effectively engages the cultural, historical and political history fundamental to understanding contemporary Italy. At the same time Jones? discourse is heavily underpinned by his own personal experiences in translocating to his adopted country. Jones goes a long way in penetrating the web of complexities and systematic confusion which characterise a country commonly referred to by its populace as ?bel casino? (beautiful chaos, or alternatively beautiful brothel).
The Dark Heart of Italy covers a diverse range of topics. There are, amongst others, chapters devoted to The Parliamentary Slaughter Commission, football, the media, Catholicism, language and politics. However, due to his extraordinarily all-encompassing role in Italian society, Italy?s Prime Minister and the world?s seventh richest man, Silvio Berlusconi is the thread which binds The Dark Heart of Italy into a coherent debate. All roads in contemporary Italy, it seems, lead to the doorstep of Silvio Berlusconi. However, Jones acknowledges that by conflating Italy and its leader his discourse paints an ugly picture of a country with which he so obviously sympathises. Regrettably, for Jones it is unavoidable to write anything about contemporary Italy without addressing the phenomenon that is, ?Il Cavaliere,? Silvio Berlusconi.
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