posted on 28 Aug 2020

The Parrots by Filippo Bologna

A satire about the corrupt and corrupting nature of literary prizes might seem a bit like shooting fish in a barrel but Filippo Bologna’s second novel takes rancorous and sardonic commentary to a whole other level. For a relatively young writer (Bologna is under 40), this novel suggests that either he has a congenitally jaundiced – even Swiftian – view of humanity or he’s had some very bad experiences indeed.

The book is structured very like a morality tale and is written by a narrator with an omnipotent, all-seeing eye interpreting the action for us and controlling the cutting between scenes and characters. It’s a mechanism that provides us with a sort of helicopter overview of the story as it develops and also orchestrates the atmosphere of the book which moves between tragi-comedy, farce and black humour.

The story revolves around three writers – known only as The Beginner, The Writer and The Master – all at different stages in their career and who find themselves competing for the Italy’s most prestigious literary prize. However, behind the publicity, gloss and romance of the literary façade, all three have feet of clay and it is these essentially human failings that we see unfold.

The three characters (along with the cast of other minor characters who are also only named by their status in relation to the three writers) are really ‘types’ who are in some way representative of aspects of the human condition.

The Beginner has found his way precociously onto the prize list and his ambition and desire to win – and to exploit the possibilities of future fame – have made him arrogant and thoughtless in his relationships. But underneath his swaggering, womanising exterior there lurks a fundamental doubt about his real talent – something which is cruelly exposed by a mysterious talking black parrot (which I’m not going to say more about here…).

The Writer is the favourite for the prize although both he and his publisher have their doubts that he can fend off the challenge from The Beginner because the buzz around his work has become distinctly muted. But he’s well-established, rich enough off the back of his initial breakthrough and now wants the prize to kick his career to the next level. However, The Writer is sitting on a pretty huge secret and it’s one that is brought into sharp focus by the fact that his mother has been rushed to hospital (which I’m not going to say more about here…)

The Master has terminal cancer, believes he should have the prize for his long term contribution to literature but is really a desiccated has been who will do pretty extraordinary things to undermine his competitors, for who he has no time or respect.

All three face an existential threat to their careers and all three are forced to confront the question: what are you prepared to do to get what you want? Along with this is the fundamental subsidiary question: do you really know what you want?

Bologna takes us inevitably towards the day of the prize-giving as the lives all three writers spiral into confusion and extremis. He keeps a surprise up his sleeve in terms of how the day itself plays out and provides us with an Epilogue that ties and tidies the whole matter up – and you won’t be surprised to hear that it’s a conclusion that doesn’t speak well of human instincts.

Overall, this is a book that I suspect the author thinks is funnier than I did. The bitter lemon he asks us to suck is refreshing enough to begin with but does get tiresome. Types or not, I found myself thoroughly sickened by just about everyone in the novel and if only the birds (who are a recurrent motif in the book) had taken their lead from Hitchcock’s movie, I’d have been glad to see these representatives of humanity routed.

 

Terry Potter

August 2020