I read this book. It is called Zerocalcare’s Tentacles At My Throat (by Zerocalcare). It is a book about a boy in three stages of his life. It is about him and his friends, the adventures they get into, and the screwed-up things they do. We start with Zero (or Calcare or Thingy) and his friends Slim and Sarah. They start in primary grade, go into a high school setting, finally they are almost 30. Their schooling is done in one school building (except for the school of hard knocks that have them finding a human skull, and a porn-house) for their entire career. There are the bullies, the crazy students (that end up where you think), the even crazier teachers, a grounds keeper that knows more than he admits, the odd principal, his son, and the girl nobody likes who has the rest of her life ruined because of a fib Zero tells.
And then there is the supernatural element. Which is mostly just our narrators’ consciences. Which range from David the Gnome to He-Man to Darth Vader to a not human nun. His mother looks like Lady Cluck from Disney’s animated Robin Hood. And there is a giant octopus around his neck. You see, the point of the story is there is a mystery (human skull) and the
abandoned house (filled with 1980s porn of Jane Fonda look likes). The point is the lie he tells that not only got his friend Sarah into trouble, but really hurt a classmate, and he feels guilty about Sarah. Whenever that issue of conscious comes into play in the twenty years after the lie, we see the guilty tentacles come to squeeze.
And there is more. But also, that is pretty much it. Some references are not known to the non-Italian audience (it is set in Italy). There is a lot going on needing to be experienced. And in the end, I came away with the feeling of when you read something and feel it’s both the best and worst read, it might be this title. It is deceptively simple and thoughtful and not for everyone.
I read an on Edelweiss reader copy though it is currently out. And I am starting a new CBR15Passport with this being a book from another country (set in Italy/author from Italy).
