The Silver Book, Olivia Laing's eighth book, is steeped in the homosexual demimonde of 1970s Italian cinema. Its clear antifascist message is filtered through the coming-of-age story of an Englishman trying to outrun his past.
Laing's second novel (after Crudo) opens with 22-year-old art student Nicholas Wade fleeing London for Venice in 1974. He falls in with Danilo Donati, a 40-something art director meticulously designing costumes for Federico Fellini's Casanova. Nico becomes Dani's apprentice--as well as his lover. They move between Rome and Venice, also working on Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò, a Sadeian horror-cum-satire on fascism. The behind-the-scenes details of sets, props, and meals are fascinating.
Hedonism and menace mingle. An early scene warns of the danger of cruising: Dani comes home one night drunk and with a broken nose. Haunted by what happened back in London, Nico becomes addicted to sleeping pills. He catches Pasolini's eye, while Dani sleeps with other crew members. Cinephiles may know what's coming; for others, it will be a shock when a key character is murdered for his political convictions and accused of bringing it on himself by paying young men for sex.
This novel offers the best of both worlds: the verisimilitude of true crime reportage and the intimacy of the close third person. Laing (The Trip to Echo Spring) leavens the tone with some darkly comedic moments, especially when Donald Sutherland arrives to star in Casanova. The Silver Book is an elegant and psychologically astute work from one of the most valuable cultural commentators out there. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck