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Daniele Del Giudice: Lo stadio di Wimbledon(A Fictional Enquiry )
I first read and reviewed this novel some twelve years ago when was only available in Italian but had not yet been translated into English. It was praised by Italian writers, includingItalo Calvino. I expected it to appear in English soon after afterwards but it only appeared at the end of 2025. I have decided to reread it in English and redo my review, making it longer and more detailed.
Roberto Bazlen, known as Bobi Bazlen, had a profound influence on literature in Trieste. You will sadly find little on him in English as he published little in his lifetime and even what was published after his death was certainly not major – a fragment of a novel and few other bits and pieces, much of which has been published in English in an excellent bookf rom Dalkey Archive Press. He appeared as a character in two novels, introduced modern German and Austrian literature into Italy, helped get Italo Svevo‘s career started by bringing his work to the attention of Eugenio Montale, was a friend of James Joyce and promoted numerous Italian authors.
This book follows an unnamed narrator who goes to Trieste and elsewhere, including, as the Italian title suggests, Wimbledon, a suburb of London. He is endeavouring to find people who knew.Bazlen and learn more about him. He finds out about who to talk to from a bookshop owner in Trieste, people he meets and even a book he finds in a bookshop. However, the beauty of this book is that we do not only just find out more about.Bazlen, we learn various stories about the people the meets who are often colourful and eccentric and who all have stories to tell and not just aboutBazlen. We also follow the adventures of our narrator as he is tracking down these people which is not always straightforward.
We see how this is to work out right from the beginning. He is on the train to Trieste, which breaks down. At this point we have no idea. What she is doing or why he is going to Trieste. A fellow passenger tells him they may have a long wait and that it will be quicker to walk toTrieste which they do. It turns out that the passenger is an engineer and describes in some detail such matters as the building of bridges. They make it safely to Trieste and our narrator head straight for a large bookshop which has many old books but not many new ones and to which he will return to find out the location of various key people. He will visit other institutions such as the library and university to find out more. Indeed, he starts at a hospital where he meets a woman who knew Bazlen, and who recites her poetry to him and gives him and us some information about Bazlen – He had a special nose for discovering little-known authors, who before long caused a stir. On subsequent visits to other people we will gradually glean more information about him and about the people whom he visits as well. We learn that He liked paradoxes, wisecracks, like any assimilated Jew. He was quite indifferent, both to Judaism and to Lutheranism.
One key factor is that he appeared to be a good writer but he did not actually write. Writing didn’t interest him,he was ‘beyond the book
But while following his story is interesting the stories of the people he meets and their various connections, often with well known writers, and the accounts by the unnamed narrator of how he finds his people and what happens when you know are just as fascinating. For example, when he goes to Wimbledon, he meets someone who knewBazlen near the end of his life and when he leaves her and sets off back, he sees a house on fire and the unfortunate tenants are having to leave and are standing around watching their home burn.
This journey to Wimbledon is to meet Ljuba Blumenthal. She knew Bazlen and now lives in Wimbledon, hence the title. She offers two reasons for his behaviour. . I thought he had two callings: One was to make known what seemed important to him. And the other . . . There’s a point in life when a fundamental decision has to be made. At that point things change, or must change, and one can no longer move forward by gradual, instinctive adjustments. Well, many people, having reached that point, came to know him. And he helped “them change, or decide but another character comments we’d be better off if there were no mediocre writers. Maybe he himself felt that he would not be a first-rate writer. Maybe it’s as they say, that he didn’t publish because he didn’t care, that may be true; maybe he was writing for himself.
Ultimately, of course, there may well be s no hard and fast reason for his decision nor, of course, for many of the decisions any of us take. More particularly, for the unnamed narrator, who may or may not be del Giudice, you cannot reconstitute a life or even an epoch (such as Trieste between the wars) just like that. It has gone. You can remember it but memory is imperfect. Our narrator is left with more questions than answers – about Bazlen, about Trieste, about literature and about life.
Publishing history
First published 1983 by Einaudi
First published in English in 2025 by New Vessel Press
Translated by Anne Milano Appel