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Francesco Aloia: Questo sangue masticato (Bloodines)

Our author, Francesco, is the grandson of a mafioso. Carlo Gaetano orland, known as Tanino and/or Bastimento. The latter name comes from a goat of the same name as the local priest gave Tanino that name because, like the goat, he left shit everywhere, did not mix with the other goats and ran around causing trouble. Tanino was very proud of the name and used it throughout his life.

Francesco has mixed feelings about his heritage. He left the area when he was eighteen because he did not want to be associated with a mafioso family but, at the same time, he is fascinated by the legend of his grandfather, the first and last king of Marano, hence this book.

Is this book a biography? No it is not according to its author as he picked up various stories from various people some of which may be true and some which may be less true. It is also apparent that he often comes back to.Marano,a suburb of Naples and his hometown and where the remnants of his family live. While his grandfather is long gone he does mix with other members of the family, including of course his immediate family.

A fair amount of the book concerns this family and we learn a lot about them. Like Francesco they are irredeemably mixed up with the legend of Tanino.

Interestingly enough, Tanino’s father was a communist and became mayor of the town. He travelled around the country going to communist rallies. He got his fiancee pregnant and Carlo Gaetano aka Tanino, was born. Tanino did not follow in his father’s footsteps. Indeed, his son Bruno, Francesco’s father, said of his father the only great passion Tanino had in his life was acting the fool. This is not entirely true as he also seemed to enjoy chasing women, an occupation which kept him busy till later in life and, of course, as we know. he enjoyed causing mayhem.

The way Francesco tells the story is that we learn relatively little about his crimes early in the book but a lot about the price he pays for them. For example, his son Angelo, gets to know his father only on prison visits. What is an interesting story is that on release from his first, two year prison sentence, the first thing he does is go swimming and meets a very attractive woman with whom he makes a date. On the way home he sees a group of school girls, is attracted to one of them one and makes a date with her. She is Ada I will become his wife.

Aas mentioned, we do learn a lot about the punishment he suffered. For example, when he is not in prison, he is subjected to what are known as as Article One restrictions, which means he is not allowed to drive and not allowed to vote. He solves this problem, at least the first one, by having a chauffeur. When he is in prison, he appears to be treated very badly, frequently locked in.very hot cells on his own for long periods and frequently abused presumably as part of the Italian government’s effort to reduce the influence of the Mafia.

So onto the crimes.Tanino’s uncle has a fight in a prison with another prisoner. Before his uncle can get his revenge, the other prisoner is released. His uncle, therefore, calls on his nephew to save the family honour. Tanino has no hesitation. In doing what he thinks is right for the family’s honour. He confronts the man,Pascalone, armed with his gun, which he always carries an altercation in issues Tanino fires and hits the man in the wrist but, unfortunately the bullet passes through the wrist and into his abdomen. Tanino flees though he later gives himself up. Unfortunately for.Pascalone , The doctor is the son of a man who had been killed by Pascalone. Tanino is sent to prison but that is not the end of the story. Pascalone’s six month pregnant widow blames the local lcamorra boss and takes her revenge. Tanino is insulted that she would not consider him the main person responsible. This really happened and there is even a film about it.

One interesting feature about Tanino which Francesco discovered is that his grandfather was a poet. He manages to find a store of books, all the same book, which contain both some of his grandfather’s poetry, but also some autobiographical details, including his view on the Pascalone affair and details of another murder he committed about which Francesco knew nothing and which, he finds out, the family did know about but kept very quiet about it.about it.
Francesco gives us a lot of details about the various family member members, of which there are a lot. Some of them suffer from what the family calls.Orlanditis (Orlando is the family name). It involves hearing voices and the reaction is either for the individual to shut themselves away or give in to the voices. Tnino’s’s inclination is to shut himself up in his bedroom. Whether Francesco suffers from them we do not learn.

As well as their struggles because of being related to a well-known criminal the family has other issues, including a girl with Down ‘s syndrome and another one who is schizophrenic and autistic. They tend to try and stick together but this is not always possible, not least because of unexpected deaths. Death has always been part of the family .

We gradually learned of incidents in which Tanino has been involved and for which he spends more time in prison. While, these are known within the family. They are not mentioned and Francesco only discovers them by chance. Protecting the family honour is a key feature of these.

Francesco never gets to meet his grandfather as he was born a few months after the death of his grandfather. Perhaps not surprisingly we get full details of the death as well as full detail details of Francesco’s birth, which nearly killed his mother as he was so big.

The novel is of course on the face of it about Tanino and his exploits, the effect of what he does on his family and also how he is seen by the rest of the world, not least because his fame extends well beyondMarano. However, we do cover many of the extended family, who like most families, have their various issues, some related to their being connected to Tanino but others have other issues, including Francesco himself, which he touches on. It is something of a sprawling novel and is certainly a fascinating to see to see how the career of one man can affect a large extended family.Right, at the end, after we have learned that Francesco did not meet his grandfather, However because this is an novel and not a biography, he does get to meet him and has a chat with him, imaginary me of course that is nevertheless interesting. He remains unsure whether that being related to a the murderer is necessarily a terrible thing.

Publishing history

First published in 2024 by Nutrimenti
First English translation in 2025 byDedalus
Translated by Graham Anderson