Madlinin, l’ultima mondina
The novel contains the memories of a ninety-year-old from Turin who is greedy of risotto who proves to be a lover and jealous custodian translator of the language spoken by his own, the Piedmontese. This popular novel tells the story of life in the rice-fields, where nightgowns and knickers of the mondine float in the sun and you can listen to their songs, discover secrets and virtues of housewives with the license of the third grade and glean proverbs, invocations and idioms : all pearls of healthy popular acumen, reaffirmed with the phrase \’mach\’l bin fè a peul durè\’, a mocked and trampled principle, the effects of which are there for all to see.
The Great War, the concentration camps, the Hebrews in the crematoriums, the Annonarie Cards and the air raids on Turin, the Fascist Regime in Black Shirt and mandatory badge, the Partisans of the Republic of Ossola, the Principality of Lucedio, the Canal Cavour, the Patriot Certificate, issued to the Author, complete a story full of emotions and memories.
Women, together with rice, are the protagonists of this novel that combines Piedmontese, French, dialects with the songs of the weeders. With their strength, their tenacity and the hunger and thirst for justice and freedom they made up the silent multitude that, in the rubble of the aerial bombardments, knew how to raise the Italian economic miracle.
Luigi Arisio was born in Turin in 1926. At 18 he went up to the Pellice Valley in the Partisan Formations of Justice and Freedom. He worked for 43 years first at Lancia, then at Fiat. Awarded by the President of the Republic of the honor of Knight of the Grand Cross and the title of Master of Labor. In 1980 he organized the White Collars in the \’March of the Forty-thousand\’. Elected Republican Deputy, he was the first speaker of the Law that recognizes the figure of the Intermediate Framework.
