“Perhaps the loneliness he enjoyed was wearing him out more than he himself wanted to admit.”
The book was a surprise. We approached reading, and we are not afraid to say it, full of prejudices, thinking of yet another children’s book full of clichés, to be digested reluctantly, instead it turned out to be an explosion of opportunities and reflections. When it is said that prejudices must be overcome to open the mind…
The simple style of writing is in line with the author’s target audience, but beware, simple does not mean easy or childish. On our side, due to the metaphorical depth inherent in some passages, we also recommend reading it to an adult audience.
The adventures of the little mouse Scorza and his friends, whom he will meet in the course of his life (Fiore, Aurora and Nuvola), tell the story of today’s world, in its hypocrisies and contradictions.
Solitary, selfish and mischievous, Scorza is the perfect prototype of the single individual in modern society, bound by the sole objective of satisfying his basic needs, disinterested in those of others.
In constant search of food, Scorza will venture inside a factory with large food reserves. Due to a series of events, he will come into contact with other animals, whose purity of soul and simplicity will be able to break through the mouse’s heart.
Expeditions to the factory will result in pleasurable visits to his new friends and, before he realizes it, Scorza will understand the meaning of the word generosity.
From here, vast areas of reflection on the activity of man (in the sense of the human being) in the world open up. A self-destructive action without respect for other living beings. As well as the exploitation of animals with mass rearing, and slaughter, which we pretend not to see when they are well packaged inside tin cans with images of happy animals.
We must open our mind, be like Scorza, because the main purpose of life is to help others, especially those condemned to a life of difficulty without any expectation for the future.
A book of an absurd humanity with animal protagonists, is it not perhaps also in this subtle irony the meaning of life?
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Tim Bruno, Factory, Rizzoli, Milano, 2020
