Erri De Luca’s new book, Mikado rules is a short, polished and dense novel.
A short preface to introduce the characters. Then, immediately, the dialogue between these two, the lonely old camper and the young gypsy girl who fled his camp.
No first name, no place name: only the essential remains, visions of life, somewhere on the mountainside, a winter. A shared humanity despite seemingly significant differences.
Oversight
Everyone tries to face the difficulties as best they can, she through animals and the lines of the hand, he by comparing life to Mikado, this game where you have to collect sticks without making the others move, and to which he trains constantly.
A former watchmaker, he finds in this activity a manual exercise, the possibility of preserving the precision of his movements. No need to face an opponent: he challenges himself during each game. And, beyond that, in fact a way of life: discretion, the art of not disturbing anything around…
In all this story, you will not find any clue that it is true.
In the movement, the young woman whom chance led to her tent does not, a priori, subscribe to this philosophy. However, she must learn to be invisible: by fleeing forced marriage, she put herself in danger. Those who seek her must kill her to save honor.
The dialogues will be followed by epistolary exchanges, which, little by little, will reveal parts of life, cards to play or to know the future, paths of exile… The whole thing is precise and delicate, like the game of Mikado.
Pascale Fauriaux
Mikado rulesby Erri De Luca, translated from Italian by Danièle Valin, Gallimard, 160 pages, €18.
