Book record
Roberto Bertoldo, Victims’ Cram
Roberto Bertoldo
Translated from Italian by Steven Grieco-Rathgeb
Roberto Bertoldo, Victims' Cram, translated by Steven Grieco-Rathgeb, sounds like a dense, abrasive Italian collection concerned with pressure, crowding, and injury. The title is difficult in a productive way: “victims” gives the book an ethical charge, while “cram” suggests compression, overfilling, perhaps the violence of too much being forced into too little space. Chelsea Editions often publishes serious contemporary European poetry, and this volume seems to belong to that demanding shelf. I would read Victims' Cram for its intensity rather than ease. Some books make the reader feel crowded on purpose, because the world they address is crowded with damage, memory, and unresolved force. Translation here becomes a way to carry that pressure without pretending to tidy it.
- Published
- 2016
- Publisher
- Chelsea Editions
- Language
- Italian
- Country
- Italy
- ISBN
- 9780986106149