"Laing's writing is detailed to the point of being documentary, and much of this fascinating novel is about real-life people and the cinematic illusions they assembled by hand. But it has the urgency of fiction, pulsing with its characters' deeply held desires and fears. A shocking headline glimpsed on the front page of a London newspaper sets off the action, sending the protagonist, a young man named Nicholas, into frantic motion."
"He flees to Italy, where, by chance, he meets the costume and set designer Danilo Donati, who enlists him as his assistant and becomes his boyfriend. It's 1974, and two films are gradually, painfully coming to life: Casanova, Federico Fellini's warped libidinous fable, and Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, the final work by Pier Paolo Pasolini, a bitter tale set in the country's last Fascist stronghold."
Five books linger physically and emotionally with readers, occupying peripheral vision and the pit of the stomach. The highlighted works include novels that examine the overture and afterlife of 20th-century fascism, an environmental history that unexpectedly pairs with true crime, and a restaurant memoir rich in glamour. One novel employs documentary-detailed prose about real people and handmade cinematic illusions, following a young protagonist who flees to Italy and becomes involved with designer Danilo Donati during the making of Fellini's Casanova and Pasolini's Salò. Additional notable titles mentioned include Necessary Fiction by Eloghosa Osunde and Ruth by Kate Riley.
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