TREND-SETTING STORIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

In the coming weeks Merlin Library will publish Mario Azzopardi`s volume of short stories for youngsters. PATRICIA GATT previews a cutting-edge and highly charged anthology.

With this collection of short stories aimed at teenagers, Mario Azzopardi taps into a rich tradition whose best exponents transcend the category “juvenile literature.” Outstanding literary figures such as Wilde, Pushkin, Lorca, Eliot, and Edward Bond have all produced first rate works for children. More recently the genre has taken off with works that do not shy away from confronting the difficult conundrums of existence.

Employing an array of narrative personae, ranging from a sexually abused 14-year old girl to a teenage boy alternately bewildered and fascinated by the reaction of insular outsiders to a jellyfish invasion one torrid summer, Azzopardi tackles themes whose immediacy and topicality belie their extensive relevance.

A facile, and therefore, unreliable conclusion is the one whereby authors who write for adolescents must be obeying the dictates of a compulsive urge to revisit their own teenage years. Setting aside the amply documented pitfalls inherent in a biographical interpretation of a writer`s work, in Azzopardi`s case, at least, such a reading would be way off the mark. Fusing together the fantastical, surreal and dream-like with the style of reportage and web-specific jargon, Azzopardi explores a number of themes in a startlingly novel manner.

Disciplining oneself according to the aesthetic demands made by any creative endeavour is no small challenge. Azzopardi could have easily fallen into the trap of dealing with “issues” in the earnestly hackneyed style that elicits a yawn. Teenagers, especially, abhor the cynical mix of preachiness and adult hypocrisy because they get too much of it, as it is. So, the main themes explored in this anthology seem to form an organic base on which aesthetic pleasure and committed writing walk a tightrope in a pacey style. This goes to prove that in the right hands Maltese does not have to sound plodding and that it is perfectly capable of expressing the rhythms of a fast-paced culture.

Death from a drug overdose, teenage alienation, identity formation, acceptance and rejection of the self, sexual exploration and exploitation, rebellion, pop culture, racism, consumerism, inadequate education systems, politics and environmental damage are dealt with perceptively. One might argue that Azzopardi is fully aware of the risk of sounding like a sociologist or psychologist or, worse, some education authority creative writing project which is freely handed out and never read.

However, it is evident that this is a poet at work, chartering new ground. The depth of imagery and allusion, a total mastery of the cadences of Maltese, a haunting lyrical quality that permeates most of the works and the subversion of the conventions of juvenile literature testify to this. Hence, in Alicia Speaks from her Grave the convention of the wicked stepmother does not follow the accepted pattern: Alicia, the girl-victim remains just that – a victim. She never triumphs over her terrible fate and the stepmother is one of the many persons who wound her and render her both physically and psychologically vulnerable.

Azzopardi credibly pulls off the portrayal of teenage self-consciousness while concurrently eliminating it from the writing process. His multiple voices react against, refuse and resist society`s expectations of them. A gallery of intelligent, aware, sensitive and committed adolescents present themselves to the reader, very often by using a confessional tone.

Placed against the backdrop of the media`s penchant for confession, as long as it is done in a sensational manner, these adolescents` need for opening up is dignified. In succumbing to the desire to confess, they still withhold an intrinsic part of themselves. Evidence of this can be grasped in the sense of mystery, vagueness and understatement pervading most of these stories` endings, which invite active readership.

These adolescents run the risk of being types rather than flesh and blood characters. What humanizes them, however, is their tragic attempt to come to terms with the pain that defines existence. Essentially, they are solitary beings paradoxically detached and involved observers of their own predicament and the reality of society at large. This is best exemplified by Alicia`s disembodied voice talking matter of factly from beyond the grave: a quality that gives rise to both distance or remoteness and intimacy.

Moreover, Azzopardi`s background in the theatre cannot fail to leave its stamp on his literary output In this case, he employs a number of devices such as sharp, multi-rhythmic dialogue alternating with soliloquies where it is not easy to distinguish between the person and the mask. In one intriguing story a youngster follows his innate instinct for dramatic experiment in sharp contrast to his dying uncle, whose talents were repressed or mutilated. Equally absorbing is the sexual duality employed by the author, as he takes on the narrating roles of both male and female protagonists.

Other stylistic devices include a letter from an understanding adult to an adolescent, the use of prose-poetry, conscious authorial intrusions, legalese and hard-hitting street talk.

In many ways, these stories break new ground, not least in the presentation of the “erotic” situations which function as catalytic forces. The naïve adolescent girl lured into Sigismondo`s lair, for instance, portrays sexual deception in graphic language which stretches the limits of convention.