The Skin, his part-factual, part-surreal record of Italy in the aftermath of the Second World War, “that I had bought the house as it stood”, adding slyly, “I designed the scenery.”Which is funny.
But, if he had, should General Rommel - who as a matter of historical record never really came here - have been surprised? Curzio Malaparte (born Kurt Erich Suckert in Prato, Tuscany in 1898) was a master of weaving fact and fiction together in ways that made a new reality as contrived and as compelling as the plots of the most imaginative films and novels.
Delightfully, the principal room of Casa Malaparte has been recreated as a stage set or work of art in Gasgosian’s Mayfair gallery in central London to showcase three of the pieces of furniture.
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