Page 9 - Vladimir Bartol catalogue, 2019

9Mangialupi and othersoriginal title: Mangialupi in drugi short stories176 pagesfirst published in 2003rights available: world e stories are set in Bartol’s native town Trieste, north- Adriatic port where two nations live side by side, in the time of Anglo-American administration of the region after the Second World War. e turbulent post-war atmosphere, full of political uncertainty, was a breeding-ground for con ict between the two ethnic groups, Slovenian and Italian, incarnated in the stories here in the earnest Slovenian journalist Pertot and his antithesis, the gung-ho Italian businessman Mangialupi. As eminent critics have pointed out, Bartol’s management of character and plot in Mangialupi represents Slovenian humorous prose writing at its best. In the stories quasi- art, quasi-politics and quasi-love suggest the true mechanisms of human life; Bartol’s humour echoes Fellini’s satire, revealing human weaknesses, but with sympathy and understanding.Slovenian humorous prose writing at its best