INCREDIBLE STORY OF THE THREE-LEGGED MAN by Alberto Giuffrè (Minimum Fax)

“Incredible story of the man with three legs” by Alberto Giuffrè (Minimum Fax): meeting with the author and an excerpt from the book

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Alberto Giuffrè he was born in Palermo and lives in Milan, where he works for Sky Tg24. He wrote for Corriere della Sera and worked for the travel channel of the Sole 24 Ore website. He published Another America. Trip to the “Italian” cities of the United States (Marsilio 2016) e Without his knowledge. Unauthorized Autobiography of the Second Republic (with Filippo Maria Bat taglia, Castelvecchi 2013).

He recently published the novel for Minimum Fax Incredible story of the man with three legs.

We asked the author to tell us about it…

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“How is it possible that no one has yet properly told this story?” he said Alfredo Giuffrè to Literality. «It was the first thing I thought when I came across, many years ago, an article in the Corriere della Sera dedicated to Frank Lentini. We were talking about this man with three legs, who escaped from Sicily at the end of the 19th century and became a star in the world of circuses and freak shows in the United States.
I am a journalist and my first instinct was to try to document myself to understand if it was possible to write a real biography. Thanks to the 2020 lockdown, I took the opportunity to subscribe to a service that collects the archives of many American newspapers, from the first issues to the present day. I emerged from the research reconstructing pieces of Frank’s and his family’s life. I also managed to interview a nephew, who had the opportunity to meet him. However, it wasn’t enough for what I wanted to do. Hence the idea of ​​starting from documents, but of keeping everything together with imagination. I had so much fun writing a story that immediately had elements that struck me: the redemption of those who flee from their place of birth to find fortune elsewhere. The fact that this elsewhere was the United States with all the charm of the immigration events from Sicily. And then, as a music lover, discovering that Alice in Chains had put a photo of Frank on the back cover of one of their records. He really was a rock star before there were rock stars. An incredible story.”

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An excerpt from the novel “Incredible story of the man with three legs” by Alberto Giuffrè (Minimum Fax, 2024)

Rosolini (Syracuse) – 18 May 1889

It all starts with a scream. Or rather, a series of screams. There are those you would expect, after nine months of pregnancy, from Giovanna Falco. But then there are those of the midwife, Maria Alberi-
no, from number 9 via Gintoli they reach the churchyard of the mother church of San Giuseppe. Maria gave birth to children, including Giovanna’s first four. But when she picks up the newborn baby, she has an uncontrolled reaction that causes the other women to rush into the room. She places the bundle in the rush basket and pushes it under the bed with one foot. Among the women who entered the room there is also Giovanna’s mother, who retrieves the basket and removes the cotton band from the newborn. The last to arrive is the father, Natale, who had remained in the fields to reap the hay. All together, now, they are at
contemplate this strange creature.

They matter. “One two three”. Again, this time with the index finger pointing: “One, two and three.” Yet another time: «One. Two. Three”. They weren’t wrong. Francesco – because that’s what they had decided they would call him if he were a boy – has three legs.
Christmas would like to remove everyone from the room but there is no need. The women run away as if just witnessing Francesco’s birth could be the origin of a contagious curse. The recommendations to keep the news confidential were also useless. Within twenty-four hours, Francesco’s name was on everyone’s lips. Or rather, more than his name, it is the inevitable nciùria, the nickname: «Ciccinieddu tri pieri». Is he a monster? A strange creature? In the following hours and days, in the village, any conversation on the topic always has the same conclusion. Mischino, poor guy. And wretched parents, who after four children find this misfortune at home. And they, Natale and Giovanna, pretend nothing happened.

The next day is a Sunday and Christmas goes to mass. Better to avoid absences.
“Congratulations,” they say.
“Thank you”.
“And what’s his name?”
“Francis”.
«Ah, how beautiful, a masculiddu. Well done, greetings to Giovanna.”
“By all means, I will report back.”

No “how’s the baby?”, no “how was the birth?” They don’t ask, he doesn’t say anything. Suddenly discretion becomes hypocrisy and transforms into an exceptional form of comfort.

(All rights reserved)

© Minimum Fax

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Book details: “Incredible story of the man with three legs” by Alberto Giuffrè (Minimum Fax, 2024)

Incredible story of the man with three legs it is a biography in the form of a novel and a hymn of fascinating lightness to the crooked and lateral lives which, precisely because they are perpetually pushed towards the margins, have the power to give us an unprecedented perspective on the world.

Francesco Lentini was born with three legs, four feet, sixteen toes and two genitals, in late nineteenth-century Sicily where his life seemed miserable and inevitably doomed to shame. Until, at the age of nine, an encounter with an impresario changed his life: Francesco became Frank and moved to the United States, where his “monstrosity” became a “wonder” for all the patrons of circuses, fairs and freak shows. . It is the beginning of an extraordinary career, which the author tells us starting from interviews, original documents and research in the archives of American newspapers from the last one hundred and thirty years. It is a story of immigration and redemption but also of diversity, which is intertwined with the rise and decline of controversial shows in which people with unusual appearance or physical disabilities were exhibited. In the background, between the large cities and the immense province, half a century of American history unfolds.

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