BOO REVIEWS
Page 62
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Mutation, written by Alberto Moravia and Oddone Camerana, pictures by Roberto Faidutti, is published by Iveco.
THIS BOOK illustrates in elegant prose and magnificent photographs some of the less obvious social effects of a product of western technology on the subsistence economy of Sahel, the area immediately south of the Sahara. Poverty demands that nothing shall be wasted and imaginative craftsmanship transforms the hulks of disabled vehicles into a great variety of useful objects for domestic consumption and for barter.
Although the Sahara was crossed by the famous caravan of Citroen trucks as long ago as 1926, the journey is still neither easy nor free from danger. Roberto Faidutti supplies the incontrovertible evidence.
A vehicle breaks down and is abandoned in the sand. An empty truck with two men arrives. With adjustable span
ners they perform a leisurely autopsy. They will be followed by others until -all that will remain of the powerful truck will be a blackened form, a grotesque wreck."
Radiator water pipes will become earrings and oil seals will be rendered as necklaces. Aluminium cylinder blocks will be transformed into saucepans; aluminium body panels into spoons; chassis members into agricultural implements; suspension springs into knives and daggers. Even track rods will become barrels of breechloading muskets. Ashes to ashes.
Trucks that escape the ravages of the desert are decorated by primitive artists in the manner of fun-fair stalls and puppet shows. Some bear highly moral texts. An operator who obviously places reliability above speed proclaims on a fascia board: "God's time is the best.'" This book is a gem — and literally without price. A.S.-M.