Books

Fever by Jonathan Bazzi review: Eye-opening memoir, not-so-good novel

Bazzi’s book works best as a look at modern poverty in Italy and its disaster of a health system

City Centre Milan

Photo: Igor Saveliev / Pixabay

Jonathan Bazzi’s Strega Prize-shortlisted Fever comes to us through a translation by Alice Whitmore. A work of autofiction, it tells the story of Bazzi’s HIV diagnosis in their early 30s and the turmoil they went through to get a diagnosis. The novel is also interspersed with chapters dedicated to chronicling their tumultuous childhood in Rozzano, a ghetto suburb of Milan, leaving the reader to wonder what exactly differentiates this book from a memoir.

The designation is important because as a memoir, Fever is good, but as a novel it leaves a lot to be desired. As a memoir, Bazzi’s book is an eye-opening investigation into modern poverty in Italy and its disaster of a health system. The work very much stands as a kind of Italian counterpart to what Édouard Louis is doing in France with that same anger that informed Who Killed My Father?. Yet, Fever insists that it is a novel and thus it must be judged that way. 

Fever isn’t a great novel. There isn’t much characterisation outside of our central protagonist and a lot of the time you’re left to fill in the blanks of Jonathan’s life yourself. They have a partner but you never learn much about them. Bazzi spends the first hundred or so pages of the novel feeling incredibly ill and drawing out whether the results of their HIV test is going to be positive or not – a fact revealed very prominently in the book’s blurb. Overall you are left with a novel that feels overlong and half-baked. I was left wanting so much more.

Fever by Jonathan Bazz

Fever by Jonathan Bazzi is out now (Scribe, £14.99). You can buy it from The Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.

This article is taken from The Big Issue magazine, which exists to give homeless, long-term unemployed and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income.

To support our work buy a copy! If you cannot reach your local vendor, you can still click HERE to subscribe to The Big Issue today or give a gift subscription to a friend or family member. You can also purchase one-off issues from The Big Issue Shop or The Big Issue app, available now from the App Store or Google Play.

Support the Big Issue

For over 30 years, the Big Issue has been committed to ending poverty in the UK. In 2024, our work is needed more than ever. Find out how you can support the Big Issue today.
Vendor martin Hawes

Recommended for you

View all
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel review – a depth of feeling like a punch to the guts
Books

Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel review – a depth of feeling like a punch to the guts

Clear by Carys Davies review – a wonderful, poetic reminder that no man is an island
Books

Clear by Carys Davies review – a wonderful, poetic reminder that no man is an island

Top 5 books about early modern witchcraft, chosen by author Ramie Targoff
Books

Top 5 books about early modern witchcraft, chosen by author Ramie Targoff

Why walking is such a great way to see, sense and stake a claim in the world
Books

Why walking is such a great way to see, sense and stake a claim in the world

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Here's when UK households to start receiving last cost of living payments
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Here's when UK households to start receiving last cost of living payments

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know