PERFECTION by Vincenzo Latronico

Translated by Sophie Hughes

Back when I was a kid, Sierra On-Line, the titan of 90s adventure gaming, put out a weird life sim called Jones in the Fast Lane. As the name suggests, you had to do your best to climb the corporate and social ladders until you lived the ideal yuppie life. Basically, it was Captialism: The Game, and it sucked, other than perhaps unintentionally depicting just how vacuous that life ultimately was. Fast forward thirty years and we have Vincenzo Latronico’s Perfection which does pretty much the same thing but, thankfully, very much does not suck.

Anna and Tom are expats living in Berlin. They are creatives in the tech world, their superficial lives dripping with mod-con excess. It’s all carefully curated, of course, with the aim of projecting rather than experiencing “perfection”. Never mind that it’s vapid and soulless. Even their charitable endeavours seem contrived.

Much like the lifestyle it depicts, Perfection feels detached and episodic. There is no fulfilment. And that is the point. I’m a bit on the fence. Latronico has a sharp eye for socio-cultural critique but it makes for a cold reading experience. Then again, Perfection might well be the modern Gatsby.

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Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (Tr. Sophie Hughes)
Text Publishing, 2025
150pp