On “Perfection” by Vincenzo Latronico

CAPITALISM: In Vincenzo Latronico’s slim, sociological novella Perfection, it’s not the sole, identifiable agent but what Louis Althusser called an “absent cause” that organizes the world and lives of Latronico’s protagonists: millennial expats Anna and Tom, who moved from an unspecified place in southern Europe (presumably Italy) to Berlin in their twenties seeking a dream life as digital creatives only to become disenchanted with their aspirational lifestyle and their social media-motivated existence of curated images and shallow connections.