Fiorenzo Ranieri
US is a novel about young people, taking us straight into that other adolescence: the difficult one, with Gordian knots to untangle, arduous paths to trace and identities to construct. Its author, Michele Cocchi, portrays it by exploring the life of Tommaso, a boy who has been living shut away in his room for more than a year. No school, no going out with friends, and relationships with his parents reduced to a minimum. Tommaso is a hikikomori: he has withdrawn from the world, seeking refuge in an isolation that, although suffocating, seems to him the only way of managing anxieties and fears that are difficult to define but capable of invading every aspect of his existence.
Around him is a family that, despite all its fragilities, never ceases to be there. An imperfect but real family, reflecting the dynamics of many families dealing with a child’s social withdrawal. The only passions he has left are NBA basketball and, above all, video games.
The turning point comes with US, an online multiplayer video game in which players, divided into teams of three, are bound together by a profound constraint: every individual mistake has consequences for the entire group. The missions, set against complex and dramatic historical backgrounds, offer no easy choices, forcing participants to confront moral dilemmas and their own vulnerability. US is not merely a game: it is an experience that puts players to the test and prompts them to question themselves.
In the virtual world, Tommaso becomes Logan and finds in Rin and Hud two teammates with whom, despite never seeing one another, he builds authentic bonds. The rules of the game prevent them from revealing their identities, yet it is precisely this anonymity that allows the three young people to open up to one another, becoming mutual points of reference during an adolescence marked by isolation.
Cocchi’s novel, written by the Pistoia psychotherapist who died prematurely in 2022, tells the story of the protagonist’s journey of growth. Continue reading Michele Cocchi’s “Good” Video Games: the Novel US
When presenting each individual card, the psychologist gives the following instructions: ![Hikikomori – Il re escluso [The Excluded King]](https://www.altreadolescenze.it/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Hikikomori-copertina-fumetto-825x510.jpg)
