Unfortunately I didn’t have much time to read
because of the move. Nevertheless I enjoyed a few books, mainly Italian books
this time.
I read three books by the same author, Cesare
Pavese, that I found while I was unpacking the boxes and organizing the
bookcases. They are: La bella estate
(the fine summer), La casa in collina
(the house on the hill) and La luna e i
falo` (the moon and the bonfires). I also read a poetry pamphlet, Clay by Elizabeth Burns, a dear friend
and exquisite poet who died last August.
La
bella estate is part of a trilogy (the other two
books of the series are Il diavolo sulle
colline, The devil in the hills, and Tra
donne sole, Women on their own). It was published in 1949, a definitely
modern work for the time. The point of view is strictly limited to the
protagonist (Ginia), a sixteen-year-old working class girl. The story is about
her life, friends and loves, especially about her initiation to sex in a world
of painters and models she is eager but afraid to join. Considering the setting
(Turin before WW II, during Fascism), it is a very unconventional, edgy story.
The way the protagonist describes her own feelings is rather demure, according
to the conventions of the time. The contrast between what she says and thinks
and what happens is crucial to the unfolding of the story. She follows her
dreams, or instincts, ‘spoiling’ herself, as she says, with her fist lover, a
painter. The urge to live, to become a woman is stronger than anything else.
She starts a new life when the book ends, we don’t know if it will make her
happy or doom her but it doesn’t really matter. The story is there, well-written,
effective and open like life.
La
casa in collina is a beautiful book centred on the life
of a teacher involved in politics (but without taking direct action) during the
final year of WW II in the north of Italy (Turin and the area of the Langhe,
where the protagonist, and the author, comes from). The theme of finding a safe
shelter (the house in the hills in his home village, hidden in woods, or a
sanctuary, a church, where he can finally find peace) recurs throughout the
whole story. The trouble of the civil war between Partisans and Fascists that
raged in Italy during the last year and a half of WW II is the background of
the story. The protagonist, Corrado, meets a group of Partisans at first but
when they are arrested he manages to escape and takes shelter in a convent. His
loneliness, his refusal to commit himself in the war or in a relationship,
makes him live an existential problem. He can’t find the courage or the reason
to change his attitude and his destiny. The fury of the fight and the thirst for
blood seem to belong both to the Partisans and the Fascists. His only positive
relation, with a boy he believes is his son, ends when he runs away and joins
the Partisans, leaving Corrado alone with his remorse and pointless reasoning.
The hopeless conclusion drawn by the book seems to be that there is no part to
take, only wait for the storm to pass.
La
luna e i falo` is the best of Pavese’s work. The book
is so well constructed: the characters so vivid, the language new and rich, the
story gripping, a true masterpiece. The story is set before, during and just
after WW II and develops in a world of farmers where there is a clear class
division between the rich owners and poor peasants who had barely enough to
survive. Life was simple but genuine, a kind of life that was typical of that
period in time all over Europe. The protagonist is an illegitimate child brought
up by peasants in the Langhe (Piedmont hills). After the war he returns to his
village from America, where he became rich selling illegal whisky. The frequent
flashbacks to his life as a boy interweave with memories of the rich farmers’
family he used to work for. The narration is not necessarily detailed as it
follows the protagonist’s thoughts; it often hints to sensations, outlines
events, alluding to what had happened. The plot is superbly constructed, going
onwards and backwards, maintaining the reader on the edge till the end.
Sadness, disappointment, frustration, the urge to live life in full and ideals
vs hypocrisy inevitably mix in a superb scenario.
Clay
is Elizabeth Burns’ last pamphlet, she died last August of cancer but it didn’t
stop her from working on her wonderful poems. She produced beautiful spare,
poignant verves in this last book, most of them short meaningful poems. The
central theme is the importance of cherishing the essential in life, taking
care of what is inside the bowl instead of what is outside. The description of
different vessels and pots, porcelain and china refers to the fragility and
beauty of the material, precious but ephemeral. The extended metaphor of a vessel
being equal to the human body develops in poem after poem. It is a bowl that
contains the light of life, the energy that makes us human. The container can
be enchanting, embellished with delicate spirals, enriched with corals, created
with the finest clay, but it is still only a container. Its emptiness needs to
be filled, replenished, as she says.
The last poem clearly refers to death, the bowls
become urns for ashes, a reminder of the body and its spirit, now free for
ever:
The
bowl a small circle of sun
which
will become
spring-light
–
a hymn to everlasting life.
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