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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
Mooie Italiaanse roman, met recht een klassieker.
Mijn volledige bespreking is hier te vinden: https://bettinaschrijft.blogspot.com/2024/09/de-maan-en-het-vuur-cesare-pavese.html
Mijn volledige bespreking is hier te vinden: https://bettinaschrijft.blogspot.com/2024/09/de-maan-en-het-vuur-cesare-pavese.html
La luna e i falò è un'opera che lascia un'impronta difficile da dimenticare nel lettore: è un libro attraversato da una nostalgia che palpita in ogni riga, da domande che squarciano il cuore e non trovano riposo: chi sono? Cosa rimarrà di me? A cosa, a chi appartengo?
"Ho girato abbastanza il mondo da sapere che tutte le carni sono buone e si equivalgono, ma è per questo che uno si stanca e cerca di mettere radici, di farsi terra e paese, perché la sua carne valga e duri qualcosa di più che un comune giro di stagione"
"Ho girato abbastanza il mondo da sapere che tutte le carni sono buone e si equivalgono, ma è per questo che uno si stanca e cerca di mettere radici, di farsi terra e paese, perché la sua carne valga e duri qualcosa di più che un comune giro di stagione"
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Bellissimo racconto. Ricordi vivissimi di un’epoca, quella della guerra civile italiana
adventurous
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
informative
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
E poi a me Nuto piaceva perché andavamo d’accordo e mi trattava come un amico. Aveva già allora quegli occhi forati, da gatto, e quando aveva detto una cosa finiva: "Se sbaglio, correggimi". Fu così che cominciai a capire che non si parla solamente per parlare, per dire "ho fatto questo" "ho fatto quello" "ho mangiato e bevuto", ma si parla per farsi un'idea, per capire come va questo mondo. Non ci avevo mai pensato prima.
The earth, the land, the ground you stand on, the ground where plants and trees and flowers grow (where life grows (and dies)); the land where you born, (and where you die); the earth upon which the bonfires burn and upon which the moon shines. That's what this book is made of. [1]
As in all great literature, form and content are one. The language isn't just earthy, it's of the place (in fact, I'm not sure how it can even be properly translated). I had to look up a bunch of words: either they were marked as regional or they weren't even in the dictionary (and I'm talking the Italian-Italian dictionary). According to a quick Google search, one word ("censa", page 92 [2]) only appears in written form in this book (I kind of doubt this fact(oid), but the point is made). Listen to this:
"Fa un sole su questi bricchi, un riverbero di grillaia e di tufi che mi ero dimenticato. Qui il caldo più che scendere dal cielo esce da sotto -- dalla terra, dal fondo tra le viti che sembra si sia mangiato ogni verde per andare tutto in tralcio. È un caldo che mi piace, sa un odore: ci sono dentro anch'io a quest'odore, ci sono dentro tante vendemmie e fienagioni e sfogliature, tanti sapori e tante voglie che non sapevo più di avere addosso." [3]
In that one small snippet you have the whole book, the way it feels and smells, what it's about.
Home, family, what is it? where is it? What is our place in the world? Our narrator, orphan, returns "home" after many years of being away and traveling, and wonders what it was all for. But he's too tied to the earth, and to the past. He wants to be young and poor again (he's almost ashamed of his success). But life isn't stasis, it's flux. It's construction destruction reconstruction over and over again. Bonfires are the desire for something more, the good life that you can't be a part of. Bonfires are violence and destruction and war. And bonfires are rebirth.
And the moon? The moon, if you believe in it, is your good fortune, your destiny.
UPDATE: Forgot to mention something else about the style. The book is divided into 32 chapters, each roughly the same length (about 3 or 4 pages). There isn't really a plot per se, so what we get is a sort of landscape of stories and memories and happenings, an earthy Brueghel painting, if you will.
[1] There's so much emphasis on the earth, the land, that I immediately correctly guessed that Pavese was an Earth sign (Virgo).
[2] Apparently, it means "tabaccaio" ("tobacconist").
[3] The beginning of chapter 5, page 29. My attempt at a translation:
"Such a sun that beats down on these stones, a reflection off the sterile land and tuff that I'd forgotten. The heat here doesn't so much descend from the sky as come up from the depths -- from the earth, from deep among the vines, so that it seems the green has been eaten up to leave everything bare. It's a heat that I like, a smell one can taste: I, too, am inside this smell, I'm inside so many harvests and haymakings and leaf removals, so many tastes and desires that I didn't know I still had in me."
As in all great literature, form and content are one. The language isn't just earthy, it's of the place (in fact, I'm not sure how it can even be properly translated). I had to look up a bunch of words: either they were marked as regional or they weren't even in the dictionary (and I'm talking the Italian-Italian dictionary). According to a quick Google search, one word ("censa", page 92 [2]) only appears in written form in this book (I kind of doubt this fact(oid), but the point is made). Listen to this:
"Fa un sole su questi bricchi, un riverbero di grillaia e di tufi che mi ero dimenticato. Qui il caldo più che scendere dal cielo esce da sotto -- dalla terra, dal fondo tra le viti che sembra si sia mangiato ogni verde per andare tutto in tralcio. È un caldo che mi piace, sa un odore: ci sono dentro anch'io a quest'odore, ci sono dentro tante vendemmie e fienagioni e sfogliature, tanti sapori e tante voglie che non sapevo più di avere addosso." [3]
In that one small snippet you have the whole book, the way it feels and smells, what it's about.
Home, family, what is it? where is it? What is our place in the world? Our narrator, orphan, returns "home" after many years of being away and traveling, and wonders what it was all for. But he's too tied to the earth, and to the past. He wants to be young and poor again (he's almost ashamed of his success). But life isn't stasis, it's flux. It's construction destruction reconstruction over and over again. Bonfires are the desire for something more, the good life that you can't be a part of. Bonfires are violence and destruction and war. And bonfires are rebirth.
And the moon? The moon, if you believe in it, is your good fortune, your destiny.
UPDATE: Forgot to mention something else about the style. The book is divided into 32 chapters, each roughly the same length (about 3 or 4 pages). There isn't really a plot per se, so what we get is a sort of landscape of stories and memories and happenings, an earthy Brueghel painting, if you will.
[1] There's so much emphasis on the earth, the land, that I immediately correctly guessed that Pavese was an Earth sign (Virgo).
[2] Apparently, it means "tabaccaio" ("tobacconist").
[3] The beginning of chapter 5, page 29. My attempt at a translation:
"Such a sun that beats down on these stones, a reflection off the sterile land and tuff that I'd forgotten. The heat here doesn't so much descend from the sky as come up from the depths -- from the earth, from deep among the vines, so that it seems the green has been eaten up to leave everything bare. It's a heat that I like, a smell one can taste: I, too, am inside this smell, I'm inside so many harvests and haymakings and leaf removals, so many tastes and desires that I didn't know I still had in me."
Il romanzo dell'esilio, dell'esclusione, della incessante ricerca di radici. Anguilla (di cui non sappiamo il vero nome) torna dall'America al suo paesino nelle Langhe piemontesi per cercare le sue radici ma trova un paese cambiato che ha "saltato" una generazione e ha fatto in fretta a dimenticare cosa il vento della storia ha portato nel paese. Come si può tornare a vivere in un paese lacerato, senza memoria e revisionista/reazionario? L'orfano Anguilla non sa trovarne risposta, forse solo chi è abbastanza fortunato a non dimenticare il passato e le proprie radici può farlo.