A review by invisibleninjacat
Disaffections: Complete Poems by Cesare Pavese

2.0

The rhythm of the poems was very nice, and the beauty of the Italian countryside becomes nearly a character in itself, which is interesting. Pavese's treatment of women in his poetry precluded giving any more than two stars, however. Pavese seems to be the sort of man who has never understood the purpose of women, outside of having sex with men and bearing sons. The pervasive misogyny is off-putting at best, and outright disgusting at times. Women appear primarily as objects of sexual interest, walking down the street or in the vineyards. The few who don't appear as current sexual objects are, strangely, prostitutes; one drinks coffee in a cafe while enjoying the fact that she's off duty, as it were, until that evening, when she will again become a sexual object. He invites a woman on a date and rows her to his favorite shore, and spends the entire poem, as he describes the trip, complaining that her weight in the bow is upsetting the boat's balance, and that his spot no longer smells of wet wood but of woman (he was not forced to bring her there, presumably - it's his own fault she's there at all). He compares women to dogs and slaves. When discussing the hardships of men, he says, "But there's one shame we won't ever suffer:/ we'll never be women, never anyone's slaves." Just... wow.