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A review by raulbime
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani
5.0
But who can ever see ahead? What can we know about ourselves, and about what we are going to meet?
This story centers around the Finzi-Contini household and the protagonist's, a young middle-class Jewish man, relationship with them. Quite a portion of this book is descriptions of the town of Ferrara, Italy, in the late 1930s, and the writer paints its streets, buildings, homes, and people brilliantly. It's clear while reading that Bassani is attempting (and succeeds) to recapture a time and place that's vanished. Completely immersive and cumulative that by the time we reach the second part of the story we've joined the narrator at the vantage point and can see the whole town below. From the beginning of the story the protagonist narrates the tragic fate that awaits these characters we're about to meet, which gives an eerie effect to the story as we become familiar with them.
The Finzi-Continis are a wealthy Jewish family of the town. They live in seclusion; separating themselves from the other people in the town, their children are homeschooled to prevent disease, and they even reinstate their own synagogue at some point. But when Mussolini gains power and the fascist regime begins implementing racial laws, the Finzi-Continis, for reasons they never openly share but can be clearly sensed and assumed, finally open their doors.
A strange and brilliant part of this book, is that despite the upheaval and terrible persecution occuring, most of the people carry on with their normal lives. Jews are being barred from libraries, can't place at the top of their classes even when they've earned it, are expelled from clubs, and even harassed and outrightly discriminated against in public. And yet the narrator mostly tells of his fascination with this rich family and their house and woods, of their playing tennis, of romance with its passions and jealousies, of bike rides and restaurants, conversations about art and love and politics. All of the discrimination is mentioned, as listed, and the characters, most of them Jewish, are affected by fascism, some even having all this take a physical toll on them, and Hitler looms throughout; but this story tells of an important part of suffering. That is, despite apparent danger, imminent disaster and, even, tragedy, humans still sink into the reassuring bosom of normalcy. Which isn't only work and routine, but those acts of habit and spontaneity. The evening strolls, the tea shared with a loved one on the verandah, all the things humans normally do to mark and pass time. Which quite frankly, to me, seems like an honest and different depiction from the usual fictional accounts of this period in history. Not to romanticize this very human reaction, to quote Anna Seghers: "And this keeping busy in the face of death has nothing to do with bravery."
Therefore it makes sense that the protagonist, while Mussolini has Italy by its throat and Hitler is about to invade Poland, will be attracted to this rich family and their house, woods, and books; that he will fall in love with the beautiful intelligent daughter he has always had a crush on; that he will have disagreements with his father who at first supports the fascist regime; will continue studying and learning; will do embarrassing and even horrifying things, and even emerge from this obsession having known more about life. Why should it be otherwise? The strangely comforting and frightfully sad inevitability of the expected and mundane.
This was an incredible book. The work the writer took with the town and all he beautifully furnished it with, the depiction of time and what's drawn and deposited by its current, a marvelous work and one of the best books I've read this year. It took about three days to finish reading the last twenty or so pages because it was difficult, almost painful, parting with it.
This story centers around the Finzi-Contini household and the protagonist's, a young middle-class Jewish man, relationship with them. Quite a portion of this book is descriptions of the town of Ferrara, Italy, in the late 1930s, and the writer paints its streets, buildings, homes, and people brilliantly. It's clear while reading that Bassani is attempting (and succeeds) to recapture a time and place that's vanished. Completely immersive and cumulative that by the time we reach the second part of the story we've joined the narrator at the vantage point and can see the whole town below. From the beginning of the story the protagonist narrates the tragic fate that awaits these characters we're about to meet, which gives an eerie effect to the story as we become familiar with them.
The Finzi-Continis are a wealthy Jewish family of the town. They live in seclusion; separating themselves from the other people in the town, their children are homeschooled to prevent disease, and they even reinstate their own synagogue at some point. But when Mussolini gains power and the fascist regime begins implementing racial laws, the Finzi-Continis, for reasons they never openly share but can be clearly sensed and assumed, finally open their doors.
A strange and brilliant part of this book, is that despite the upheaval and terrible persecution occuring, most of the people carry on with their normal lives. Jews are being barred from libraries, can't place at the top of their classes even when they've earned it, are expelled from clubs, and even harassed and outrightly discriminated against in public. And yet the narrator mostly tells of his fascination with this rich family and their house and woods, of their playing tennis, of romance with its passions and jealousies, of bike rides and restaurants, conversations about art and love and politics. All of the discrimination is mentioned, as listed, and the characters, most of them Jewish, are affected by fascism, some even having all this take a physical toll on them, and Hitler looms throughout; but this story tells of an important part of suffering. That is, despite apparent danger, imminent disaster and, even, tragedy, humans still sink into the reassuring bosom of normalcy. Which isn't only work and routine, but those acts of habit and spontaneity. The evening strolls, the tea shared with a loved one on the verandah, all the things humans normally do to mark and pass time. Which quite frankly, to me, seems like an honest and different depiction from the usual fictional accounts of this period in history. Not to romanticize this very human reaction, to quote Anna Seghers: "And this keeping busy in the face of death has nothing to do with bravery."
Therefore it makes sense that the protagonist, while Mussolini has Italy by its throat and Hitler is about to invade Poland, will be attracted to this rich family and their house, woods, and books; that he will fall in love with the beautiful intelligent daughter he has always had a crush on; that he will have disagreements with his father who at first supports the fascist regime; will continue studying and learning; will do embarrassing and even horrifying things
Spoiler
that passage that describes the narrator practically assaulting MicolThis was an incredible book. The work the writer took with the town and all he beautifully furnished it with, the depiction of time and what's drawn and deposited by its current, a marvelous work and one of the best books I've read this year. It took about three days to finish reading the last twenty or so pages because it was difficult, almost painful, parting with it.