I feel like I am beginning to say this every week, but the authors of these books seem to have an almost sneaky way of illustrating and wrapping their worlds around you to keep you engaged and invested in their stories. I feel like throughout different languages and varying subjects, romance authors have an extraordinary ability to envelop readers in the setting of the novel with such vivid and striking imagery. Even through the mundane, their depiction acts to do their home country a service, and if not for the story you might want to stay just for the visualizations.
Now onto the elephant in the room. This book gave me mixed feelings while I read more and more, but not to prompt me to stop reading altogether, but more a feeling of uncomfortableness (Think of the face you make when you eat something bitter). As a person much older than Agostino, while reading I wanted to spare him somehow of his naive nature and strange circumstances (I can’t do anything about his Freudian tendencies though). It was weird for me to read about a boy who wanted his mom and only had the local gang to educate him, and I felt like the author had to be drawing at least some inspiration from his own life in order to write this book in the detail and with the feelings it had. In a way, it sort of highlighted what the absence of a father figure could mean for a kid, especially in the way that Agostino couldn’t resist the group of other boys, despite the mockery and treatment he took from them. With the novel being short in both text and time period (Spanning less than a summer), I can’t help but wonder what kind of person or “man” Agostino eventually became.
After reading I searched up the book to see what others had to say and found out that there was a movie adapted from the book. It feels strange to me that this book could even become a movie as many paragraphs of imagery can be represented with a second of a picture, and there really is not that much that happens in this book in terms of events. I haven’t watched the movie, but I imagine that it could only be worth watching if the feelings of innocence, jealousy, curiosity, and turmoil were truly expressed as they were in the book. 4/5.
For this week’s question, why do you think this book was included in the list of literature for this class?
It seems to me that one of the elements that is most repeated in this week’s blogs, in addition to the reference to Freud, is the question about Moravia’s source of inspiration for his novel. In this sense, how much would our perception of the narrative and our own reaction to the events being told change if some part of the story were “based on real events”, from his own life?
Hey there! I believe this book was included in the list of literature for this class as it has themes that the other novels explore as well. I also think that this book is a great comparative book as it does have contrasting things in it compared to other books.
Hi Jonathan, I think in this book we get a more direct sense of some of the more subtle things in society, about desire, about sexuality, and certainly from my point of view, I think the relationship between the boy and his mother as described in the book is less than healthy.
Hey Jonathan, I found your post to be interesting, and to answer your question I believe it was added to spark up an interesting conversation like the discussion on Wednesday, and I don’t just mean the Freudian stuff but also the male dynamics and friendships as well as the class difference among other things.
I didn’t read this book, but greatly enjoyed reading your blog post. The Freudian ideas are excellent food for thought!
Hi Johnathan,
I found your post quite interesting and I agree with your opinions about Freud. I also did not know that this book was made into a movie so that’s interesting, I’m not sure why anyone would make in into a movie as a large part of the novel is a narration of Agostino’s internal thoughts. Anyways , to answer your question this novel is included in this class because it can relate to many of the common themes in other books like Combray and Mad Toy and it teaches us something valuable .
Hi Jonathan. I was also thinking the same thing, that the author likely drew inspiration from personal experiences to delve into such topics in the book, in that kind of detail. It makes me wonder if, given its Italian origins, there’s a cultural inclination toward being more open and expressive about sensuality and emotions? As a Canadian who has lived here my whole life, I find it challenging to relate to the narrative. Perhaps our reserved nature plays a role in that. I also can’t help but be curious about the trajectory of Agostino’s character after this pivotal moment in his life.