Like many of the other posts, this made me a uncomfortable. The vibe of the book was a little off to me. It was a great book to read and it was an easy red (compared to Proust and Bombal), but it still was uncomfortable.
Right of the bat, the way the mother acted around her son, and how she acted with Renzo around her son sent warning signals to my head. The reason I hesitate to say the she was in the wrong (That’s not exactly the word I’m looking for, but it’ll have to work) is because this is told from Agostino’s perspective and a 13-year-old who is going through puberty and is learning about sex for the first time might not be the most reliable narrator. But just in the first couple of chapters, the people around Agostino were very sexual. Agostino’s mother “would remove the top of her bathing suit and lower the bottoms so as to expose her whole body to the sunlight” (p. 5). Sandro in p. 32 explains what sex is to him, which is’t very sexual in the context I am discussing but then he goes on to let the boys, “show him how to do it” (p. 32).
They all were weirdly sexual around a 13-year-old. Some of the comments that the boys make also sound very sexual, especially because they had just had this talk. An example being when Tortima tells Agostino to jump into the water and Agostino says he has clothes on. Tortima responds with “Now I’m goign to tear them off of you” (p. 37).
The whole scene with Saro and Agostino in the boat on the way to Rio also is very uncomfortable. Not only because of how Saro is acting. but also because Agostino himself is very uncomfortable during it. This whole scene makes me uncomfortable and makes me think why a grown man hangs out with teenagers.
During that scene there was also something about the black boy which was the reason he didn’t come on the boat with Saro and Agostino but I did not pick up on what it was.
I am running out of words here so here is my question:
Do you guys think that Agostino’s mom was being inappropriate with the way she acted or was it just weird?