Transcript Elsa Morante History

Elsa Morante
History
Title: History
Author: Elsa Morante
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 768
Publisher: , 0
ISBN: 1586420046
Format: PDF / Kindle / ePub
Size: 7.8 MB
Download: allowed
Description
History was written nearly thirty years after Elsa Morante and Alberto Moravia spent a year in
hiding among remote farming villages in the mountains south of Rome. There she witnessed the
full impact of the war and first formed the ambition to write an account of what history - the great
political events driven by men of power, wealth, and ambition - does when it reaches the realm
of ordinary people struggling for life and bread.
The central character in this powerful and unforgiving novel is Ida Mancuso, a schoolteacher
whose husband has died and whose feckless teenage son treats the war as his playground. A
German soldier on his way to North Africa rapes her, falls in love with her, and leaves her
pregnant with a boy whose survival becomes Ida's passion.
Around these two other characters come and go, each caught up by the war which is like a river
in flood. We catch glimpses of bombing raids, street crimes, a cattle car from which human cries
emerge, an Italian soldier succumbing to frostbite on the Russian front, the dumb endurance of
peasants who have lived their whole lives with nothing and now must get by with less than
nothing.
Insightful reviews
Elaine: Am giving this 3 stars while I try to tease out how I feel about this book. Obviously, this is
not a run of the mill novel, and there is a lot that Morante is doing that is very creatively
interesting - the unknown first-person narrator of intimate, but limited, omniscience, the dwelling
on animal and children's viewpoints, and the interplay of the nightmare of history, the landscape
of Rome and the landscape of dreams. Indeed, this novel is utterly realistic and yet utterly
fantastic, and that's quite a feat.
And there are scenes that will haunt you. Even if you are a veteran of Holocaust literature, the
scene at the Tiburtino station after the round-up in the Rome ghetto, seen through the terrified
eyes of Ida, the mezza-ebrea (half-Jew), and tiny Useppe is truly the stuff that heartbroken
nightmares are made of. And there are many other unforgettable moments: for example,
Useppe's visit to the partisan's camp, or the capture of the young woman who aids them.
But I also fund the pacing almost unbearable at times. Very drawn out descriptions of Davide's
drugged dreams and monologues almost brought the book to a halt, and were no more
interesting to me than narratives of drugged consciousness usually are (although I did wonder if
Morante's narrative of survivor guilt (now a commonplace when thinking about historical trauma)
was revelatory in the early 70s). I also found the connections that Morante seemed to be
drawing between the ills of history/society and of the body, the torture of innocent Christ figures,
and the hopelessness of happiness to be very heavy handed and almost incessantly driven
home. It is difficult to spend an entire 672 page book (in my case, in a foreign language) trapped
in the morbid minds of the ill, the mentally paralyzed and the fatally passive. But that is where
this book places you. You find yourself longing for the fable-esque rollicking tones of the very
early chapters, where Ida's family history is recounted, and feel somewhat cheated when you
realize there will be no lightness or redemption anywhere in the novel. This is quite literally a
novel where, if a puppy or kitten appears, you know it's going to die soon.
In the end, I appreciated the rage and sadness with which the book is written, as well as the
writer's craft, while still tiring of reading it long before it was over.
Pat: Monumental in scope, this is a story of ordinary people caught up in world-changing
events. Little 'Useppe is born of an anonymous German father and an Italian mother during
World War 11 and the novel is as much the story of wartime Italy as it the story of 'Useppe and
the mother, half-brother, friends and dogs who love him.
The translation is excellent, except for one or two infelicitous renderings such as "lupini" [lupini
beans:] as "lupins". The character Davide's diatribe at the end does not work well in English,
which is hardly the translator's fault, and is probably too long in any language.
Not a book to choose if you like a happy ending but a must if you want to learn more about life
in wartime Italy.
Taije Silverman: But I can't really say I read it, as I had to stop halfway through because I was
too moved. Anyone less confused than I am about the difference between fact and fiction
should read this book. It's magnificent. I entered the story, without noticing. I want to put a
pocket in my heart and keep the main character there. But maybe everyone will have a different
idea of who the main character is. And that's just some immeasurable part of the book's nobility.
Jeremy: Captures the emotional texture of the typical lives of its characters in such minute and
humble aspect that you just nearly fail to remember that they're dwelling via essentially the most
dramatic occasions of the 20 th century...Reading it slowly simply because detest to finish...
Kia76: Letto in step with l. a. Sfida dell'Anno di Nascita e in keeping with il Giro del Mondo in
eighty libri del gruppo Readers Challange qui su Anobii. Bello e straziante al pace stesso. l. a.
Morante ripercorre gli anni della Seconda Guerra Mondiale e dell'immediato dopoguerra in Italia
ed in particolare a Roma raccontando "La Storia" di Ida, maestra elementare e vedova con un
figlio, Nino, poco pi che adolescente. Dalla violenza di un giovane soldato tedesco Ida
partorisce il piccolo Useppe. l. a. Storia di questi three personaggi viene raccontata con un
realismo e una schiettezza che permettono di immergersi completamente nelle loro vite e di
patire con loro le sofferenze della guerra, l'angoscia di Ida di essere deportata in quanto
according to met ebrea, l. a. ricerca estenuante del cibo e di un luogo dove vivere quando l. a.
loro casa viene distrutta dai bombardamenti... Un libro che sembra apparentemente non
lasciare nessuna speranza (Nino muore in un incidente con il suo camion carico di merci di
contrabbando, Useppe viene stroncato da una grave forma di epilessia e Ida impazzisce dal
dolore) ma che in realt ci fa scoprire in che modo gli italani, grazie a piccoli gesti di generosit
e altruismo, sono riusciti a superare le brutture di questa guerra assurda e disumana. Ho
apprezzato moltissimo anche l. a. narrazione scrupolosa della vera storia mondiale, anno in
step with anno, dal 1900 al 1967.
S©aP: Servirebbero dei saggi comparati, in line with commentare questo romanzo. Le reazioni
che suscita variano a seconda delle inclinazioni, come i diversi modi con cui gli animi affrontano
los angeles consapevolezza. l. a. scelleratezza umana vi si declina da sé, in una fredda e
spietata cronologia globale. Si affianca a questa l. a. maestosità di una storia puntiforme,
invisibile, esaminata invece in ogni recesso. Storia che assurge a paradigma, are available in
sintesi estrema il titolo. Vi si declinano vicende dolorose, cruente, passionali e laceranti, vissute
(o subite) a volte con l'accettazione di un'immanenza inspiegabile; altre con resistenza strenua,
ancestrale; altre ancora con noncuranza acerba, impersonale d'ignoranza. Ma il vero conflitto
rappresentato, nella sua eternità incomprensibile, è quello tra l. a. bellezza innata e
insopprimibile delle pulsioni umane più natural e immediate, e le aberrazioni bestiali della
ragione. Alla fine, neanche los angeles sconfitta estrema di ogni personaggio (ciascuno los
angeles propria) riesce a soffocare quell'eco di bellezza sublime, impalpabile, che da ogni
personaggio emana, e persiste, pur nella crudezza delle vicende narrate. Quell'afflato che resta,
vittorioso, maestoso (come detto), nei pensieri di tremendous lettura, come desiderio. Come
conforto da ogni bruttura. Come incitamento.
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