History A Novel by Elsa Morante (1974, translated by William Weaver,1977, 720 pages)

I offer my great thanks to Max u for the Amazon Gift Card that allowed me to read this book

History A Novel by Elsa Morante is a fascinating look at life in Rome during World War Two and up to 1947.  Thecentral characters are a mother and her son.  A German soldier on his way to North Africs raped her, fell in love, then left her pregnant and he was never heard from again.  Ida, a teacher does all she can to get her and her son through the terrible war years.  Rome goes through terrible times.  We witness bombing raids, see the norms of morality erode while some rise to heroic actions.

There are lots and lots of interesting minor characters, exciting plot turns.  I as some how really moved when an older lady who feeds stray cats says she notices as the war gets worse that fewer cats come for her food.

At the start of each chapter there are headlines about world events, mostly on the war in Europe . 

This novel was a huge best seller in Italy.  I am glad I read this book.

                                      1912 to 1985, Rome 

Mel u

Woman of Rome A Life of Elsa Morante by Lilly Tuck

Literary biographies are one of my favorite reading areas.  It seems the 21th century is getting off to a great start with lots of wonderfully researched and elegantly written biographies of authors in the last few years.  Woman of Rome A Life of Elsa Morante by Lilly Tuck exemplifies this.  The author of a biography of a famous author  has a difficult task.  The temptation is to use the life history of the subject as resulting in her works, to,identifying characters in an author's work with real people in her life. 

Elsa Morante (1912 to 1985) most highly regarded novels are History and the cult classic, Arturo's Island.  She published lots of short stories, a good bit of political journalism, she was a communist as were most Italian writers and intellectuals of the period.  She married in 1941 the novelist Alberto Moravio, author of numerous novels including Woman of Rome, the source of the title for Tuck's biography.   She got her literary start publishing short stories.

Morante was born into a struggling to get by high drama family.  She learned early what it meant to be a woman of Rome.  She was not of the temperment or inclination to work in a mundane job, a shop or a factory were not of interest to her. Tuck tells us she occasionally prostituted herself, as did the central character in Woman of Rome.   From an early age she developed a love for reading.   Morante and her husband were both half-Jewish.  When the Germans   occupied Rome in 1943, they moved to a remote village in the mountains and stayed there until the war was over.  Tuck shows us how from this experience came Morante's very powerful History.  (I hope to read this in February.)  I was moved when Tuck explained how Morante insisted this book be priced so as to make it affordable by as many people as possible.  The well known translator William Weaver helped produce an English language edition.   

Tuck devotes a lot of space to commentary on the novels of Morante, showing how her life experiences influenced  her work.  Morante's marriage was not a great match.  They were not at all a conventional literary couple.  Both had other relationships.  They divorced in 1961.  Morante liked handsome, artistic, sometimes bisexual men years younger than herself and Tuck elegantly describes her various relationships.  

Morante loved cats, especially Siamese cats, at times seemingly preferring them to people, an attitude I sometimes share.

"Animals are angels and Siamese cats are archangels" - Elsa Morante

I enjoyed this book a lot.  Morganite had a very interesting life and Tuck takes us along.

Mel u

"The Mirrors" by Elsa Morante (1982- Translated by William Weaver)

Today is my first of what I hope will be a long series for my Italian Women Writers Project.  

Elsa Morante (1912 to 1985, Rome -spouse of Alberto Moravia) is highly regarded as a writer and intellectual.  "The Mirrors" is a very deep evocation of the forces and needs that keep people subservient, a slave to their baser needs.  I read it three times, I think all should read it twice.  It starts with a man telling us about his first memories, that of being breast fed by his mother combined with memories of an old family mirror.  The story, told by the man, combines several elements.  The man attributes his homosexuality to a poison his mother passed to mother with her milk.  One theme one finds fairly frequently in literary accounts of the origins of homosexuality is the seeking out of lower class men as partners, not in anything equating love but in near rape in back streets.  I am not sure quite how to see this but it is the course the stories narrator follows.  He blames his mother for having intentionally turned him away from a sexual interest in girls.  From this he expands this to a notion that people are made weak by the desire for love planted in them by their mothers.  This makes it easy for governments, remember the Fascists, to control society through the use of seemingly all powerful figures.  From this he expands to a hatred of the impact of motherhood.  

This story is a core attack on main stream values, especially in a very Catholic devoted to  Mother Mary country.  It is very Freudian and Marxist ideologically.   

I was happy to learn she translated many of Katherine Mansfield's stories into Italian. The Jewish Woman's archive has an excellent article on her.

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/morante-elsa

The New York Times has a very interesting review of A Woman of Rome - A Life Elsa Morante by Lilly Tuck.  I hope to read this book and more Morante soon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/books/review/Riding-t.html

I read this story in a very high value anthology, New Italian Women, A Collection of Short Fiction, edited by Martha King.  

This anthology is published by Italica Press, a leading publisher of literary and historical works related to Italy.  Anyone interested in Italian literature and history will find their webpage very valuable.  They have an extensive offering of translated works by Italian women. 

http://www.italicapress.com/

I am seeking suggestions for this project.

Mel u