Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
NYRB Classics (2002), Paperback, 176 pages
Description
Winner of the 2003 PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize A NEW YORK REVIEW BOOKS ORIGINAL The nameless narrator of The Moon and the Bonfires, Cesare Pavese's last and greatest novel, returns to Italy from California after the Second World War. He has done well in America, but success hasn't taken the edge off his memories of childhood, when he was an orphan living at the mercy of a bitterly poor farmer. He wants to learn what happened in his native village over the long, terrible years of Fascism; perhaps, he even thinks, he will settle down. And yet as he uncovers a secret and savage history from the war--a tale of betrayal and reprisal, sex and death--he finds that the past still haunts the present. The Moon and the Bonfires is a novel of intense lyricism and tragic import, a masterpiece of twentieth-century literature that has been unavailable to American readers for close to fifty years. Here it appears in a vigorous new English version by R. W. Flint, whose earlier translations of Pavese's fiction were acclaimed by Leslie Fiedler as "absolutely lucid and completely incantatory."… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member TheoClarke
Beautiful natural poetic language recalls the youth of a narrator returning from America to the mountainous Italian vineyards of his youth. Any single chapter is masterly but the overall effect failed to engage me in the novel. I first started reading this over twenty years ago. At that time I
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could appreciate the language but did not relate to the elderly narrator. This time, I could appreciate his elegaic fatalism but I wanted a more overt structure. Show Less
LibraryThing member BayardUS
The Moon and the Bonfires is such an evocative title, and unlike many books with a good title, this one backs up that evocative title with layers of meaning. In the town where the unnamed narrator grew up, bonfires marked many of the most important occasions. They were the center of festivals, and
In this book the narrator has returned from a journey to the moon, in a way. The narrator moved to the United States, a world away from the poor farmhands or bastards of the Italian countryside, and further than most of his town could ever imagine going, but while he was there the narrator did not feel at home. Returning to the bonfires of rural Italy he still cannot feel at home, as he does not have the connection to the soil that the rest of his hometown has. As a bastard who never discovered his parentage, and who was continually moving from house to house for the earliest years of his life, the narrator did not have a chance to create those bonds that so many of us take for granted. Returning to the town after a lifetime away illustrates to the narrator the old adage "you can't go home again" is true even when you don't really have a home.
There are many parts of this book, and Pavese's writing, that I loved. The narrator is not returning to this town to complain about his childhood, nor is he world-weary really, he just has nowhere else to go and was drawn back to this Italian town. Pavese crafts a narrator that has learned from his travels, having him comment on the first page “I’ve traveled the world enough to know that all flesh is good and all of it worth the same.” Yup, that’s true, and there’s more actual insight on that first page than you’ll find in many full books.
I also appreciated the way that Pavese hints at things but leaves them in the background, or only touches them peripherally. It’s mentioned that the narrator was part of the communist resistance when he was serving in the fascist military, and it’s hinted that the way he has made his fortune was by selling moonshine, perhaps building up a criminal network to do it. Lesser authors would choose to focus on these juicy bits of the character, but Pavese isn’t using this book to entertain the reader, he’s using it to get the reader to reflect. I like an entertaining book too, but carving out a novel for introspection strikes me as a more valuable endeavor.
So why the three stars then? That’s because the wisdom and thoughts of the narrator during the early chapters quickly gives way to stories of the narrator growing up as a farm hand in the country, and the girls he liked, and the dreams he had of escape, and sometimes some stories are thrown in about Italy during the war. All of this has been done before, and while, as I mentioned, Pavese is a good writer, his prose isn’t strong enough to elevate this subject matter. I wish he had given us more of his insights and let the narrator ramble longer without being shackled to another rural bildungsroman, and maybe written a real conclusion, but Pavese chose another path. Oh well, at least we’ll still have that magnificent title to think about.
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when the war came they were created by burning farms, and other times they were used to burn the corpses of the departed. A bonfire is tangible, giving light and warmth, but also destructive (or purifying, if you want to look at it that way). In contrast the moon is also a source of light, but always out of grasp. It's a source of light that can't hurt you, but can't keep you warm either.In this book the narrator has returned from a journey to the moon, in a way. The narrator moved to the United States, a world away from the poor farmhands or bastards of the Italian countryside, and further than most of his town could ever imagine going, but while he was there the narrator did not feel at home. Returning to the bonfires of rural Italy he still cannot feel at home, as he does not have the connection to the soil that the rest of his hometown has. As a bastard who never discovered his parentage, and who was continually moving from house to house for the earliest years of his life, the narrator did not have a chance to create those bonds that so many of us take for granted. Returning to the town after a lifetime away illustrates to the narrator the old adage "you can't go home again" is true even when you don't really have a home.
There are many parts of this book, and Pavese's writing, that I loved. The narrator is not returning to this town to complain about his childhood, nor is he world-weary really, he just has nowhere else to go and was drawn back to this Italian town. Pavese crafts a narrator that has learned from his travels, having him comment on the first page “I’ve traveled the world enough to know that all flesh is good and all of it worth the same.” Yup, that’s true, and there’s more actual insight on that first page than you’ll find in many full books.
I also appreciated the way that Pavese hints at things but leaves them in the background, or only touches them peripherally. It’s mentioned that the narrator was part of the communist resistance when he was serving in the fascist military, and it’s hinted that the way he has made his fortune was by selling moonshine, perhaps building up a criminal network to do it. Lesser authors would choose to focus on these juicy bits of the character, but Pavese isn’t using this book to entertain the reader, he’s using it to get the reader to reflect. I like an entertaining book too, but carving out a novel for introspection strikes me as a more valuable endeavor.
So why the three stars then? That’s because the wisdom and thoughts of the narrator during the early chapters quickly gives way to stories of the narrator growing up as a farm hand in the country, and the girls he liked, and the dreams he had of escape, and sometimes some stories are thrown in about Italy during the war. All of this has been done before, and while, as I mentioned, Pavese is a good writer, his prose isn’t strong enough to elevate this subject matter. I wish he had given us more of his insights and let the narrator ramble longer without being shackled to another rural bildungsroman, and maybe written a real conclusion, but Pavese chose another path. Oh well, at least we’ll still have that magnificent title to think about.
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LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
This is a book in which nothing much happens, and the setting, place and time, and the characters take the forefront. Shortly after the end of World War II, the unnamed narrator returns from America to the rural farming village in Italy where he grew up. An orphan, he was raised by a poor farmer
As he revisits the people and places from the past, we learn his life story through flashbacks. In the present, he interacts with the one friend from his youth, Nuto the musician, and also befriends a boy who is the son of a poor farmer who reminds him of himself. Along the way he also learns of the betrayals and atrocities that occurred in the village during the war, and of the fates of some of the partisans fighting the fascists, although as I stated this is not primarily a book reliant on plot.
This book is considered a classic in Italy, and I can see how it has received that designation. Pavese has written other novels, and in addition was a well-respected translator of American literature into Italian. He committed suicide a few months after this book was published. I don't regret reading the book, but it's not one of my favorites, nor is it one which I would unequivocally recommend. Nevertheless, I recognized it to be well-written, and if it sounds like your thing, go for it.
3 stars
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who took him in mainly for the charitable stipend he received monthly. When the narrator grew up, he made his way to America where he became moderately successful. On his return to his village, he is perceived to be fabulously wealthy. As he revisits the people and places from the past, we learn his life story through flashbacks. In the present, he interacts with the one friend from his youth, Nuto the musician, and also befriends a boy who is the son of a poor farmer who reminds him of himself. Along the way he also learns of the betrayals and atrocities that occurred in the village during the war, and of the fates of some of the partisans fighting the fascists, although as I stated this is not primarily a book reliant on plot.
This book is considered a classic in Italy, and I can see how it has received that designation. Pavese has written other novels, and in addition was a well-respected translator of American literature into Italian. He committed suicide a few months after this book was published. I don't regret reading the book, but it's not one of my favorites, nor is it one which I would unequivocally recommend. Nevertheless, I recognized it to be well-written, and if it sounds like your thing, go for it.
3 stars
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LibraryThing member amerynth
I found Cesare Pavese's "The Moon and the Bonfire" to be too slow moving and consequently not terribly interesting. Every time I picked it up, I completely forgot what the book was about until I started reading again-- which doesn't bode all that well for the memorability of the book a year or two
The book is about a poor Italian who immigrated to America, then returns to his roots and reminisces about the events of his childhood.
This is an okay work, but not something that really drew me in, unfortunately.
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from now.The book is about a poor Italian who immigrated to America, then returns to his roots and reminisces about the events of his childhood.
This is an okay work, but not something that really drew me in, unfortunately.
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LibraryThing member stillatim
I admit it: I have an irrational interest in post-war Italy. For some reason I find Itaalian confusion about the war much more interesting than German confusion about it, perhaps because it's pretty darn hard for anyone in Germany to pretend that the Nazis were, in any way, a benefit to the world,
And that's what M&B is, really. Like Ferrante's justly popular novels, Pavese writes about a small community which has papered over the dislocations of the fascist years. Like her novels, he manages to combine very intelligent symbolism (the moon, basically, the other side of the fence where the grass etc but where there is also no there; the bonfires, the superstitions but also rootedness of the old world) and paradox with a straightforward style and garden-variety realism. So, if you like Ferrante, and haven't read this, give it a shot.
But a caveat: there are major flaws here. Our narrator, 'the eel,' has fled the fascists to the U.S.A., where he gets involved in (I think) bootleg liquor. It's all very vague, and this is no minor problem. The Eel's memories of the U.S., his relationships with people there, his description of the landscape etc., are all extremely dull (with one exception, a girlfriend, who is also fairly dull). The book can seem aimless, and I suspect it will be much better on a second read, since I now know where we're heading and why the eel's memories are being recounted.
All that said, spoiler alert here.
One interesting interpretive point: the introduction to the NYRB edition, and many reviewers here, really don't like Nuto. I think this is a mistake. Nuto is committed enough to others that he's a communist in a right-wing province (probably not the right geographical term); he's committed enough to have been a member of the resistance. Now, how do we weigh that against the fact that he let Santina be executed for espionage? The introduction here suggests more than a little that Santina was *not*, really, a spy at all, just put in the wrong circumstances and denied the guiding hand she needed--a hand that Nuto should have provided. I think this is making the interpretation far too easy. I prefer a grimmer understanding: that Santina had to be killed (resistance fighters, particularly, can't afford to have spies running around); that, ideally, she wouldn't have had to be killed; that Nuto is consumed with guilt at his role in this and tries to avoid it by lying about it; that the Eel is just as guilty for running away; that the Eel had no choice but to run away; and so on. The book presents us, I think, with a fairly clear and convincing tragic view, in which the good people (never mind the bad, they'll always be with us) are forced to do bad things. Nuto, because the resistance demanded it; the Eel, because he had to save his own life; Santina, because of the patriarchy. But Nuto stands out as someone who believes that the tragedy is human-made, rather than natural. Fascism was the sine qua non of Santina's death, Eel's exile, Nuto's crime. People did these things. They were not natural.
Which makes the book sound much more moralistic than it is. It's also an investigation of memory and so on, none of which I find very interesting. But if that's your thing, this is a better option than Sebald, for the reasons given above.
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whereas there is an (entirely unpersuasive) argument for the Italian fascists. The German resistance existed, but not the way the Italian resistance did. German communists got to play out (a deeply mangled version of) their ideals after the war; Italian communists did not. So perhaps it's not as irrational as I thought. Perhaps I just prefer stories that aren't quite as morally obvious as "so, the Shoah... not good. Not good at all." And that's what M&B is, really. Like Ferrante's justly popular novels, Pavese writes about a small community which has papered over the dislocations of the fascist years. Like her novels, he manages to combine very intelligent symbolism (the moon, basically, the other side of the fence where the grass etc but where there is also no there; the bonfires, the superstitions but also rootedness of the old world) and paradox with a straightforward style and garden-variety realism. So, if you like Ferrante, and haven't read this, give it a shot.
But a caveat: there are major flaws here. Our narrator, 'the eel,' has fled the fascists to the U.S.A., where he gets involved in (I think) bootleg liquor. It's all very vague, and this is no minor problem. The Eel's memories of the U.S., his relationships with people there, his description of the landscape etc., are all extremely dull (with one exception, a girlfriend, who is also fairly dull). The book can seem aimless, and I suspect it will be much better on a second read, since I now know where we're heading and why the eel's memories are being recounted.
All that said, spoiler alert here.
One interesting interpretive point: the introduction to the NYRB edition, and many reviewers here, really don't like Nuto. I think this is a mistake. Nuto is committed enough to others that he's a communist in a right-wing province (probably not the right geographical term); he's committed enough to have been a member of the resistance. Now, how do we weigh that against the fact that he let Santina be executed for espionage? The introduction here suggests more than a little that Santina was *not*, really, a spy at all, just put in the wrong circumstances and denied the guiding hand she needed--a hand that Nuto should have provided. I think this is making the interpretation far too easy. I prefer a grimmer understanding: that Santina had to be killed (resistance fighters, particularly, can't afford to have spies running around); that, ideally, she wouldn't have had to be killed; that Nuto is consumed with guilt at his role in this and tries to avoid it by lying about it; that the Eel is just as guilty for running away; that the Eel had no choice but to run away; and so on. The book presents us, I think, with a fairly clear and convincing tragic view, in which the good people (never mind the bad, they'll always be with us) are forced to do bad things. Nuto, because the resistance demanded it; the Eel, because he had to save his own life; Santina, because of the patriarchy. But Nuto stands out as someone who believes that the tragedy is human-made, rather than natural. Fascism was the sine qua non of Santina's death, Eel's exile, Nuto's crime. People did these things. They were not natural.
Which makes the book sound much more moralistic than it is. It's also an investigation of memory and so on, none of which I find very interesting. But if that's your thing, this is a better option than Sebald, for the reasons given above.
Show Less
Awards
Language
Original language
Italian
Original publication date
1949 (original Italian)
Physical description
176 p.; 8.12 inches
ISBN
1590170210 / 9781590170212