What do You think about Boredom (2004)?
Penso di amare Moravia, è decisamente entrato a far parte dei miei autori preferiti. Non voglio (e non sarebbe facile) fare una recensione dettagliata di questo libro.. bisogna leggerlo, impossibile descriverlo e riassumerlo in una recensione. Ci tengo solo a dire che 1) non avrei mai immaginato di sentir parlare di "noia" intesa come la intende Moravia e l'argomento in sé mi ha presa tantissimo.2) lo stile di scrittura di Moravia mi ha dato numerosi orgasmi letterari: potrebbe scrivere la qualsiasi e io ne resterei comunque ammaliata.In conclusione, direi che è stata una lettura davvero soddisfacente e abbastanza veloce (considerando che sono partita, ho finito il romanzo prima del previsto). Consigliatissimo! Fatevi un favore, e leggete questo romanzo.
—Federica
This book should have been titled “Possession” for it deals with obsessive-possessive love spawned by the boredom of the disengaged.Dino is a 35 year-old painter who has lost his touch, a spoiled only-child of a doting but rich mother. He hates the lifestyle she represents yet willingly settles for a generous “allowance” so that he can live apart and “poor.” This pseudo-poor state does not do his soul any good (for he can always go back to mama for a stake if times get tough) and he drifts into an obsessive relationship with a seventeen year old working class girl, Cecilia, who was the model for an older painter and neighbour, Balastrieri. The old painter has just died, reputedly in the throes of wild and compulsive sex with his model. Dino rationalizes that if he can quickly love and dump Cecilia, without any emotional entanglement, he should emerge the superior. The reality is that our weak hero quickly takes Balastrieri’s place by falling for the young woman’s deadly mix of indifferent affections, apparent naivety and primal carnality. What follows is a chase in which Dino attempts to possess Cecilia so that he can discard her, while she leads him on a dance of jealousy as she openly shares his affections with a younger actor.Despite a thin story line, psychological tensions run high in this novel as each character is trying to gain possession of another: Dino’s mother of her son through money; Dino of Cecilia via sex, money, marriage, even contemplated murder; Balastrieri of Cecilia via his health-destroying romps in the sack and obsessive painting of her half-woman, half-child body—none of which work and only lead to more emptiness and desire. And it takes a knock on the head for Dino to come to his senses and realize that people can be loved even if they stand separate from each other, and that this is the most endearing and satisfying form of love. Cecilia represents the childlike beacon, steering those who come across her path towards this epiphany. I found the writing dense with long narrative passages relieved only in places by staccato dialogue. Dino (like the author, I suspect), the first-person narrator, is obsessive about detail and gives us too much information most of the time, particularly around his thoughts and motivations. To his credit, the author gives us the painter’s appreciation for form in his descriptive passages; Dino analyses Cecilia’s physical frame into a myriad of dimensions and characteristics: “the thinness of the torso, the vigorous curve of the lower back, the superabundant masculinity of the loins” etc. A subtle vein of humour also permeates, especially when the jealous Dino gets constantly sucked into ridiculous interrogations of his lover’s activities and associations, and when he futilely spies on her movements. And the class distinctions between the working class and the aristocracy are well drawn.I wasn’t bored with this book, despite its overbearing style. The character studies presented were intriguing and realistic, and mildly scary.
—Shane
Yet another "existential" novel about a disaffected rich prick going through an existential crisis. Like Sartre's protagonist in Nausea or Huysmans' Against Nature, the protagonist here is a spoiled twit who feels disconnected with the world, but he calls it "boredom." Fair enough. Our poor little rich boy has stopped painting (it's boring) and really isn't doing much other than spying on his neighbors (but only half-heartedly since that's also boring). Enter one 17 year old vamp who, except for sex, is even more disconnected than he is, but has none of his intellectual curiosity (but even then, he's only interested in himself and his boredom, not in the rest of the world). He decides to dump her (she's boring) but she starts acting weird which annoys the shit out of our protagonist because he thought he, like, totally possessed her, but now she's acting on her own. So he becomes obsessed and no longer bored and realizes that she is a stand in for the mystery and abject otherness of the world. He decides he must possess her and then, and only then, can he dump her (because she's boring). But until he possesses her, she's not boring.Like any good existential novel, there is no real ending. I mean, he does half-heartedly try to kill himself, and very briefly attempts to kill her, but only barely. And he's still bored at the end, but not as much. Oh yeah, I forgot: he hates his mother because she's rich and is obsessed with money. It is well written and it is compelling, but it drove me insane - which is what it wanted to do.
—Troy
