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History A Novel Elsa Morante William Weaver Lily Tuck Books

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History A Novel Elsa Morante William Weaver Lily Tuck Books

The book is a durge, dedicated to the supressed, to the poor, to the uneducated, to the half witted, to the victims of war, to the victims of rape, to loving animals and the city of Rome, ravaged and raped and over run in war and populated by humans trying to survive. Long and relentless in style, with dense whirling passages of interior monologues and sharp observations as Elsa Morante jumps from one character to another (all linked) or from human to animal. Each chapter is lead off with an actual account of what happened in world history that year. This sets the tone for events contained within but by the end its proves to be a constantly changing onslaught of human suffering. This is a book that takes on all of our societal institutions and shreds them in exposing what there are at the core, subject sadly to the worst of what we are as human beings.
One can apply these same observations to our world today.
The most redeeming and joyous passages make this tragic story bearable, such as when the author gives voice and consideration to pets and animals. Not light reading and needs a real commitment as it grabs you and does not want to let you go. Morante weaves a dense fabric that is a history of one, one women and those to come in and out of her life; this is the other history, the one "we don't study" in school.


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History A Novel Elsa Morante William Weaver Lily Tuck Books Reviews

I've taught this book many times, students always LOVE it. It's one of my top 10! Barring it's intimidating length for some, this is a novel that deeply illustrates what life was like under world WWII as both a Jew and a woman. Seemingly the lowest-common denominators of Italian society, Morante illustrates the lives of her characters with deep empathy, passion even, and unflinching horror. The fictive chapters are punctuated by formal, historical timelines of global events from the novel's onset to its end. And the language is just as rich as the plot. I've read this many times and always find something new, human, and painful beautiful to discover. The language recalls Toni Morrison or Garcia Marquez, but to be honest, Elsa Morante has no parallel in any world literature, much less in Italian literature. During it's time, it was a global best seller, a rarity in Italy. Simultaneously ruthless and careful. Bella, the dog, might be my favorite character given her fierce love for Useppe as much as her (ironic) humanity.
This compelling and super poignant novel chronicles the story of four main human characters and three animals(!) over several years during and just after WWII. Set in Rome during that period of tremendous economic and political stress, it follows the lives of Ida Mancuso, an elementary school teacher, her two sons, Nino and Useppe and a family friend, Davide Segre, a Jewish anarchist/intellectual--all in a gradual downward spiral as Italy's ill-considered military adventures pull the country into economic privation and social chaos. It is one of the clearest explanations of what happens to society's poorest and most defenseless during such times.

Author Elsa Morante's inclusion of three animals (two dogs and a cat) in the lives of her main characters goes beyond anything that you will ever read. The three are given feelings, voices, thinking processes and actions that make them the moral exemplars in the midst of human disarray and crisis. It's hard to do justice to how strong and credible these characters are, but they often do carry the novel forward and give it some semblance of hope and of what we like to think of as "humanity" when most needed.

Overall, this is an amazing book, with clear connections to the styles of Zola, Grass and even Tolstoy. It is tragedy on a grand scale as well as an indirect demand for greater social awareness, justice and a higher degree of daily humanity. .
This book starts off slowly and then inexorably extends its grip on you. You will feel the reality of life for ordinary people in WWII, but it also goes beyond. Morante's tender portrayals of children and animals not only reveal her acute observation, but a deeper humanity. Useppe surely stands out as a feat of characterization, almost an archetype. Her illustrations of the minor things of daily life are dealt with such sympathy yet tinted with an element of dry humour underlying the whole. The author evokes well the inner process of grief, the paths of the mind after loss.

The book embraces the life of the common person, the woman in the street, the uneducated, the underprivileged. It celebrates the wonder to be found in everyday moments, yet underlying all, a doom-laden strength, the motif of death. It is painstakingly researched, based on actual events, lending an engaging authenticity... as the author is to a large extent, describing herself, and the real people of Rome. I found the translation very natural. Its a fairly easy read and I got through most of it before I even noticed what a thick volume it is.

Structurally it is flawed, however. The final 80 pages or so drag and could have been cut without any harm to the whole. It is as though the author tacked on a long, unnecessary postscript in order to elaborate on her underlying philosophical themes.
The book is a durge, dedicated to the supressed, to the poor, to the uneducated, to the half witted, to the victims of war, to the victims of rape, to loving animals and the city of Rome, ravaged and raped and over run in war and populated by humans trying to survive. Long and relentless in style, with dense whirling passages of interior monologues and sharp observations as Elsa Morante jumps from one character to another (all linked) or from human to animal. Each chapter is lead off with an actual account of what happened in world history that year. This sets the tone for events contained within but by the end its proves to be a constantly changing onslaught of human suffering. This is a book that takes on all of our societal institutions and shreds them in exposing what there are at the core, subject sadly to the worst of what we are as human beings.
One can apply these same observations to our world today.
The most redeeming and joyous passages make this tragic story bearable, such as when the author gives voice and consideration to pets and animals. Not light reading and needs a real commitment as it grabs you and does not want to let you go. Morante weaves a dense fabric that is a history of one, one women and those to come in and out of her life; this is the other history, the one "we don't study" in school.