Another book about the hills of southern Piedmont during the Fascist
period (who would have seen that coming?!?), but one that doesn’t feel about
“my” hills in the same ways as Fenoglio’s books do. And Anguilla (the main
character) pales in comparison to Fenoglio’s Johnny, Milton, or Agostino.
Pavese is probably more famous both in Italy and world-wide, but his
intellectual detachment from the tumultuous political climate of inter-war
Italy is something that has always bothered me (true, he was arrested and
condemned to internal exile because of his involvement with the people of Giustizia e Libertà, but he wasn’t
really politically active and, according to his high-school teacher and mentor
Mario Monti, that involvement was one of the things that led to his suicide).
In addition, at least for me, Anguilla excessively idealizes his native village
(but that may be because, like him, I left mine, but, unlike him, I don’t
really have a burning desire to go back there anytime soon).
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