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A review by nesisanickmame
La Ciociara by Alberto Moravia
4.0
This book from Moravia talks about Secira and her daughter Rosetta, who left Rome to go to the countryside to escape the harsh consequences of the war, despite ended up being followed by them. This narrative is told in the perspective of Secira, a ciociara, a woman born and raised in the countryside (an allusion to the geographic region Ciociaria - the original title of this book). It is through her eyes that we experience the hurdles that the Italian people had to endure during wartime.
Secira is extremely provincial and she's very proud of it. Despite having simple and traditional values, and lacking some general culture, she knows how to survive and, most importantly, she knows how to read people due to her profession as a merchant, which was oftentimes handy.
The narrative is very simple to follow, which blends with the character and personality of the narrator's humble origins. And it is in this simplicity that we see how war can take from you virtually everything. There is a very meticulous concern to details, visible throughout the whole narrative, which emphasises the toll the war must have had on the author himself. The final chapters overwhelmed me with emotions, despite being "predictable" (because history taught us this) was at the same time unpredictable and left me restless.
The only issue I had while reading La ciociara was simply how dense some chapters were. Moravia doesn't waste your time while reading and no chapter is simply a filler. This being said, most chapters, besides being longer than what I'm used to (averagely 30 pages per chapter), were also filled with information that you needed to read very attentively. If it wasn't for the lockdown I fear I might never have time to even pass to the second chapter. However, it was truly an amazing book, that I recommend vividly to everyone who has a morbid fascination for WWII.
Secira is extremely provincial and she's very proud of it. Despite having simple and traditional values, and lacking some general culture, she knows how to survive and, most importantly, she knows how to read people due to her profession as a merchant, which was oftentimes handy.
The narrative is very simple to follow, which blends with the character and personality of the narrator's humble origins. And it is in this simplicity that we see how war can take from you virtually everything. There is a very meticulous concern to details, visible throughout the whole narrative, which emphasises the toll the war must have had on the author himself. The final chapters overwhelmed me with emotions, despite being "predictable" (because history taught us this) was at the same time unpredictable and left me restless.
The only issue I had while reading La ciociara was simply how dense some chapters were. Moravia doesn't waste your time while reading and no chapter is simply a filler. This being said, most chapters, besides being longer than what I'm used to (averagely 30 pages per chapter), were also filled with information that you needed to read very attentively. If it wasn't for the lockdown I fear I might never have time to even pass to the second chapter. However, it was truly an amazing book, that I recommend vividly to everyone who has a morbid fascination for WWII.