A review by gempoole
Boredom by Alberto Moravia

2.0

The beginning of this book is amazing. Dino's characterisation is so good and his voice really reminded me of Camus' 'The Outsider'? Also, the way Moravia constructs this idea of boredom and disconnection with reality was really interesting and I was excited to see where it was going to go. However, as soon as Cecelia was introduced and their story began to unfold I just lost interest. Dino is too intense, too creepy and it made me super uncomfortable. Of course i'm taking into account the attitudes of the time but the book was ruined for my by the incessant lusting after a young girl and the repeated attempts of men to 'possess' her and manipulate her into staying with them for their own amusement / psychological development?
The two stars are purely for Moravia's writing, I really loved it and although the characters are pretty awful (besides Cecelia who probably has a lot of emotional trauma), they are written really effectively and I could believe that they were real people, kinda terrible, but well written.