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by Alberto Moravia

THE EXTRAORDINARY self-posession of Alberto Moravia can be traced to the many months he endured as a child and as a young man, confined to his bed, entirely alone, with nothing but books and his imagination to carry him through a long struggle against tuberculosis of the bone. He had no friends, no social life, no years at a university to connect him to the world. The result was a kind of unblinking gaze and acceptance of life which made him first one of the great novelists of the age, and finally one of the great memoirists.

The Time of Indifference, his first novel (published this season by Steerforth), begun when he was only eighteen and published three years later, in 1929, changed the Italian literary landscape forever. That early fame never died and later novels - The Woman of Rome, The Conformist - only enhanced his reputation.

Moravia put his life into his books but only now, with this unusual autobiography in the form of an interview with his friend, the writer Alain Elkann, is it possible to understand the literary use he made of the bourgeois world of his childhood in Rome, of his encounter with Fascism under Mussolini, of his months in hiding from the Germans in the mountains south of Rome, and of his marriages to two of the leading writers of his time - Elsa Morante and Dacia Maraini.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Italian Literature

463 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Alberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle, was one of the leading Italian novelists of the twentieth century whose novels explore matters of modern sexuality, social alienation, and existentialism. He was also a journalist, playwright, essayist and film critic.
Moravia was an atheist, his writing was marked by its factual, cold, precise style, often depicting the malaise of the bourgeoisie, underpinned by high social and cultural awareness. Moravia believed that writers must, if they were to represent reality, assume a moral position, a clearly conceived political, social, and philosophical attitude, but also that, ultimately, "A writer survives in spite of his beliefs".

Reviews

[Luís · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book allows Moravia to explain his way of conceiving the novel and his technique, language, style, and writing. He repeats that a writer is a sensitive man and that from this excessive sensibility arises art. She could destroy him, too, but she made him an exceptional creator aware of that balance and the enlightenment from which his inspiration was born.
It evokes the writers he crossed and the virtues of travel. This book is also an opportunity to discover the public man, the journalist, the politician, and the European representative who throws on the world that surrounds an original look, aware of the daily realities and dangers that threaten the planet.
He evokes old age, notoriety, success, and death—this death that did not scare him but who came to take it at the end of this book!

[Supernovae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un parto trigemino questo libro, ma molto soddisfatta di esser arrivata fino alla fine.
Davvero interessante!
Ho trovato davvero utili le domande, e quindi risposte, in riferimento ai libri pubblicati in quanto offrono al lettore un’informazione in più qualora volesse leggerli successivamente, altrimenti un approfondimento nel caso opposto.

[Andreas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an autobiography of Moravia, told in a Q&A format. It traces a chronological order, from his sickly young days, to his precocious and, at the time, one hit wonder of Gli Indifferenti, to his love with Elsa Morante, his travails hiding out with her during WW2, his film career, the restart of his literary career, and his travels and political activism.

Moravia, who was a leading figure in the Italian cultural scene from the 1920s to 1980s, interacted with virtually every major Italian cultural personality. What I found most interesting were his international trips. He had met Nehru, Tito (has a great story about him), Castro, the Shah, Gorbachev, attended Apollo 11's launch/touchdown, traveled around west Africa, visited Timbuktu, Yemen (fascinating account of how the Maria Theresa Thaler was still in use), China during the Cultural Revolution, etc.. He showed a great appreciation for - and himself exemplified - men of action. Mostly men, but his memories of Elsa Morante, and her independence, resolve, how she flourished during their hiding period of WW2, was also touching.

He also talked some of his literary fixed ideas. One of them, which I found annoying even in this autobiography, was sex. Especially at the start of the book, Moravia devoted a suspicious amount of time to his philandering, brothel visits, and sexual conquests. It got a little tiring. Here is a quote:

"Someone said a while ago that inspiration is talking always of the same thing and of nothing else. Well, my inspiration often leads me to talk about sex and nothing but sex: but it is a key with which I have the illusion of opening, just a little, the door of reality."

I think this is what makes him such a fantastic short story writer, but his books can get a little tiresome, at least for me. Ten, or twenty, pages about violence and sex - for example, the stories in Racconti Romani, one of my favourite short story collections, are fine. You get the general idea and are curious, plus: sex sells. But 200, 300, 400 pages about sex and obsession inevitably turns into philosophical navel gazing (maybe gazing a little below the navel), and I just don't care enough to read on.

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is another testament to the author’s genius for telling perfect stories. It’s also filled with brilliant observations on a number of subjects. Finally, it’s a perfect introduction to modern Italian literary culture.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book-lengh conversation with one of the great writers from Italy - no, one of the great writers from the 20th Century. Moravia writes about relationhips that are multi-complexed and sexy. I just finished reading The Conformist that really did my head in. Incredible book. The same goes for his "Contempt" and "Boredom." Also one can find his short stories, which is now out of print, but worth tracking down. They're great as well.

Through the eyes of Moravia one gets a great and clear picture of contemporary European literature and all the side-affects that goes with it.

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

过世前不久做的自传式访谈。按中文里的说法，就是Moravia不是性情中人，所以他做什么都有种隔了一层的感觉（最明显的是谈和Morante的关系，还有Pasolini的homosexuality，让人随时想翻白眼，但他对两人的赞美和怀念，又显得非常通透且诚实）。不过他品位确实不错，也蛮有趣的，梳理他自己的作品很有启发，讲20-30年代浪迹欧洲的经历也很吸引人。总体来说这本书里他说了不少，但是基本没有被逼到过偏离舒适区的程度，给四星到头了吧。