After a friend recommended it to me, I finally got around to reading Luigi Pirandello’s novel “Uno, Nessuno e Centomila” . One of the most well-known works of modern Italian literature, we follow the downward spiral Vitangelo Moscarda into “madness”. How come? Moscarda, a young man who inherited a bank from his father, is one day talking with his wife. She makes a slight remark regarding how his nose looks like, then, all of sudden, Moscarda’s world changes. He comes to realize that the way everyone sees him is completely different than how he sees himself. There is no “one” Moscarda, but rather thousands of representations of himself, from how his wife sees him, how his friends see him, to how everyone else see him. This provokes a deep existential crisis within him, so he decided to completely deconstruct himself, his life, everything he owns, and to destroy any representation that people have of him. He does all that in order to get to be his one true self, to be the true Moscarda, and not what everyone perceives.
This is a truly fascinating introspection into his mind. As much as the novella function as a psychological narration of someone going through a life a crisis, it can be also read as a philosophical treatise into the metaphysics of subjectivity. It’s not just a matter of how Moscarda is perceived by others, it’s the idea of who we are to ourselves, and who we are to others. For instance, if you ask 10 or 15 people (some close to you, some intimate, and some who you barely know) to write down on a piece of paper a presentation of yourself, how many different versions will there be? When you say you know your friends, you know your family, you know your loved ones, in reality, you know what/who you perceive. Unless if you can actually enter someone’s mind, you can spend a life time with someone without fully knowing them. This idea, even though it can apply to the outside world, the world of your perception (Kant fans, rejoice!), we are tightly attached to Moscarda as a person and his relations with others. This isn’t the story of the world, it’s a deeply intimate story of someone whose old way of viewing himself and others died. Can we ever, or anyone, know who Moscarda is? You’ll have to read and find it.
This isn’t the most “concrete” novel. Most of its action takes place in Moscarda’s mind. As much as Moscarda is a fully realized character, Pirandello’s novel focuses more on the psychological evolution of its character, from the inside, rather than letting us know more about what’s happening around him. It is Moscarda who narrates and who tells us of the events of his life. While some events do hugely affect those around him, his main obsession to be his one true self. Anything else is irrelevant. So don’t expect an “action packed” novel. Don’t expect a novel with a common narrative structure, even if it’s told by the first person. Think of it as more of an introspection of someone’s mind. If you like philosophical novels, or novels who focus heavily on its main characters psyche, then you’ll really enjoy it. I won’t call it my favorite work of Italian literature. Many do though. Nevertheless, I did enjoy reading it and I know I’ll be reading more by this author