What do you think?
Rate this book
Il romanzo di Ferrara #5
The Heron
'Exquisite. . . a classic tour de force' The New York Times
'It struggled to keep itself aloft, to gain height. But then it suddenly gave up, and dropped as though it were breaking into many pieces'
Early on a cold Sunday morning, forty-five-year-old Edgardo Limentani gets up to join a shooting party in the countryside surrounding the town of Ferrara. As the day passes, he contemplates his past, his disappointments and how he has got here. Like the birds he shoots, he realizes, he is trapped, broken, waiting alone for the final coup de grâce. Then he sees a way out.
The fifth book in Bassani's Novel of Ferrara sequence, and his final novel, The Heron is a taut, poignant portrait of a middle-aged man's reckoning with his life.
'It struggled to keep itself aloft, to gain height. But then it suddenly gave up, and dropped as though it were breaking into many pieces'
Early on a cold Sunday morning, forty-five-year-old Edgardo Limentani gets up to join a shooting party in the countryside surrounding the town of Ferrara. As the day passes, he contemplates his past, his disappointments and how he has got here. Like the birds he shoots, he realizes, he is trapped, broken, waiting alone for the final coup de grâce. Then he sees a way out.
The fifth book in Bassani's Novel of Ferrara sequence, and his final novel, The Heron is a taut, poignant portrait of a middle-aged man's reckoning with his life.
140 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1968
9 people are currently reading
746 people want to read
About the author
Giorgio Bassani
65 books222 followersGiorgio Bassani was born in Bologna into a prosperous Jewish family of Ferrara, where he spent his childhood with his mother Dora, father Enrico (a doctor), brother Paolo, and sister Jenny. In 1934 he completed his studies at his secondary school, the liceo classico L. Ariosto in Ferrara. Music had been his first great passion and he considered a career as a pianist; however literature soon became the focus of his artistic interests.
In 1935 he enrolled in the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bologna. Commuting to lectures by train from Ferrara, he studied under the art historian Roberto Longhi. His ideal of the “free intellectual” was the Liberal historian and philosopher Benedetto Croce. Despite the anti-Semitic race laws which were introduced from 1938, he was able to graduate in 1939, writing a thesis on the nineteenth-century writer, journalist, radical and lexicographer Niccolò Tommaseo. As a Jew in 1939, however, work opportunities were now limited and he became a schoolteacher in the Jewish School of Ferrara in via Vignatagliata.
In 1940 his first book, Una città di pianura (“A City of the Plain”), was published under the pseudonym Giacomo Marchi in order to evade the race laws. During this period, along with friends he had made in Ferrara’s intellectual circle, he became a clandestine political activist. His activity in the anti-fascist resistance led to his arrest in May 1943; he was released on 26 July, the day after Benito Mussolini was ousted from power.
A little over a week later he married Valeria Sinigallia, whom he had met playing tennis. They moved to Florence for a brief period, living under assumed names, then at the end of the year, to Rome, where he would spend the rest of his life. His first volume of poems, Storie dei poveri amanti e altri versi, appeared in 1944; a second, Te lucis ante, followed in 1947. He edited the literary review Botteghe oscure for Princess Marguerite Caetani from its founding in 1948 until it halted publication in 1960.
In 1953 Passeggiata prima di cena appeared and in 1954 Gli ultimi anni di Clelia Trotti. In the same year he became editor of Paragone, a journal founded by Longhi and his wife Anna Banti. Bassani’s writings reached a wider audience in 1956 with the publication of the Premio Strega-winning book of short stories, Cinque storie Ferraresi.
As an editorial director of Feltrinelli Bassani was responsible for the posthumous publication in 1958 of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's Il Gattopardo, a novel which had been rejected by Elio Vittorini at Mondadori, and also by Einaudi, but which became one of the great successes of post-war Italian literature. Bassani’s enthusiastic editing of the text, following instructions from Elena Croce (daughter of Benedetto) who had offered him the manuscript, later became controversial however; recent editions have been published which follow the manuscript more closely.
Also in 1958 Bassani’s novel Gli occhiali d’oro was published, an examination, in part, of the marginalisation of Jews and homosexuals. Together with stories from Cinque storie ferraresi (reworked and under the new title Dentro le mura (1973)) it was to be form part of a series of works known collectively as Il romanzo di Ferrara which explored the town, with its Christian and Jewish elements, its perspectives and its landscapes. The series also includes: Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini (1962, Premio Viareggio prizewiner); Dietro la porta (1964); L'airone (1968) and L'odore del fieno (1972). These works realistically document the Italian Jewish community under Fascism in a style that manifests the difficulties of searching for truth in the meanderings of memory and moral conscience. In 1960 one of his novels was adapted as the film Long Night in 1943.
Bassani died in 2000, and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Ferrara. He was survived by his estranged wife Valeria and their two children.
In 1935 he enrolled in the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bologna. Commuting to lectures by train from Ferrara, he studied under the art historian Roberto Longhi. His ideal of the “free intellectual” was the Liberal historian and philosopher Benedetto Croce. Despite the anti-Semitic race laws which were introduced from 1938, he was able to graduate in 1939, writing a thesis on the nineteenth-century writer, journalist, radical and lexicographer Niccolò Tommaseo. As a Jew in 1939, however, work opportunities were now limited and he became a schoolteacher in the Jewish School of Ferrara in via Vignatagliata.
In 1940 his first book, Una città di pianura (“A City of the Plain”), was published under the pseudonym Giacomo Marchi in order to evade the race laws. During this period, along with friends he had made in Ferrara’s intellectual circle, he became a clandestine political activist. His activity in the anti-fascist resistance led to his arrest in May 1943; he was released on 26 July, the day after Benito Mussolini was ousted from power.
A little over a week later he married Valeria Sinigallia, whom he had met playing tennis. They moved to Florence for a brief period, living under assumed names, then at the end of the year, to Rome, where he would spend the rest of his life. His first volume of poems, Storie dei poveri amanti e altri versi, appeared in 1944; a second, Te lucis ante, followed in 1947. He edited the literary review Botteghe oscure for Princess Marguerite Caetani from its founding in 1948 until it halted publication in 1960.
In 1953 Passeggiata prima di cena appeared and in 1954 Gli ultimi anni di Clelia Trotti. In the same year he became editor of Paragone, a journal founded by Longhi and his wife Anna Banti. Bassani’s writings reached a wider audience in 1956 with the publication of the Premio Strega-winning book of short stories, Cinque storie Ferraresi.
As an editorial director of Feltrinelli Bassani was responsible for the posthumous publication in 1958 of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's Il Gattopardo, a novel which had been rejected by Elio Vittorini at Mondadori, and also by Einaudi, but which became one of the great successes of post-war Italian literature. Bassani’s enthusiastic editing of the text, following instructions from Elena Croce (daughter of Benedetto) who had offered him the manuscript, later became controversial however; recent editions have been published which follow the manuscript more closely.
Also in 1958 Bassani’s novel Gli occhiali d’oro was published, an examination, in part, of the marginalisation of Jews and homosexuals. Together with stories from Cinque storie ferraresi (reworked and under the new title Dentro le mura (1973)) it was to be form part of a series of works known collectively as Il romanzo di Ferrara which explored the town, with its Christian and Jewish elements, its perspectives and its landscapes. The series also includes: Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini (1962, Premio Viareggio prizewiner); Dietro la porta (1964); L'airone (1968) and L'odore del fieno (1972). These works realistically document the Italian Jewish community under Fascism in a style that manifests the difficulties of searching for truth in the meanderings of memory and moral conscience. In 1960 one of his novels was adapted as the film Long Night in 1943.
Bassani died in 2000, and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Ferrara. He was survived by his estranged wife Valeria and their two children.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
May 19, 2018
(This review contains spoilers)
The main character is 45-year-old man. It’s just after WW II in Italy. He still lives in his childhood home with his mother who sets out his underwear for his hunting trip, even though he has a wife and a young daughter who live with him too. He worries that the communists, then a strong political force in Italian politics, will take away his 1000-acre estate.
The man character is Jewish and suffered during the war under the fascist era in Italy. We get no details of his ordeal other than that he may have gone into exile for a while and that he had to put his estate into the name of his Catholic daughter-in-law, and that’s still the case.
He feels separate from all those around him, like he is looking at life through a pane of glass. He watches a group of rich diners enjoying themselves and then he watches the comradery of a group of working men playing cards, drinking and smoking. He feels like an outcast; he feels an inability to enjoy himself or to care about anything or anyone.
He has feelings of absurdity. No relations with his wife, and not even much affection for his daughter --- he’s not even sure he is her father. He doesn’t know why he and his wife don’t separate. It’s probably because it would require some volition on his part to do so and he has none.
He has nothing to look forward to, nothing to care about. He’s lost touch with his only friend, a cousin. In his own words he feels plunged into a “grim well of slothful sadness.” Most of the book is about his preparing for a hunting trip that he’s not really interested in going on; he gives his gun to his guide and lets him do the shooting.
He thinks “You only have to look at the affairs of life from a certain distance to conclude that they were worth, all of them, only what they were worth: namely nothing, or almost nothing.” And that life has become for him a “…monotonous round of eating and defecating, of drinking and urinating, of sleeping and waking up, of moving about and standing still...”
While hunting we are introduced to the dazed, befuddled and confused heron that gets mixed in with the ducks. After the hunt (he gives all the birds away) he becomes enamored with the stuffed animals in a taxidermist shop and imagines that they “look more alive than if they were alive.”
He finds a solution to his problems.
Melancholy and depressing, but good literature. A lot of local color of a rural, marshy, small town area near Ferrara in northern Italy.
Bassani (1916-2000) wrote a half-dozen novels and won all of Italy’s major literary prizes, including the Strega. He is credited with editing and bringing Lampedusa’s The Leopard to press (posthumously) after other publishers rejected it. Perhaps he is best known for his novel made into a film of the same name, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.
top, marshes of northern Italy from dreamstime.com
photo of author from manuelblascuatro.blogspot.com
The main character is 45-year-old man. It’s just after WW II in Italy. He still lives in his childhood home with his mother who sets out his underwear for his hunting trip, even though he has a wife and a young daughter who live with him too. He worries that the communists, then a strong political force in Italian politics, will take away his 1000-acre estate.
The man character is Jewish and suffered during the war under the fascist era in Italy. We get no details of his ordeal other than that he may have gone into exile for a while and that he had to put his estate into the name of his Catholic daughter-in-law, and that’s still the case.
He feels separate from all those around him, like he is looking at life through a pane of glass. He watches a group of rich diners enjoying themselves and then he watches the comradery of a group of working men playing cards, drinking and smoking. He feels like an outcast; he feels an inability to enjoy himself or to care about anything or anyone.
He has feelings of absurdity. No relations with his wife, and not even much affection for his daughter --- he’s not even sure he is her father. He doesn’t know why he and his wife don’t separate. It’s probably because it would require some volition on his part to do so and he has none.
He has nothing to look forward to, nothing to care about. He’s lost touch with his only friend, a cousin. In his own words he feels plunged into a “grim well of slothful sadness.” Most of the book is about his preparing for a hunting trip that he’s not really interested in going on; he gives his gun to his guide and lets him do the shooting.
He thinks “You only have to look at the affairs of life from a certain distance to conclude that they were worth, all of them, only what they were worth: namely nothing, or almost nothing.” And that life has become for him a “…monotonous round of eating and defecating, of drinking and urinating, of sleeping and waking up, of moving about and standing still...”
While hunting we are introduced to the dazed, befuddled and confused heron that gets mixed in with the ducks. After the hunt (he gives all the birds away) he becomes enamored with the stuffed animals in a taxidermist shop and imagines that they “look more alive than if they were alive.”
He finds a solution to his problems.
Melancholy and depressing, but good literature. A lot of local color of a rural, marshy, small town area near Ferrara in northern Italy.
Bassani (1916-2000) wrote a half-dozen novels and won all of Italy’s major literary prizes, including the Strega. He is credited with editing and bringing Lampedusa’s The Leopard to press (posthumously) after other publishers rejected it. Perhaps he is best known for his novel made into a film of the same name, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.
top, marshes of northern Italy from dreamstime.com
photo of author from manuelblascuatro.blogspot.com
Read
December 11, 2018A man, let's call him L, is beset by terrible angst. He is an Italian Jew who has survived the war but finds himself beleaguered from all sides: the government is crippling him with taxes, his tenants are laying claim to his property, his accountant is sleeping with his wife, and he feels very threatened by the undercurrent of anti-Jewish feeling left over from the war years.
He tries to calm his terrors by reliving a favourite occupation of his youth: duck shooting. Having risen early, he makes his way to the marsh area south of the city where he meets up with a boatman who takes him out to the best spot for shooting water fowl. But once he gets there, L feels unable to shoot anything. He hands his expensive guns over to the boatman, choosing instead to huddle in the cold nursing the wounds of his life.
Meanwhile, a heron flies in a great arc across the sky and disappears over the horizon. Shortly afterwards, the heron returns in the direction of the boat in spite of the boatman's sporadic shooting at ducks and other water fowl.
Even as L is willing the stubborn heron to fly away to safety, the boatman raises his gun and shoots at the bird. The shot cripples one of his wings. This is the most beautiful part of this very beautifully written book. Bassani describes the confusion and agony of the injured bird in terms that subtly mirror his main character's own confusion and agony. It is very artfully done and left me with even more respect for Giorgio Bassani's writing skills than I already had — and with a new respect for the very dignified bird that is the heron.
……………………………………………………
After a series of books in which he has used unnamed first person narrators, Giorgio Bassani surprised me in this fifth book in his Ferrara series by switching to a third person point of view, and by giving his main character a name — Limentani, Edgardo Limentani.
But if Bassani hadn't given him a name I might have been tempted to give him one myself. This time I'd have chosen, not Giorgio as I've been inclined to choose in the other books, but instead, Leopoldo. Yes, Leopoldo as in Leopold Bloom from Ulysses. Very early in Bassani's novel, I had begun to be reminded of Leopold and of his many peregrinations and tribulations. And the more I read, the more I thought about him.
As in Ulysses, Bassani's narrative takes place over the course of one long day as Limentani sets out from his house in Ferrara and eventually makes his way back to that same house late in the evening. The book begins with Limentani opening his eyes and facing the morning light. We accompany him to the toilet where he attempts to pass a bowel motion (not nearly as successfully as Leopold). Then there's a scene where Limentani calls in on his wife as she lies among her rumpled sheets, recalling the scene where Leopold takes Mollie breakfast in bed. And I remembered that Mollie was rather more preoccupied with thinking about her lover than about Leopold just as Limentani's wife seems more preoccupied with hers than with her husband.
There are other parallels between the two books including a meal in a restaurant involving Gorgonzola and a scene with a prostitute that may be real or may be a hallucination. And in Bassani's book, there are many thoughts about suicide which reminded me that Leopold's father had taken his own life and that the memory of his father's tragedy, along with other anxieties relating to money matters and the persecution of minorities, preoccupied Bloom during the course of his long Dublin day.
But while those parallels are interesting to find, The Heron satisfied me primarily for itself. Bassani's book is a perfect meditation on the puniness of man's existence.
……………………………………………
In Bassani's sixth book, The Smell Of Hay, a collection of short pieces, some of which are the text of interviews he gave to literary journals, there's a reference to his admiration for Joyce, and for Ulysses in particular. I was pleased when I came across that.
There's also a reference to his admiration for Proust, which backs up the parallels I'd noticed in the earlier Ferrara novels between his writing and Proust's.
………………………………
The edition I read was translated from Italian by Michel Arnaud and Gérard Genot, and was called 'Le Héron'. It is included in Le roman de Ferrare, a compilation of Bassani's six Ferrara novels.
The first edition of the novel, published in 1968, featured a painting by Francis Bacon on the cover:
He tries to calm his terrors by reliving a favourite occupation of his youth: duck shooting. Having risen early, he makes his way to the marsh area south of the city where he meets up with a boatman who takes him out to the best spot for shooting water fowl. But once he gets there, L feels unable to shoot anything. He hands his expensive guns over to the boatman, choosing instead to huddle in the cold nursing the wounds of his life.
Meanwhile, a heron flies in a great arc across the sky and disappears over the horizon. Shortly afterwards, the heron returns in the direction of the boat in spite of the boatman's sporadic shooting at ducks and other water fowl.
Even as L is willing the stubborn heron to fly away to safety, the boatman raises his gun and shoots at the bird. The shot cripples one of his wings. This is the most beautiful part of this very beautifully written book. Bassani describes the confusion and agony of the injured bird in terms that subtly mirror his main character's own confusion and agony. It is very artfully done and left me with even more respect for Giorgio Bassani's writing skills than I already had — and with a new respect for the very dignified bird that is the heron.
……………………………………………………
After a series of books in which he has used unnamed first person narrators, Giorgio Bassani surprised me in this fifth book in his Ferrara series by switching to a third person point of view, and by giving his main character a name — Limentani, Edgardo Limentani.
But if Bassani hadn't given him a name I might have been tempted to give him one myself. This time I'd have chosen, not Giorgio as I've been inclined to choose in the other books, but instead, Leopoldo. Yes, Leopoldo as in Leopold Bloom from Ulysses. Very early in Bassani's novel, I had begun to be reminded of Leopold and of his many peregrinations and tribulations. And the more I read, the more I thought about him.
As in Ulysses, Bassani's narrative takes place over the course of one long day as Limentani sets out from his house in Ferrara and eventually makes his way back to that same house late in the evening. The book begins with Limentani opening his eyes and facing the morning light. We accompany him to the toilet where he attempts to pass a bowel motion (not nearly as successfully as Leopold). Then there's a scene where Limentani calls in on his wife as she lies among her rumpled sheets, recalling the scene where Leopold takes Mollie breakfast in bed. And I remembered that Mollie was rather more preoccupied with thinking about her lover than about Leopold just as Limentani's wife seems more preoccupied with hers than with her husband.
There are other parallels between the two books including a meal in a restaurant involving Gorgonzola and a scene with a prostitute that may be real or may be a hallucination. And in Bassani's book, there are many thoughts about suicide which reminded me that Leopold's father had taken his own life and that the memory of his father's tragedy, along with other anxieties relating to money matters and the persecution of minorities, preoccupied Bloom during the course of his long Dublin day.
But while those parallels are interesting to find, The Heron satisfied me primarily for itself. Bassani's book is a perfect meditation on the puniness of man's existence.
……………………………………………
In Bassani's sixth book, The Smell Of Hay, a collection of short pieces, some of which are the text of interviews he gave to literary journals, there's a reference to his admiration for Joyce, and for Ulysses in particular. I was pleased when I came across that.
There's also a reference to his admiration for Proust, which backs up the parallels I'd noticed in the earlier Ferrara novels between his writing and Proust's.
………………………………
The edition I read was translated from Italian by Michel Arnaud and Gérard Genot, and was called 'Le Héron'. It is included in Le roman de Ferrare, a compilation of Bassani's six Ferrara novels.
The first edition of the novel, published in 1968, featured a painting by Francis Bacon on the cover:
June 17, 2019
Woke up, fell out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up I noticed I was late
…
Made my way upstairs and had a smoke
And somebody spoke and I went into a dream
‘A Day in the Life’ (Lennon/McCartney)
*
I didn’t think of The Beatles lyrics until I was almost finished with the book. But, from the very first pages, I did think of Leopold Bloom. And, because I did, I couldn’t stop seeing him in Edgardo Limentani. Edgardo wakes up but lingers in bed, knowing he’s going to be late; he goes to the toilet to try to move his bowels; he speaks to his unfaithful wife who’s in bed (they have one daughter as do the Blooms); he has a cup of coffee before heading out. In the midst of his peregrinations Edgardo, who’s only eaten a bite of a sandwich before getting in a hunting-blind, has a late lunch, described in detail, and a hallucinatory encounter with a prostitute. He reluctantly tolerates tiresome individuals; he takes repose in a Catholic church though he’s Jewish. He puts off going home as long as he possibly can. Edgardo’s depression becomes more apparent as the story continues, yet he too achieves a sort of happiness at day's end.
All of the above is not to say this is merely a retelling of Joyce’s Ulysses. It’s also quite different in several ways, including its mood. Bassani’s story is suffused with a melancholic sadness, there’s no humor as in the Joyce. In a beautiful passage a heron is injured and tries to survive. Even before he says so, it’s obvious Edgardo identifies with the ungainly bird. Also beautiful are Edgardo's thoughts on the futility of life. I was prepared to dislike an early scene of Edgardo viewing himself in the mirror, but it’s essential to a later contemplation of his reflection in a shop window.
Reading this novella in The Novel of Ferrara, it came with a surprise at how different stylistically it is from Bassani’s other writings. Gone is the volubility of his sentences. Gone is the unnamed first-person narrator. Its elegiac mood is classic Bassani, however, and it ties in with the other stories in being set in the Ferrara area and with its inclusion of names like Clelia Trotti’s. In a neglected part of town Edgardo looks at the street signs. These streets have been renamed for people like Trotti. The new names had been slapped on so haphazardly over the original names that the signs have lost some of their letters. Edgardo stays there, contemplating the signs, until he has deciphered all the names.
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up I noticed I was late
…
Made my way upstairs and had a smoke
And somebody spoke and I went into a dream
‘A Day in the Life’ (Lennon/McCartney)
*
I didn’t think of The Beatles lyrics until I was almost finished with the book. But, from the very first pages, I did think of Leopold Bloom. And, because I did, I couldn’t stop seeing him in Edgardo Limentani. Edgardo wakes up but lingers in bed, knowing he’s going to be late; he goes to the toilet to try to move his bowels; he speaks to his unfaithful wife who’s in bed (they have one daughter as do the Blooms); he has a cup of coffee before heading out. In the midst of his peregrinations Edgardo, who’s only eaten a bite of a sandwich before getting in a hunting-blind, has a late lunch, described in detail, and a hallucinatory encounter with a prostitute. He reluctantly tolerates tiresome individuals; he takes repose in a Catholic church though he’s Jewish. He puts off going home as long as he possibly can. Edgardo’s depression becomes more apparent as the story continues, yet he too achieves a sort of happiness at day's end.
All of the above is not to say this is merely a retelling of Joyce’s Ulysses. It’s also quite different in several ways, including its mood. Bassani’s story is suffused with a melancholic sadness, there’s no humor as in the Joyce. In a beautiful passage a heron is injured and tries to survive. Even before he says so, it’s obvious Edgardo identifies with the ungainly bird. Also beautiful are Edgardo's thoughts on the futility of life. I was prepared to dislike an early scene of Edgardo viewing himself in the mirror, but it’s essential to a later contemplation of his reflection in a shop window.
Reading this novella in The Novel of Ferrara, it came with a surprise at how different stylistically it is from Bassani’s other writings. Gone is the volubility of his sentences. Gone is the unnamed first-person narrator. Its elegiac mood is classic Bassani, however, and it ties in with the other stories in being set in the Ferrara area and with its inclusion of names like Clelia Trotti’s. In a neglected part of town Edgardo looks at the street signs. These streets have been renamed for people like Trotti. The new names had been slapped on so haphazardly over the original names that the signs have lost some of their letters. Edgardo stays there, contemplating the signs, until he has deciphered all the names.
March 22, 2019
This was the last of Bassani's Ferrara novel sequence to be published in Jamie McKendrick's new translation for Penguin. This one is a short character study, telling the story of a day in the life of a Jewish minor aristocrat in 1947.
As in most of the other novels in the series, this one is largely about the lingering after effects of Fascism, but it is also about the death of a lifestyle, rather like The Leopard.
As in most of the other novels in the series, this one is largely about the lingering after effects of Fascism, but it is also about the death of a lifestyle, rather like The Leopard.
July 17, 2015
Un’esistenza segnata dal tedium vitae e dal vuoto emotivo è quella di Edgardo Limentani, un proprietario terriero ebreo che è uscito dalla seconda guerra mondiale senza più radici né certezze, da solo in una vita consistente ormai esclusivamente in un “monotono su e giù di mangiare e defecare, di bere e orinare, di dormire e vegliare, di andare in giro e stare”. La profonda crisi esistenziale in cui versa si incarna in un airone ferito che Edgardo vede da vicino in una mattinata di caccia, senza il coraggio di ucciderlo, perché con uno sguardo uomo e uccello si riconoscono, si identificano e condividono il comune destino, che si presenta per Edgardo come la scelta estrema ma obbligata per uscire dall'abisso di dolore: passare dall’altra parte del vetro da cui guarda la realtà, passare da una vita illusoria a quella vera, l’unica che conta veramente.
Un romanzo doloroso, opprimente, che trasmette disagio fin dalle prime righe; un romanzo in cui la sofferenza individuale si allaccia con la difficoltà sociale di sopravvivere di una classe, quella dei proprietari terrieri alle prese con le prime rivendicazioni contadine, destinata a scomparire, e soprattutto con lo sradicamento dal passato e l’incertezza del futuro che un ebreo sopravvissuto alla guerra vive sulla sua pelle.
Un romanzo doloroso, opprimente, che trasmette disagio fin dalle prime righe; un romanzo in cui la sofferenza individuale si allaccia con la difficoltà sociale di sopravvivere di una classe, quella dei proprietari terrieri alle prese con le prime rivendicazioni contadine, destinata a scomparire, e soprattutto con lo sradicamento dal passato e l’incertezza del futuro che un ebreo sopravvissuto alla guerra vive sulla sua pelle.
May 19, 2023
4.5⭐ Bassani straordinario nel comunicare sensazioni e stati d'animo. In questo breve e denso romanzo ambientato nelle natie terre ferraresi il protagonista compie una scelta potente per rimediare al senso di smarrimento ed inutilità della sua esistenza.
April 10, 2019
There's no doubt that this is powerfully written but after the intimacy of the other Ferrara stories the switch to a 3rd person narrative and a move beyond the walls of the city gave this a different feel. A sort of 'one day in the life of Edgardo Limentani', it features a man not wounded by life but broken. Filled with despair and a deep paralysis, the symbolism of the heron feels a tad heavy-handed, not something I'd usually associate with the more usual subtlety of Bassani. My least favourite of Bassani's writings.
April 20, 2020
Doveva essere una giornata di caccia, quella di Edgardo Limentani, una giornata organizzata per rilassarsi, per evadere dalla routine quotidiana. Sveglia presto, colazione dai portieri, viaggio verso la zona del delta del Po ferrarese, appostamento e così via.
Invece tutto va fin da subito per il verso storto con imprevisti su imprevisti che ne rallentano il viaggio; rallentamento evidenziato anche dal ritmo della scrittura che trasmette l'angoscia di non arrivare in tempo, come se mentre si legge ci si debba soffermare di continuo a controllare sull'orologio il tempo che scorre.
Alla fine tutto sarà in realtà un esame introspettivo nella ricerca di sè stesso, quando "Con una lucidità repentina si sorprese a chiedersi: ma lui, lui stesso, vestito da caccia, col berretto di pelo in testa, a quell'ora, sotto quei portici, ma lui chi era, veramente?".
Il finale rimane come sospeso senza una vera soluzione all'enigma.
Ambientato nell'immediato dopoguerra (i temi della guerra e delle leggi razziali è solo sfiorato), questo racconto non è all'altezza de "Gli occhiali d'oro" e men che meno de "Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini", ma è risultata comunque nel complesso una lettura gradevole.
Invece tutto va fin da subito per il verso storto con imprevisti su imprevisti che ne rallentano il viaggio; rallentamento evidenziato anche dal ritmo della scrittura che trasmette l'angoscia di non arrivare in tempo, come se mentre si legge ci si debba soffermare di continuo a controllare sull'orologio il tempo che scorre.
Alla fine tutto sarà in realtà un esame introspettivo nella ricerca di sè stesso, quando "Con una lucidità repentina si sorprese a chiedersi: ma lui, lui stesso, vestito da caccia, col berretto di pelo in testa, a quell'ora, sotto quei portici, ma lui chi era, veramente?".
Il finale rimane come sospeso senza una vera soluzione all'enigma.
Ambientato nell'immediato dopoguerra (i temi della guerra e delle leggi razziali è solo sfiorato), questo racconto non è all'altezza de "Gli occhiali d'oro" e men che meno de "Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini", ma è risultata comunque nel complesso una lettura gradevole.
July 2, 2021
The fifth of Bassani's Ferrara novels unexpectedly flips to a third person narration, and details the events in one day (the final one, perhaps?) of Edgardo Limentani, a Jewish landowner who has survived the recently ended war years, only to be beset with the foibles of mortality. A tight, wonderfully expressive novella.
November 12, 2015
Sono molto confusa circa questo libro. Mi ha colpito sia in positivo che in negativo, ma forse la sorpresa di vedermi davanti un autore così moderno e disinibito prevale sul resto.. Anche perché la scena dell'airone morente, dell'immedesimazione del protagonista con questo animale e la sua triste fine è qualcosa di davvero incredibile.. Credo il libro meriti già solo per questo!
Il protagonista.. A volte avrei voluto prenderlo e malmenarlo selvaggiamente per il suo spirito di completa rassegnazione, di esistenza passiva, di tedio e per il modo in cui si fa scivolare addosso la vita.. Eppure ho anche compreso a pieno i suoi pensieri, le sue difficoltà, il grigiore della sua esistenza e una gran pena (insieme a tanta tristezza e impotenza) mi ha sopraffatto!
Bassani in un romanzo parecchio breve e tramite personaggi di contorno, spesso solo nominati addirittura riesce a rappresentare vividamente l'Italia del dopoguerra e del 'comunismo', contrapposto al periodo fascista che viene rievocato vividamente tramite episodi sparsi per la storia.
La narrazione è molto diretta e 'di pancia' e devo dire che l'ho trovata parecchio intima e adatta a seguire la tormentata giornata di Edgardo e suoi pensieri sconforta(n)ti.. Promosso!
Il protagonista.. A volte avrei voluto prenderlo e malmenarlo selvaggiamente per il suo spirito di completa rassegnazione, di esistenza passiva, di tedio e per il modo in cui si fa scivolare addosso la vita.. Eppure ho anche compreso a pieno i suoi pensieri, le sue difficoltà, il grigiore della sua esistenza e una gran pena (insieme a tanta tristezza e impotenza) mi ha sopraffatto!
Bassani in un romanzo parecchio breve e tramite personaggi di contorno, spesso solo nominati addirittura riesce a rappresentare vividamente l'Italia del dopoguerra e del 'comunismo', contrapposto al periodo fascista che viene rievocato vividamente tramite episodi sparsi per la storia.
La narrazione è molto diretta e 'di pancia' e devo dire che l'ho trovata parecchio intima e adatta a seguire la tormentata giornata di Edgardo e suoi pensieri sconforta(n)ti.. Promosso!
January 7, 2024
Edgardo Limentani, the main character in one of the most disturbing of Bassani's books from his The novel of Ferrara decides to go bird hunting one certain morning. More than go hunting, he feels the need to escape for a while from his home, his wife, his mother, his daughter, and his attributions as a landowner faced with a menacing lessor and the political threats of the communist party. Yet, he ends up meeting with some of those he wants no contact with along the long and somehow arduous day.
What I could feel about Edgardo is that he's a person who passes along life without a sense of it at all. In his memories that we are presented along with the book, we see a soul devoid of meaning/purpose. He accomplishes what he has to, but for the reason it is required of him. He doesn't impose or express what he yearns for. It is a body without anything else. This could be the result of being born or living in between World Wars which enormously shaped the social structures around the world. Thus, when such a soul is confronted with choices he has to make and responsibilities he has to take, it all feels too much. What to do then? How to keep on living when one cannot seem to find a meaning to it?
Regardless of its melancholic tone, it is a very interesting book.
What I could feel about Edgardo is that he's a person who passes along life without a sense of it at all. In his memories that we are presented along with the book, we see a soul devoid of meaning/purpose. He accomplishes what he has to, but for the reason it is required of him. He doesn't impose or express what he yearns for. It is a body without anything else. This could be the result of being born or living in between World Wars which enormously shaped the social structures around the world. Thus, when such a soul is confronted with choices he has to make and responsibilities he has to take, it all feels too much. What to do then? How to keep on living when one cannot seem to find a meaning to it?
Regardless of its melancholic tone, it is a very interesting book.
April 16, 2018
Edgardo Limentani è un uomo fuori.
Fuori dalla sua azienda agricola, ceduta alla moglie ariana, fuori da un matrimonio mai veramente accettato, fuori dalla casa dove è soggetto a rituali quotidiani che sente falsi, fuori dal rapporto con i propri contadini (siamo nel 1947 e molte erano le rivendicazioni), fuori anche dalla vita visto che dentro di sé sta maturando un qualche male.
Nel periodo natalizio decide di andare a caccia.
Una strana giornata che affronta con particolare sensibilità: il tempo, il paesaggio, le persone, la fame presto saziata e la caccia.
Non spara un colpo lui. Tutto sé stesso è nel guardare. Soprattutto l’agonia di un airone, non di quelli bianchi belli da impagliare. Un uccello che non si mangia.
Nel girovagare per il paese, verso sera, prima di tornare in quella casa, in lui matura una scelta. La sola sensata, la sola che gli dà senso e pace, finalmente.
Come dice Daniele Dominici “”la prima notte di quiete è la morte, perché finalmente si dorme senza sogni.””
Bellissimo ritratto di un uomo visto dall’interno.
1969 - 21.07.2016
Fuori dalla sua azienda agricola, ceduta alla moglie ariana, fuori da un matrimonio mai veramente accettato, fuori dalla casa dove è soggetto a rituali quotidiani che sente falsi, fuori dal rapporto con i propri contadini (siamo nel 1947 e molte erano le rivendicazioni), fuori anche dalla vita visto che dentro di sé sta maturando un qualche male.
Nel periodo natalizio decide di andare a caccia.
Una strana giornata che affronta con particolare sensibilità: il tempo, il paesaggio, le persone, la fame presto saziata e la caccia.
Non spara un colpo lui. Tutto sé stesso è nel guardare. Soprattutto l’agonia di un airone, non di quelli bianchi belli da impagliare. Un uccello che non si mangia.
Nel girovagare per il paese, verso sera, prima di tornare in quella casa, in lui matura una scelta. La sola sensata, la sola che gli dà senso e pace, finalmente.
Come dice Daniele Dominici “”la prima notte di quiete è la morte, perché finalmente si dorme senza sogni.””
Bellissimo ritratto di un uomo visto dall’interno.
1969 - 21.07.2016
November 20, 2018
De joodse advocaat Edgardo Limentani overleefde de oorlog, maar is nergens meer thuis. Weemoed, een immens gevoel van gemis en zinloosheid. Zelfs op zijn eigen landgoed voelt hij zich ontheemd (het staat op naam van een katholiek aangetrouwd familielid) en ook van zijn vrouw en kinderen is hij vervreemd.
Hij sleept zich uit bed. Hij begeeft zich op vogeljacht, maar schiet niet. Want wat haalt het uit?
“Je hoefde de dingen die in het leven gebeuren maar van een zekere afstand te bekijken om te zien hoeveel ze allemaal betekenden: niets, of bijna niets.” (p.139)
De reiger is een parabel van existentiële zinloosheid. Maar wat beschrijft Bassani die bestaansangst toch mooi. De reiger is een heerlijk, dun boekje dat, wat mij betreft, de status van klassieker verdient.
PS: De tekst op de achterflap (ook de inleidende tekstje op deze site) verraadt botweg het einde, wat bijzonder jammer is, vooral ook omdat het niet letterlijk in het boek staat. Dat had toch wel iets subtieler gemogen, niet?
Hij sleept zich uit bed. Hij begeeft zich op vogeljacht, maar schiet niet. Want wat haalt het uit?
“Je hoefde de dingen die in het leven gebeuren maar van een zekere afstand te bekijken om te zien hoeveel ze allemaal betekenden: niets, of bijna niets.” (p.139)
De reiger is een parabel van existentiële zinloosheid. Maar wat beschrijft Bassani die bestaansangst toch mooi. De reiger is een heerlijk, dun boekje dat, wat mij betreft, de status van klassieker verdient.
PS: De tekst op de achterflap (ook de inleidende tekstje op deze site) verraadt botweg het einde, wat bijzonder jammer is, vooral ook omdat het niet letterlijk in het boek staat. Dat had toch wel iets subtieler gemogen, niet?
February 2, 2014
This novel emphasizes the “agony” in “protagonist.” It’s a day in the life of an Italian Jew who survived the war (the day is in December 1947) and lives in a state of anguish, disgusted with himself and with just about everyone and everything, passive, numb, angry, depressed. There is little pleasure in this novel, even in the style. There is no wisdom. It isn’t even dark. It is existential, pure and simple.
I read to the end of this short novel primarily to see where the author was going with it, and because Bassani is a major Italian author, important to my year of Italian literature.
I read to the end of this short novel primarily to see where the author was going with it, and because Bassani is a major Italian author, important to my year of Italian literature.
February 1, 2024
Parece um livro estranha, pelo ritmo lento da deambulação do protagonista. É um dos livros mais extraordinários que li. O regresso de Limentani a casa é o regresso de um homem à consciência da sua existência, do valor relativo da vida e da conciliação consigo através da morte. Em parte, aproxima-se de 'A morte de Ivan Ilitch' de Tolstói.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 26, 2020
L’airone è un romanzo estremamente cupo, che rende palpabile la dimensione del malessere provato da un uomo che non riesce più sentirsi partecipe dell’esistenza che conduce. Il distacco del protagonista dalla propria vita, il senso di isolamento, di vuoto, sono resi in modo estremamente vivido, al punto che anche il lettore ne è sopraffatto. Le pagine in cui l’airone che da il titolo al romanzo viene abbattuto valgono da sole la lettura: il protagonista si immedesima nell’animale ferito, inconsapevole della morte che lo attende e delle cause che l’hanno provocata ed è quello, per me, il punto di svolta del romanzo anche per il lettore, che improvvisamente inizia a comprendere l’universalità del dolore e dello smarrimento del protagonista.
January 25, 2022
Edgardo Limentani esce di buon’ora per andare a caccia nel Delta del Po’. Ha poca voglia di salire in macchina e addosso una tristezza cupa, dovuta in buona parte al senso di estraneità che prova per la moglie e la figlia. Si sente chiuso da ogni parte, senza una via di fuga. Di fronte a sé c'è qualcosa di decisivo e improrogabile.
Dramma interiore che si sviluppa in un tempo concentrato, con un linguaggio nitido e denso, colmo di nostalgia, fragilità, eleganza: una specie di negazione della vita.
Seconda parte magnetica.
[78/100]
Se a pensare di sparargli non gli fosse sembrato, a lui, di star sparando in un certo senso a se stesso, gli avrebbe tirato immediatamente. E così se non altro sarebbe finita.
Come erano tranquilli e beati gli altri, tutti gli altri! - tornava a ripetersi, riabbassata la testa sul piatto -. Come erano bravi a godersi la vita! La sua pasta si vede era diversa, inguaribilmente diversa, da quella della gente normale che una volta mangiato e bevuto non bada che a digerire.
Codigoro. Quei portici... Con una lucidità repentina si sorprese a chiedersi: ma lui, lui stesso, vestito da caccia, col berretto di pelo in testa, a quell'ora, sotto quei portici, ma lui chi era, veramente?
Dramma interiore che si sviluppa in un tempo concentrato, con un linguaggio nitido e denso, colmo di nostalgia, fragilità, eleganza: una specie di negazione della vita.
Seconda parte magnetica.
[78/100]
Se a pensare di sparargli non gli fosse sembrato, a lui, di star sparando in un certo senso a se stesso, gli avrebbe tirato immediatamente. E così se non altro sarebbe finita.
Come erano tranquilli e beati gli altri, tutti gli altri! - tornava a ripetersi, riabbassata la testa sul piatto -. Come erano bravi a godersi la vita! La sua pasta si vede era diversa, inguaribilmente diversa, da quella della gente normale che una volta mangiato e bevuto non bada che a digerire.
Codigoro. Quei portici... Con una lucidità repentina si sorprese a chiedersi: ma lui, lui stesso, vestito da caccia, col berretto di pelo in testa, a quell'ora, sotto quei portici, ma lui chi era, veramente?
May 19, 2008
The pits, I mean to say, or so I think, garbage, and that it identifies with the trash can, by use of over abundance of the words absurd and disgusting (no doubt, I'd say, or have said rather, in attempt, or trying, to seem existential) and commas, you must be able to tell.
Oh, and he decided not to give the reader an ounce of credit. Oh, and too, if you didn't like the above absurdly disgusting run on sentence you probably would not be pleased by The Heron.
The pits.
Oh, and he decided not to give the reader an ounce of credit. Oh, and too, if you didn't like the above absurdly disgusting run on sentence you probably would not be pleased by The Heron.
The pits.
September 4, 2021
"L'airone" è il libro quinto del "Romanzo di Ferrara", opera "disperata nella sostanza, ma estremamente nitida e armonica nella forma": leggere Bassani è sempre appagante. Mi resta il libro sesto, l'ultimo, da affrontare, ma aspetto, centellino...
September 5, 2017
Finiamo il Romanzo di Ferrara con una bella coltellata dritta al cuore, o con un colpo di fucile nello stomaco.
Magnifico viaggio.
Magnifico viaggio.
October 9, 2019
Erg melancholisch en depressief verhaal maar dan wel in die mooie filmische stijl van Bassani. Het speelt zich dit keer net na de oorlog af. Vreemd overigens dat de uitgever op de achterflap de afloop weggeeft.
Qua verhaal misschien niet het sterkste uit de Ferrara-reeks. Dat heeft misschien ook te maken dat dit boek geschreven is in de derde persoon. Ik wil wel eens weten wat de effecten zijn, vandaar dat ik binnenkort Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer’s ‘Hoe word ik een beroemd schrijver?’ (uit 2012, dus ver voordat hij beroemd werd….) ga lezen, èèn van de hoofdstukken gaat namelijk over schrijven in de 1e of 3e persoon.
Nog een aardig weetje voor de liefhebbers van De Tijgerkat: als eindredacteur bij Feltrinelli lukte het Giorgio Bassani Il Gattopardo van Tomasi di Lampedusa uit te geven (wat Tomasi de Lampedusa niet lukte tijdens zijn leven).
Qua verhaal misschien niet het sterkste uit de Ferrara-reeks. Dat heeft misschien ook te maken dat dit boek geschreven is in de derde persoon. Ik wil wel eens weten wat de effecten zijn, vandaar dat ik binnenkort Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer’s ‘Hoe word ik een beroemd schrijver?’ (uit 2012, dus ver voordat hij beroemd werd….) ga lezen, èèn van de hoofdstukken gaat namelijk over schrijven in de 1e of 3e persoon.
Nog een aardig weetje voor de liefhebbers van De Tijgerkat: als eindredacteur bij Feltrinelli lukte het Giorgio Bassani Il Gattopardo van Tomasi di Lampedusa uit te geven (wat Tomasi de Lampedusa niet lukte tijdens zijn leven).
December 8, 2022
Cupo, asciutto, magnifico. Una storia di morte e di esistenza. Di oggetti, che diventano il distacco tra la percezione del reale e l’espressione poetica dell’autore; la lingua diventa stile, la struttura è armonia e sonorità. Bello, bellissimo.
September 14, 2019
Directly after completing Bassani's "Behind the Door" (4th in "Novel of Ferrara" in which a 15/16 year old boy learns some tough lessons about friendships and betrayals) I moved on to "The Heron" (a single day in the life of an older man and perhaps deals with the consequences of early pain). In "Door", there's a penis-size issue but in "Heron," that concern turns into a bowel movement problem. Yea, life happens. Read them together! Both are beautifully written/translated.
March 3, 2025
Il tema è il male di vivere.
L’argomento è una giornata di caccia in botte.
Non possiamo dire che sia un romanzo di avventura e neppure un western, tanto meno un fantasy o un rosa, quindi si fa fatica a decidere di che genere sia questo racconto, possiamo dire che si tratta di una storia che si sviluppa nella tipica struttura in tre atti: impostazione, poi il conflitto in crescendo e infine lo svolgimento e la conclusione.
Nel primo atto assistiamo al risveglio del protagonista con annessi e connessi, il bagno, la rasatura, i problemi al gabinetto, i pensieri, i dubbi, la moglie che apre gli occhi e subito lo indispone con stupide chiacchiere e la bambina che invece non si sveglia.
La parte centrale è l’incontro con i vari personaggi: il portinaio, il (ex?) fascista e la guida poi la caccia e i suoi fucili, lui che non sparerà nemmeno un colpo, e l’airone e le anatre e il pranzo e la puttana e il riposo in albergo e la telefonata al cugino.
Nella parte finale c’è il ridestarsi della coscienza del protagonista che si rende finalmente conto di quanto sia triste e senza senso la sua vita e di conseguenza prende la decisione giusta, ritrova quindi il buon umore, torna a casa, non cena con la famiglia, si ritira in camera sua, si rade e si lava, si fa portare lo spago dalla serva, decide quale fucile usare e alla fine dà la buona notte alla vecchia madre.
L’autore decide il punto di vista del narratore, in questo caso il narratore è assente quindi fuori dalla storia ma è onnisciente, vede ciò che succede e legge pure nei pensieri dei personaggi e racconta la storia con uno stile che è compatibile con l’ambiente fisico e l’atmosfera che riesce a creare e a comunicare al lettore.
Considerazioni personali: il libro non lo conoscevo e l’autore solo per sentito dire, l'ho letto perché era nei miei “want to read”, aggiunto dopo aver letto una recensione qui su goodreads, che mi era piaciuta ma non ricordo cosa dicesse. L’ho letto volentieri e comunque m’è piaciuta la scrittura asciutta, essenziale e senza compiacimenti letterari, ho trovato la storia interessante, mi incuriosisce sempre il tema del suicidio, ritengo sia una soluzione possibile ai problemi della vita, non l’unica fortunatamente.
Non c’è amore nella storia, intrisa di amarezza, non ci sono personaggi positivi, anche il periodo storico non è dei migliori, c’è la sofferenza gratuita inflitta alle creature innocenti da gente che non ha pietà, anche il tempo atmosferico non aiuta il buon umore: il freddo, l’umidità, il buio incombente, la nebbia… da notare il cielo che si svela nella notte stellata proprio nel momento in cui Edgardo prende la decisione fatale quasi a fargli capire che quella è la strada giusta.
L’argomento è una giornata di caccia in botte.
Non possiamo dire che sia un romanzo di avventura e neppure un western, tanto meno un fantasy o un rosa, quindi si fa fatica a decidere di che genere sia questo racconto, possiamo dire che si tratta di una storia che si sviluppa nella tipica struttura in tre atti: impostazione, poi il conflitto in crescendo e infine lo svolgimento e la conclusione.
Nel primo atto assistiamo al risveglio del protagonista con annessi e connessi, il bagno, la rasatura, i problemi al gabinetto, i pensieri, i dubbi, la moglie che apre gli occhi e subito lo indispone con stupide chiacchiere e la bambina che invece non si sveglia.
La parte centrale è l’incontro con i vari personaggi: il portinaio, il (ex?) fascista e la guida poi la caccia e i suoi fucili, lui che non sparerà nemmeno un colpo, e l’airone e le anatre e il pranzo e la puttana e il riposo in albergo e la telefonata al cugino.
Nella parte finale c’è il ridestarsi della coscienza del protagonista che si rende finalmente conto di quanto sia triste e senza senso la sua vita e di conseguenza prende la decisione giusta, ritrova quindi il buon umore, torna a casa, non cena con la famiglia, si ritira in camera sua, si rade e si lava, si fa portare lo spago dalla serva, decide quale fucile usare e alla fine dà la buona notte alla vecchia madre.
L’autore decide il punto di vista del narratore, in questo caso il narratore è assente quindi fuori dalla storia ma è onnisciente, vede ciò che succede e legge pure nei pensieri dei personaggi e racconta la storia con uno stile che è compatibile con l’ambiente fisico e l’atmosfera che riesce a creare e a comunicare al lettore.
Considerazioni personali: il libro non lo conoscevo e l’autore solo per sentito dire, l'ho letto perché era nei miei “want to read”, aggiunto dopo aver letto una recensione qui su goodreads, che mi era piaciuta ma non ricordo cosa dicesse. L’ho letto volentieri e comunque m’è piaciuta la scrittura asciutta, essenziale e senza compiacimenti letterari, ho trovato la storia interessante, mi incuriosisce sempre il tema del suicidio, ritengo sia una soluzione possibile ai problemi della vita, non l’unica fortunatamente.
Non c’è amore nella storia, intrisa di amarezza, non ci sono personaggi positivi, anche il periodo storico non è dei migliori, c’è la sofferenza gratuita inflitta alle creature innocenti da gente che non ha pietà, anche il tempo atmosferico non aiuta il buon umore: il freddo, l’umidità, il buio incombente, la nebbia… da notare il cielo che si svela nella notte stellata proprio nel momento in cui Edgardo prende la decisione fatale quasi a fargli capire che quella è la strada giusta.
September 30, 2021
"L'airone" è un libro da cui emerge una sofferenza personale che si riconosce come il "male di vivere" di Montale. Le difficoltà quotidiane si accentuano in mezzo all'anafettività e all'incertezza del futuro.
Il Limentani, proprietario terriero ebreo, vive una profonda crisi esistenziale: gli anni della guerra e delle ristrettezze non sono bilanciati da un più leniente dopoguerra. Il tedium vitae culmina con una battuta di caccia e lì, tra i giunchi, vede un airone che si dibatte vanamente e vi si identifica, unico della sua specie in mezzo a folaghe e altri uccelli di piccola taglia.
Bassani è sempre un maestro nel sottolineare il non detto e creare una tensione senza tuttavia descriverla in azioni eclatanti. Il rumore degli spari è l'unica vera movimentazione nella narrazione che fa raggiungere al libro un apice esplosivo e ricco di tensione interiore.
Diverso dagli altri romanzi di Ferrara che ho letto finora - Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini e il stupendo Gli occhiali d'oro - è malinconico e quasi soffocante nel trasmettere un dolore interiore difficilmente esprimibile.
"Come erano tranquilli e beati gli altri, tutti gli altri! – tornava a ripetersi, riabbassata la testa sul piatto –. Come erano bravi a godersi la vita! La sua pasta si vede era diversa, inguaribilmente diversa, da quella della gente normale che una volta mangiato e bevuto non bada che a digerire. Accanirsi a mangiare e a bere a lui non sarebbe servito, no. (...) sarebbe ricascato in pieno a ruminare sulle sue solite cose, le vecchie e le nuove. Le sentiva in agguato, già pronte a saltargli addosso come prima, come sempre: e tutte quante insieme."
Il Limentani, proprietario terriero ebreo, vive una profonda crisi esistenziale: gli anni della guerra e delle ristrettezze non sono bilanciati da un più leniente dopoguerra. Il tedium vitae culmina con una battuta di caccia e lì, tra i giunchi, vede un airone che si dibatte vanamente e vi si identifica, unico della sua specie in mezzo a folaghe e altri uccelli di piccola taglia.
Bassani è sempre un maestro nel sottolineare il non detto e creare una tensione senza tuttavia descriverla in azioni eclatanti. Il rumore degli spari è l'unica vera movimentazione nella narrazione che fa raggiungere al libro un apice esplosivo e ricco di tensione interiore.
Diverso dagli altri romanzi di Ferrara che ho letto finora - Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini e il stupendo Gli occhiali d'oro - è malinconico e quasi soffocante nel trasmettere un dolore interiore difficilmente esprimibile.
"Come erano tranquilli e beati gli altri, tutti gli altri! – tornava a ripetersi, riabbassata la testa sul piatto –. Come erano bravi a godersi la vita! La sua pasta si vede era diversa, inguaribilmente diversa, da quella della gente normale che una volta mangiato e bevuto non bada che a digerire. Accanirsi a mangiare e a bere a lui non sarebbe servito, no. (...) sarebbe ricascato in pieno a ruminare sulle sue solite cose, le vecchie e le nuove. Le sentiva in agguato, già pronte a saltargli addosso come prima, come sempre: e tutte quante insieme."
August 2, 2014
I was entranced by this short post war novel by Giorgio Bassani. The lure of death and estrangement from reality are the foremost themes. Edgardo Limentani, a middle aged Jewish landowner is still exhausted by the long struggle to survive racial persecution.
From the first line ...
"Not immediately, but climbing with some effort up from the bottomless pit of consciousness."
...it is as if Edgardo struggles to emerge from a death like state - and seems drawn back towards it at several stages.
There is a relentless sense of doom that pervades the novel but the end section in which we are prepared for the worst is left hanging. Perhaps the protagonist will find himself incapable of pulling the trigger in much the same way as he did when confronted with the mournful heron in the marshes?
Beautiful like everything else I have read by Bassani
July 8, 2019
Een boek als een film, een mooie en ingetogen zwart-wit film in het Italië van net na de tweede Wereldoorlog, het communisme en fascisme zijn nog springlevend. Ingetogen maar recht op zijn doel af vertelt Bassani over de laatste dag van Joodse advocaat Limentani uit Ferrara. Behalve inzicht in de manier van leven - zo verschillend met hoe we nu wonen en werken - krijgen we in De reiger een inzicht in de onpeilbare kronkels van de menselijke psyche. Met De reiger heb ik nu alle delen uit de romans van Ferrara gelezen, stuk voor stuk pareltjes, getuigen van een voor altijd voorbije tijd maar met personages en karakters die tijdloos zijn. Om te koesteren.
December 6, 2021
Dit verhaal beschrijft slechts één dag in het leven van een eenzelvige beetje wereldvreemde ik-persoon, Edgardo Limentani, advocaat te Ferrara. Een verhaal in een heel aparte stijl: sober maar toch lyrisch met veel oog voor detail. De omgeving wordt haast fotografisch in beeld gebracht, het doet een beetje denken aan de beschrijvingen van Parijs in de boeken van Modiano en ook hier is het functioneel. Vanaf het allereerste begin wordt de aandacht gevangen en niet meer losgelaten, hoewel er nauwelijks iets gebeurt. Wie is deze ik-persoon, wat wil hij en vooral wat wil hij niet, wat is de bron van zijn zwartgalligheid? Door futiele tegenstrijdigheden komt het verhaal onder spanning. Vanaf het tijdstip van zijn ontwaken om 4 uur in een koude ochtend moet hij zich haasten om op tijd op een afspraak te komen, maar het tempo is op zijn elf-en-dertigs. Talloze keren wisselen zijn voornemens: gaat hij wel, gaat hij niet, waarom zou hij, wat heeft het voor zin? Z’n twijfels, z’n paranoia, z’n kritiek, z’n afstandelijkheid en gebrek aan vertrouwen en warmte, het glas is altijd half leeg, wil hij wel of niet naar huis, maar zeker niet te vroeg! Door al z’n bespiegelingen kruip je geheel onder z’n huid.
Zo bijna aan het einde van de dag krijgt hij een brainwave die zijdelings te maken heeft met een reiger en die aan al z’n zwaarmoedigheid een einde maakt, waarop hij als herboren uiteindelijk huiswaarts keert.
Eerder las ik één van de andere Ferrara romans van Bassani, “De Tuin van de Finzi-Contini’s”, de zelfde ingetogen stijl, maar dit boek is toch weer zó anders!
Zo bijna aan het einde van de dag krijgt hij een brainwave die zijdelings te maken heeft met een reiger en die aan al z’n zwaarmoedigheid een einde maakt, waarop hij als herboren uiteindelijk huiswaarts keert.
Eerder las ik één van de andere Ferrara romans van Bassani, “De Tuin van de Finzi-Contini’s”, de zelfde ingetogen stijl, maar dit boek is toch weer zó anders!
November 2, 2019
Ci sono molte immagini potenti in questo breve libro di Bassani. È l'alba e il protagonista lascia la sua casa a Ferrara per dirigersi nelle piccole cittadine del Delta del Po. Ad attenderlo c'è una battuta di caccia.
Il tema trattato, con la minuziosa descrizione dell'armamentario, mi ha fatto provare molta irritazione per questo personaggio. La carneficina che segue mi ha dato quasi un malessere fisico.
La profonda inquietudine che si prova è la stessa che sente il protagonista che, solo, in una botte osserva decine di uccelli volare inesorabilmente verso il loro destino di morte. I colpi del cacciatore sono implacabili e rimandano a un destino a cui non si può sfuggire. I dolci richiami per gli uccelli sono inganni che mettono in trappola chi li ascolta. Un airone solitario agonizza e si dissangua lentamente.
Il cacciatore cambia prospettiva. Colui che voleva cacciare si sente braccato dagli altri. Il suo senso di solitudine segna un profondo solco fra sé e le altre persone. Non c'è una comunicazione possibile e che sia onesta ad attenderlo. I posti da cui è attratto nascondono trappole. Le persone ammaliano, cercano di irretirlo. Un senso di impotenza si impossessa del protagonista, e di disgusto per la vita. Una costipazione fisica diventa il simbolo di un addensarsi di nubi nella sua mente. La nebbia che lo circonda è smarrimento e isolamento. Un'unica folle via di scampo gli viene prospettata da questa sua opprimente depressione.
Una lettura forte, potente, angosciante.
Il tema trattato, con la minuziosa descrizione dell'armamentario, mi ha fatto provare molta irritazione per questo personaggio. La carneficina che segue mi ha dato quasi un malessere fisico.
La profonda inquietudine che si prova è la stessa che sente il protagonista che, solo, in una botte osserva decine di uccelli volare inesorabilmente verso il loro destino di morte. I colpi del cacciatore sono implacabili e rimandano a un destino a cui non si può sfuggire. I dolci richiami per gli uccelli sono inganni che mettono in trappola chi li ascolta. Un airone solitario agonizza e si dissangua lentamente.
Il cacciatore cambia prospettiva. Colui che voleva cacciare si sente braccato dagli altri. Il suo senso di solitudine segna un profondo solco fra sé e le altre persone. Non c'è una comunicazione possibile e che sia onesta ad attenderlo. I posti da cui è attratto nascondono trappole. Le persone ammaliano, cercano di irretirlo. Un senso di impotenza si impossessa del protagonista, e di disgusto per la vita. Una costipazione fisica diventa il simbolo di un addensarsi di nubi nella sua mente. La nebbia che lo circonda è smarrimento e isolamento. Un'unica folle via di scampo gli viene prospettata da questa sua opprimente depressione.
Una lettura forte, potente, angosciante.
August 27, 2023
Il romanzo racconta una giornata di Edgardo Limentani, dal suo svegliarsi all’alba per andare a caccia fino alla sera inoltrata, al suo rientro a casa. Questa giornata è un cerchio che si chiude: il personaggio evolve, ha infine la sua rivelazione e la sua svolta.
È raccontata nei suoi dettagli: il risvegliarsi lento, il chiacchierare col portiere senza riuscire a congedarsi, il ritardare continuo l’inizio della caccia, la scocciatura che il protagonista prova nel fare ogni cosa, nell’incrociare ogni persona e nell’intrattenere qualsiasi dialogo.
Il ritmo di conseguenza è volutamente lento e devo dire che questa osservazione chirurgica della realtà è ciò che mi aveva spinto a leggerlo. Ma ho trovato difficoltà a seguirlo, specie nella prima metà e durante la lettura ho sperimentato un senso di apatia e indifferenza che a volte mi faceva sorvolare sulle parole, senza leggerle.
Solo con gli ultimi tre capitoli ho trovato interessante la lettura e ho imparato a voler un po’ bene a Edgardo e a questo libro.
È raccontata nei suoi dettagli: il risvegliarsi lento, il chiacchierare col portiere senza riuscire a congedarsi, il ritardare continuo l’inizio della caccia, la scocciatura che il protagonista prova nel fare ogni cosa, nell’incrociare ogni persona e nell’intrattenere qualsiasi dialogo.
Il ritmo di conseguenza è volutamente lento e devo dire che questa osservazione chirurgica della realtà è ciò che mi aveva spinto a leggerlo. Ma ho trovato difficoltà a seguirlo, specie nella prima metà e durante la lettura ho sperimentato un senso di apatia e indifferenza che a volte mi faceva sorvolare sulle parole, senza leggerle.
Solo con gli ultimi tre capitoli ho trovato interessante la lettura e ho imparato a voler un po’ bene a Edgardo e a questo libro.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews