Reading 1001 discussion

*** 3/4

This was the third leg of my Italian List trifecta, after reading the two books from Elena Ferrante. And this was by far the best of the three. While Ferrante felt more like an enumeration of events with a bit of insight on the characters, Don't Move focuses on the turmoil consuming the main protagonist, Timoteo, a surgeon, whose daughter waddles between life and death after a scooter accident. The novel is writing mostly as an interior monolog that Timoteo addresses to his daughter to explain certain circumstances which occurred at the time of her birth. Timoteo then had an affair with a poor prostitute which developed well beyond the satisfaction of physical needs. Tragedy hovers throughout the novel, probably not exactly how you would expect it at the beginning. Just like Iris Murdoch, Mazzantini demonstrates a genuine talent at displaying how a man can flawfully think at times. It is a bit raw and gory at times, but I think it was necessary to maintain the tragic tension required at key points in the novel.

The prose style of this book was very exacting and tight, perhaps reflecting the fact that it was a surgeon who was narrating the events of this book and he was able to describe quite gory or violent scenes with a brusque detachment. I really appreciated this style.
Timoteo, the surgeon, narrators the story of his great love affair while waiting to find out if his daughter will live or die while she is in surgery. Timoteo, is a very self absorbed, self pitying and self satisfying man. Although he is capable enough to become head surgeon at his hospital and to have a long marriage to a capable journalist wife and mother, his narration voices a crippling lack of confidence except when he is overcome, for example, overcome by a violent passion that has nothing to do with giving enjoyment to another. His great love is not someone that is his equal in any category except compassion, but the surgeon seems to need to flirt with destroying his life, being embarrassed by his affairs, being shamed by his violence.
One does not like this man, the author does not wish you to like this man as he describes his beloved as a dog. He puts her in harms way even as he pivots to an overwhelming desire to spend his life with her (even though he demonstrates no ability to actually love anyone except perhaps his now shattered daughter). However, I found myself wanting to see if the ending would give me more of a sense of who he really was, fractured and broken, but gaining insight into himself. The author did not gratify my desires.

Gail wrote: "The prose style of this book was very exacting and tight, perhaps reflecting the fact that it was a surgeon who was narrating the events of this book and he was able to describe quite gory or viole..."

You are quite right about the parallel surgeon/writing style, I failed to appreciate this aspect in my review.