Agostino" by Alberto Moravia. *****

• Summer Sub Club with Beth
• Italian author
• Originally published in 1944
• Quotes:
• p.4...."The two of them would dry themselves languorously in the sun, which became more ardent with the approach of midday."....ardent sun?  cool image
• p.8..."And in both case, it had been his fate to fall from the summit of an illusion and crash to the ground, aching and bruised."
• p.15..."With the same sharp sense of discovery as a man who has found a treasure and sneaks away to hide it and gaze upon it at his leisure, he ran to be alone with her slap, so new to him as to seem unbelievable."
• p.22..."Most of all he was bewildered and troubled by this ruthlessness, a new behavior so monstrous it was almost attractive."
• p.59..."Everything was obscure both in and around him, as if rather than the sunlit beach, sky, and sea, there were only shadows, fog, and vague menacing shapes."
• p.63..."He was feeling a vague, desperate desire to cross the river and disappear down the shore, leaving behind the boys,, Saro, his mother, and his whole former life."...rebirth imagery
• p.67..."The dark realization came to him that a difficult and miserable age had begun for him, and he couldn't imagine when it would end."
• p.69..."...he had replaced his former reverence with cruelty and his affection with sensuality."
• p.70..."What was the use of seeing things clearly if the onk thing clarity brought was a new and deeper darkness?"
• Review:  This novella, translated from the original Italian,  is a primal, deeply psychological tale of one young man's loss of innocence.  While staying at the beach with his beloved mother, Agostino ' s eyes are opened to the world of sensuality and violence, of deep male drives. As a woman, I felt like I had been gifted a glimpse of the painful male passage from childhood to adulthood, and it seemed so authentic that I almost felt I was trespassing.