Curzio Malaparte: The Skin

[Liam]

*From the Amazon blurb:

"It is a shameful thing to win a war." The reliably unorthodox Curzio Malaparte's own service as an Italian liaison officer with the Allies during the invasion of Italy was the basis for this searing and surreal novel, in which the contradictions inherent in any attempt to simultaneously conquer and liberate a people beset the triumphant but ingenuous American forces as they make their way up the peninsula.

Malaparte's account begins in occupied Naples, where veterans of the disbanded and humiliated Italian army beg for work, and ceremonial dinners for high Allied officers or important politicians feature the last remaining sea creatures in the city's famous aquarium. He leads the American Fifth Army along the Via Appia Antica into Rome, where the celebrations of a vast, joy-maddened crowd are only temporarily interrupted when one well-wisher slips beneath the tread of a Sherman tank.

As the Allied advance continues north to Florence and Milan, the civil war intensifies, provoking in the author equal abhorrence for killing fellow Italians and for the "heroes of tomorrow," those who will come out of hiding to shout "Long live liberty" as soon as the Germans are chased away.

Like Céline, another anarchic satirist and disillusioned veteran of two world wars, Malaparte paints his compatriots as in a fun-house mirror that yet speaks the truth, creating terrifying, grotesque, and often darkly comic scenes that will not soon be forgotten.

Unlike the French writer however, he does so in the characteristically sophisticated, lush, yet unsentimental prose that was as responsible for his fame as was his surprising political trajectory. The Skin was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, and placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

[kpjayan]

If I remember right, Milan Kundera in his book "Encounter" , has a detailed study of this book..(hetoronym, can confirm). It was in 'wishlist' since then. Will look up for its availability here.

[Bubba]

Christ, Liam, are you failing to cite your sources again (which bodes well for your academic future: see that famous Harvard or Yale historian who blamed her research assistants for all of the plagiarized bits in her books) or are you practicing for a career writing jacket copy? Have you read the damn book?

I've read Malaparte's more famous and just earlier book (the title of which escapes me just now); it's interesting, and at times, such as during a visit to an underground shrine to the Virgin Mary in Poland, extremely moving, even for me, an unbeliever. But it's also a bit prolix, and the last section requires knowledge of Mussolini and his entourage (his Jewish mistress, his daughter and her husband, Count Ciano, Mussolini's foreign minister, whom he eventually had shot, and various other hangers-on).

[Liam]

^Haha, guilty as charged, (fixed it).

I haven't read this particular novel, but I did see Liliana Cavani's film based on it--a thoroughly horrifying experience which I don't care to repeat.

[Heteronym]

If I remember right, Milan Kundera in his book "Encounter" , has a detailed study of this book..(hetoronym, can confirm). It was in 'wishlist' since then. Will look up for its availability here.

Hell yeah, I can confirm it! It's the last essay in the book, an excellent analysis Curzio Malaparte's work and it left me hungry for this novel. I've been thinking about reading it in Italian, but I'm not sure my Italian is good enough for such a complex novel.

[Heteronym]

I've read Malaparte's more famous and just earlier book (the title of which escapes me just now); it's interesting, and at times, such as during a visit to an underground shrine to the Virgin Mary in Poland, extremely moving, even for me, an unbeliever. But it's also a bit prolix, and the last section requires knowledge of Mussolini and his entourage (his Jewish mistress, his daughter and her husband, Count Ciano, Mussolini's foreign minister, whom he eventually had shot, and various other hangers-on).

You mean Kaputt?

That's an incredible, moving, hilarious, terrifying novel! The section in the Jewish ghetto was haunting; the description of the putrefying horses in the thawing lake is described so well I can smell the stench of death.

I agree the novel demands a lot from the reader, but not knowing anything about the real-life figures, I still loved the novel. I especially loved the high-class parties in Italian society, everyone pretending everything was hunky-dory, and his friendship with Gian Ciano. All so wonderfully decadent.

Also, it has perhaps the best final line of a novel ever.

[Bubba]

Yes, of course it's Kaputt I was thinking of. I'd forgotten the title for some reason. Nor do I remember the last line.

On another topic, I do rather wish Liam would stop starting threads for new releases in which he posts nothing more than the jacket copy from the publisher. Those posts are, in effect, nothing more than ads. If he must make such posts, let him do so with a bit of personal info, as in his second post in this thread.

[Liam]

I open new threads in order to generate discussion and make the forum grow. If I only open threads for those books I happen to be reading, it would boil things down to one thread per week.

[Leonid]

I like to read. Literature is good. This is an interesting discussion.

[Heteronym]

Received the novel last week, I'm thinking of jumping into it after finishing my Gonzalo Torrente Ballester.