2 days ago
8
Reading the English translation. Midway through.
Can relate to the narrator's experiences with ennui, but his excessive analysis of the condition makes the book a bit boring to get through. This was possibly Moravia's intention; he wanted to acquaint us closely with the narrator's boredom-plagued inner world and did so by making us put up with thought after thought after overly analytical thought processed by the narrator.
The definition of boredom offered in the book is also a bit weird: 'a lack of relationship to anything in the world.' I don't quite understand it. That's fine. But he restates this definition every three pages. We get the point, Moravia. We get your conception of boredom. Stop reminding us of it. Please just write
Not liking it much so far. That the 'beautiful' muse of the narrator is just some boring teenage girl with large breasts really doesn't help. Was kind of hoping the book would at least have some capacity as an article of erotica - and this almost seems to be promised with the appearance of the maid at the beginning of the novel. But nope. What is so attractive about a freaking fifteen year old, anyway? Have you seen any, Moravia? With their soft little bodies? Boring.
If the point of it was to entertain the reader, it's failing. If the point was, in fact, to be a consummate study in boredom, then not bad.
Please tell me what I'm missing about this book.
On a separate note, the writing (in translation, even), is nice. It offers some nice views of 1950s Rome; both the everyday kind and the kind an artist or an aristocrat might (I'm guessing) have been familiar with.
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