Lottie Lomme
From the Publisher: In this 3-generation family novel, Elisa, a young southern Italian woman, reveals her origins through the fairy tales and lies her relatives told themselves and each other. Based on letters she left behind, she reconstructs how her grandparents got to know each other and how, after difficult amorous entanglements, her parents finally came together. A story of broken dreams and betrayed loves - of family love and family hatred.
Really very well written, this Italian classic. Actually, it is a contemporary psychological thriller. People's imaginations are played with all the time, and they become delusions over time. People who are poor, who fantasize about living in luxury and act like it, while the reality is bitter.
The causes of madness
It is somewhat Freudian to think that madness concealed an excess of fantasy. In addition to substance use or medication side effects, trauma and stress are now more common as scientifically explainable causes.
The book is therefore also a child of its time, it was written in the 50s. It suggests a correlation between fantasy and madness. This is explained progressively in that book: it starts with Elisa's grandparents, and under the influence of socio-economic deprivation, it reinforced the social factor that contributes to the derailment in the parents.
Madness is an interplay of psyche and society, Elsa Morante tells us. The madness also seems to be an interpersonal game of one folie a deux, where delusions are shared by several individuals and give young Elise the idea of Lies and sorcery.
Ingenious psychological game
Elisa stands her ground and reports as an adult what happened to her as a child. But because of the changes in perspective, you see not only the experiences of her ancestors, but also the world of her as a child in which she was confronted with complicated behaviour. This creates a special story that is ingeniously put together.
It made the book difficult to read three quarters of the way through, because of the psychological depth of the story. The socio-economic decline of the family and the loss of relatives is less explored in a social sense; what that means for psychological well-being.
Because thoughts, sorrows, desires and dreams are all confessed in solitude, Elisa's parents both do not talk about their past in their marriage, the madness naturally becomes all the greater and the literary psychological effect stronger.
Charm, joking, impulsiveness and calculation
Furthermore, the book gives a nice picture of the South Italian poverty and culture. Catholicism, the beautiful decoration, the joking urge for frivolous frivolity. The outdoors, the shutters to keep out the heat. The emotional surrender, you could call it passion and the vulnerability that entails.
A key character in the story is Edoardo, who reminded me a lot of Mozart in the film Amadeus from 1984. A combination of charm, joking, impulsiveness and calculation. A light form of it belongs to the Italian sweet life, where you enjoy life and where those emotions are found in small amounts.
However, if it is a direct hit, it quickly leads to emotional abuse. But the characters in this novel do not live their emotions in moderation. Such as jealousy, also a well-known emotion among Italian men, a tornado that also plays a role in the story.
Well written psychological novel, literary ingenious and with a lot of depth. Not an easy book, but one that you have to read and the end makes everything worthwhile.
Elsa Morante (1912-1985) is a monument in post-war Italian literature. She is the great example for authors such as Elena Ferrante and Silvia Avallone - and rightly so, because her work is still as relevant and sparkling as when it was first published. After the success of Arthur's Island, which was very well received by the press and readers, now follows the very first Dutch translation of Lies and sorcery from 1948. Source: World Library Publishers
Lies and sorcery
by: Elsa Morante, translated by: Manon Smits
800 pp.
€ 49,99 (hard cover, also available as an e-book for € 17,99)
World Library, June 2022
ISBN 9789028452657
Comments