At the end of this book take a long breath.
It will be necessary.
It's a strong, strong book this one by Fedor Dostoevskij Memorie del Sottosuolo translated by Paolo Nori.
Published by Garzanti, this book tells the story of a man of circa 40 years: a man bullied when little, deformed by the experiences and people met along his life, someone unable to love.
Many the considerations of the author: in this case Fedor's character starts a personal dialogue with his readers. Readers that he wants to keep informed: readers that he wants to be real participants of his existence. An existence not beauty, not completely realized; a vicious existence sometimes. A life lived in the envy and jealousy for the Other. The character portrayed by Fedor has been bullied. Traumatized, lived his feelings in a dangerous distortion researching in the scholastic phase of his existence a friendship with someone just for having that person in his own power and control: the purpose, to move the friend against the rest of the classroom his main temptation.
Fedor writes that it is impossible to forgive, and that maybe we reach a point of our existence where we understand that we can't change our faith; we can't change who we are, and we can't expect anything else.
There are heavy considerations of great actuality on the state of the world during the XIX century.
Blood is everywhere. Napoleon, the biggest and the littlest one defeated in Russia, the North-America.. But...Man became a best creature? No. Civilization maybe will help this new man to feel more pleasure in spreading always more blood.
Fedor understands that, after all, the most sanguinary statesmen have been also the finest men existing in the world. Civiliziation means having a man much more disgustingly sanguinary than before.
There will be a moment in which questions wil disappear leaving the place to the answers. People will build a crystal palace: it will be the Bengodi Palace.
A long digression involves personal profit. Starting from the consideration that after all man is stupid and ungrateful: he will be influenced often by other men with original ideas.
Man sometimes wants something stupid, but also something that it is not naturally in his own path. A different destiny: a different choice: the risk. The risk of an existence unplanned, keeping aside the planned options.
Man is a strange creature because would want to reach a goal but when it reaches this goal he isn't satisfied anymore and must search for something else because, simply he wouldn't want to reach that goal after all. I would want to add that reaching a goal means a stabilization that man maybe can't prove at long.
Is it realistically true, asks Fedor that wellbeing, but also what it is normal and positive is great for man? Maybe man wants also to suffer: maybe sufferance is more important than wellbeing.
There are things that we can tell to everyone: others that we can tell to real friends: other ones to ourselves but in secret and other ones that we wouldn't want to confess to ourselves.
Every man of this time is a slave and a coward and can't be the opposite. It's a nature-law this one. If someone tries to be corageous, the next time will be a coward. This one writes Fedor is an aeternal conclusion.
But who is the Romantic man in Russia? Oh, certainly someone distant from the german perception. Russian romantic understands everything, and, mainly he is a practical man.
One day this character will invite himself to spend a dinner with some old friends: he will end-up drunker, will meet Liza, a tender 20 years old girl: Liza will search again for him but he was disgusting with her, leaving in the reader the idea that, after all, this man doesn't deserve anything beauty in his life.
I liked this book, but at the same time this character devastated me because there are not excuses. A person can have experienced a sad past, being bullied at school, having met wrong people, but no one should become an ugly (inside) person as this character is. It should be the opposite: a person of light, an example to everyone l
Highly recommended book.
Anna Maria Polidori
No comments:
Post a Comment