Review The novel Elena Ferrante appears on a list of “books of
It is a universally acknowledged myth that fiction written by women of previous generations is personal rather than political, and romantic rather than socially conscious. But the Italian novelist Alba de Céspedes, who died in 1997, wrote radically contemporary novels in the 1940s and 1950s, then as now. Born in Rome in 1911, she was of Italian Cuban origin and the granddaughter of Cuba's first president. She got married at 15, but it didn't last. Years later, her second marriage was to a diplomat. De Céspedes led a professionally independent life as a journalist, novelist, magazine editor and screenwriter, and was a twice-imprisoned political activist and rebel. Supported by bestselling Italian novelist Elena Ferrante, this once popular and respected author is once again reaching readers in English translations. “Forbidden Notebook,” a novel by Céspedes first published in Italy in 1952, tells the story of a woman in postwar Rome who frees herself from oppressive domesticity by writing a secret diary. “Her Side of the Story,” originally published in 1949 in Italian, now appears in Jill Foulston’s superbly lyrical translation. Ferrante first read "Her Side of the Story" when she was 16, and the book remains a "solid companion" that she includes on a small list of "encouragement books," she writes- her in the afterword of the new edition. The fiction written by de Céspedes reflects, but does not exactly reflect, elements of his own life. Her work instead takes a broader view, providing a fascinating window into the experiences of women and girls in Italy before and during World War II, particularly their misfortune. It is interesting to compare Hollywood escapist cinema of the 1940s with post-war Italian neorealism. De Céspedes co-wrote the screenplay for Michelangelo Antonioni's 1955 film, "Le Amiche" ("The Girlfriends"), about a group of women whose joyful friendship is pierced by suicide. Like the film, his fiction is written with a keen sense of responsibility to tell the truth. “Her Side of the Story” (originally, and perhaps more aptly, titled “Confessions of a Woman”) is the story of Alessandra, a native of Rome, who is forced to explain how she came to the point in her life where such an explanation became necessary. Her childhood is overshadowed by a brother she never met: “I considered myself an only child, even though before I was born my brother had come into the world, turned out to be a boy prodigy and drowned at the age of three. » Alessandra is not only measured by her parents by the superiority of her deceased brother, but she also senses his presence within her as the sinister force behind her darkest instincts, particularly her sexuality. His parents seem strangely mismatched. His father, a civil servant, is described as rude and domineering. Her mother, a piano teacher and talented musician, is sensitive and graceful.
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Article link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/12/06/her-side-story-cespedes-book/
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