Fiction, A man suspended between the desire to love and his incapacity for it, Antonio Dorigo, a 49 year old man, loves Laide, a young ballerina, who prostitutes herself for money, First published, by Mondadori, Milano, 1963, First UK edition "A love affair", Andre Deutsch, London, January 1965, 229 pp., 8vo, translated by Joseph Green ( )

I had not read Buzzati since high school about 25 years ago. I was truly surprised by the effect it still has on me: none of the conclusions or perceptions on which the novel is based appear to me dated or provincial despite the fact that the world is now a much different and more interconnected affair. What I find particularly powerful is the combination of the unsentimental view of human nature and gender struggle coupled with a close description of the habits and outlook of the italian bourgeoisie of the 1960s, in which I was born. This book is not a masterpiece but it contains some serious and unflinching reflections on what we really seek in life and how we try to approximate it with what is available.

Another thing I really liked is a trick Buzzati plays on his readers (on me at least, twice): Antonio gets so used to Laide's lies that he falls rather easily for any slanderous report about her. As you read on you are exposed to the possibility that those reports might themselves be lies, which really adds to Antonio's confusion in a very convincing way. ( )