La Ciociara

I also cannot understand how anyone could call this book boring. Weaving the reactions of the city dwellers who have fled to the hills with those of mountain peasants as a devastating war front moves through the area provides a crucible for the examination of morality contrasted and tested. To find this uninteresting, well? The contadini are a subject of much interest to Italian writers and I found Moravia's take on them to compare with Carlo Levi's in "Christo se e..." He also tells that goat inflation story- who wrote it first? Is it true or a rural legend-something to twit city-slickers with? And what a great ending- something that few books achieve.

In La Ciociara, perhaps his best work, Moravia tells the story of a mother and youg daughter during the last years of WW2. They take refuge in the mountain area between Rome and Naples known as la Ciociaria which describes the shoes the peasants wear. The land and the people of this area feature greatly in the story which is narrated in a clear ,elegant style. It is a story of survival filled with paradoxes and twists of faith. The existential duality between morality and a world that is at best amoral is what drives the story to an horrendous conclusion

An amazing story of a mother and daughter who have to find a way to survive in second world war Italy. We see them hustle and fight their way through. We see the effects of the war on simple individuals, always through the eyes of Cesira. A great story that will make one think and reflect upon our ability to change and compromise in order to survive.

Moravia's Italian language novel of how Italy's poor civilians struggled with danger, hunger and Nazis during last part of WWII, from the viewpoint of a mother who tries to protect her daughter and her own humanity from dehumanizing forces.

great

I cannot understand how someone could say that this book is " boring " sometimes . It is an excellent book with a specific ( and , yes, cynical ) philosophy of life , with well described multifaceted characters and with splendid descriptions of nature , nature of the world and human nature. Moravia's acuteness in psychological portraits is simply masterful . It could not be otherwise for a writer who as an adolescent was reading Kafka, Dostoyevsky , Flaubert and the best Italian classics.You can certainly enjoy it more if you can read it in Italian , but you will miss a lot if you are a lover of high class literature and you do not read it.

They say that each book has to be read at the right age,otherwise they lose their charm. If I had read La Ciociara when I was a student, I would have definitely enjoyed it much more.This is the story of a mother and her daughter, forced to leave their home in Rome and live for one year near the front in Gargliano (Italy) between 1943 and 1944.Alberto Moravia himself was forced to do the same thing during Wold War II and hid in the mountains during the German occupation. Knowing that most of the narration is based on real personal experiences, gives the book more charm and color.The book is not about the war in its traditional meaning, but about human experience and what the profanatory war can bring about. The narration deals with two acts of violence: war and rape. (Initially the author wanted to name his book "Lo Stupro" - The Rape)After a war and after a rape, neither a country nor a woman are what they used to be before. Profound changes take place, both country and woman pass from the state of innocence and integrity to bitter knowledge. In fact, all wars penetrating the territory of a country and hitting civil population can be considered rapes.But despite the interesting and well drawn characters, the book is boring at times. This is literature written the two World Wars, so don't have too high expectations.It was an interesting experience and I admire Alberto Moravia talent for writing. But I believe, I would have been more delighted about the book if I had read it at the age of 18 or 20.If you are Italians or big fans of the Italian literature, then I believe it would be a good idea for you to read this book. Otherwise, you don't miss anything.

Bon état

Mantiene el ritmo del relato pero un poco a trompicones y forzando una temática nueva o una ocasión disconexa. Descriptivo al último detalle, riquísimo en matices, me recuerda a Delibes en muchos aspectos.

Ho visto e rivisto il film, bellissimo, e non volevo leggere il libro; poi, passati tanti anni, mi è ritornato in mente e l’ho letto; mi è piaciuto molto perché viene descritto un territorio che conosco bene avendolo frequentato per anni, un popolo che è un po’ belle mie corde avendo vissuto quelle zone; Moravia sa descrivere i paesaggi rudi, spogli, aridi del nostro Appennino, ne disegnavi particolari te ne fa vedere la natura selvaggia e te ne fa assaporare gli odori, vedere i colori; la vita degli sfollati è reale, non inventata: quello di faceva dopo aver lasciato le città, quelli erano i pericoli veri che si verificarono tra quelle montagne; la miseria, la lealtà, l’ospitalità,...i soprusi, le violenze, gli stupri! Realtà vissute da molti italiani in anni di guerra non voluta, mai amata, sempre odiata. Ne viene fuori un ritratto di donna forte, sicura, energica, previdente, amorosa...che finisce in lagrime di dolore, frustrazioni, soprusi per lei e per sua figlia; i personaggi sono descritti con abilità e precisione: se chiudete gli occhi potete immaginare Rosetta, Michele, la ciociara e tutti gli altri come se li aveste davanti. Una lettura piacevole pur nella tristezza del ricordo di quegli anni terribili

A beautifully written and powerful book. An emotional read.

Tout le monde a à l'esprit le merveilleux film de Vittorio de Sica avec l'éblouissante Sophia Loren.Le livre mérite dont il est tiré mérite beaucoup mieux que l'oubli dans lequel il est tombé, et avec lui, l'ensemble de l'œuvre de Moravia.Il traite d'un épisode peu glorieux de l'avancée, pourtant héroïque, de l'armée des Français Libres en Italie, et de la tragédie vécue par deux pauvres femmes, une mère et sa fille, victimes de héros transformés en barbares.