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Diario minimo by Umberto Eco

Review by: Giovanni Cecchetti
Books Abroad, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Spring, 1964), p. 182
Published by: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma
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182 BOOKS ABROAD
ries, impressions, and thoughts concerning
people and places of Europe. He refers to
twentieth century writers such as Papini,
Tozzi, Claudel, Gide, etc. He portrays fre-
quently his mood of melancholy, "il peso della
giornata," and enjoys studying himself after
the fashion of a Montaigne. Humorous quips
enliven the narration, however, e.g., the story
of the ambasciatore who became known as an
ambrasatore.The author writes also poetic de-
scriptions of nature ("La campagna e un
amore"), critical remarks about art, colorful
realistic passages, philosophical beliefs (the
lack of freedom in this life) . Particularly strik-
ing are his descriptions of the old Spanish
towns with their cathedrals, tombs, and sym-
bolism. His aim in respect to his readers is to
"abolire la loro solitudine." He accomplishes
this by an easy, flowing style and a wealth of
interesting material.
Patricia M. Gathercole
Roano\e College
* Lullina Terni. / contrattempi sentimentali.
Torino. Einaudi. 1963. 123 pages. 1,000 1.
This is Lullina Term's first published work
and, if it is at all possible to accept it as indica-
tive of her maturity and depth, I daresay it
augurs well for Italian fiction. Call the short
novella a modern version of Les liaisons dan-
gereuses or, if you will, a study of the selfish-
ness, eccentricity and weaknesses of its three
protagonists: an old professor, who is dying
of cancer, his spoiled daughter Marina (a sen-
sual creature avid of life, greedy and yet not
wholly unattractive despite her flaws) and the
attending physician, Domenico, a young, inex-
perienced, and weak man. Soon after being
called to the professor's bedside, Domenico
consents to become Marina's lover, even stay-
ing with her every night, though the thought
of being so close to his patient's room is suffi-
cient to make him uncomfortable. Once the
professor dies, the couple take up residence in
the apartment, and are officially married. They
are, however, doomed to lead an unhappy life
together as Domenico has many misgivings
about the cruel treatment endured by the pro-
fessor in his last few days of suffering. But Ma-
rina is no happier than her husband, whom she
finds too weak and too willing to satisfy every
whim of hers: and for precisely such a reason
she begins planning a legal annulment or sepa-
ration. What emerges out of the novella is an
astute study of several people, none of whom
has succeeded in achieving any sort of tranquil,
let alone happy, existence. Moreover, neither
of the two (who really dominate the greater
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part of the story) is capable of measuring or
understanding the extent of his own feelings,
attitudes, or commitments either toward the
self or toward the other. At the end of the tale,
we find Marina involved in an extramarital
affair with a former lover, while her husband
accepts the love freely offered to him by a for-
mer friend of his wife.
Lullina Terni writes simply and lucidly
about the agonies and anguish of married life:
her book is a convincing analysis of the shoddi-
ness of middle-class life, with its pretentious-
ness and falseness.
Sergio Pacifici
City College of New Yor\
^ Umberto Eco. Diario minimo. Milano.
Mondadori. 1963. 173 pages. 700 1.
Umberto Eco is not only the author or impor-
tant philosophical works, but also the tireless
commentator on the ideas and mores of our
time. The book at hand contains a selection of
the comments he has published periodically in
some Italian literary journals under the title
of Diario minimo. Armed with an incredible
amount of readings, Eco watches the sudden
enthusiasm for strange notions and proposi-
tions characterizing our era, and satirizes them.
His satire, however, does not derive from out-
right rejection, but rather from an effort to un-
derstand what he sees within the framework of
the varied manifestations of a society in search
for something to cling to. He achieves it
through paradoxical analogies and by keep-
ing his prose on the level of a constant, biting
humor. Such pieces as the parody of Lolita,
the attempt to interpret / promessi sposi as no
less than the continuation of Joyce's Finnegans
Wa\e, "Lo striptease e la cavallinita"- and the
frequent arrows shot at the uncontrolled and
irresponsible statements of some contemporary
journalistic writers- make many of these
pages memorable. Umberto Eco is still a young
man, but he has an extremely wide cultural
range, a sharp critical eye, and a seemingly in-
exhaustible reservoir of witty observations.
Giovanni Cecchetti
Tulane University
^ Gaspare Giudice. Luigi Pirandello. To-
rino. U.T.E.T. 1963. viii + 566 pages +
20 plates. 4,500 1.
Interest in the life and works of Luigi Piran-
dello continues unabated in Italy. Several items,
recently published, have already been added to
the critical bibliography of the great Sicilian
playwright and storyteller, and Gaspare Giu-
dice's work is, of these, both an important and