“The brother-in-law thought sadly about the life that awaited him: his dying wife, his children, his work.”
Collection of short stories that date back to the dawn of Cassola’s literary production, when in his early twenties he began to give shape to the soul of the writer that dwelt within him.
Published in some literary magazines between 1937 and 1942, they were revived in complete form in 1942, only to be revived in 1962 with the addition of an unpublished story in the preface, entitled “the film of the impossible”. This last novelty in the updated 1962 edition represents in our opinion the most beautiful and light-filled text of the entire book, where the youthful freshness of the author and a maturation of thoughts ahead of their time find a healthy balance. Our only regret is not having read it at school age, which is why we recommend teachers to have their students read it, both to appreciate its clean style and to have a first approach to the world of literature as regards prose and poetry, and the way they interact.
The stories told are short, some even very short of just one page, perhaps better defined as shared reflections on certain moods, or on certain family life situations, without having the structure of a well-defined story behind them.
In various stories, upon careful reading, one can trace some of Cassola’s autobiographical themes/dynamics, typical of the young age of many authors, in which he tells what he knows best or with whom he has a daily relationship, in other words: tell what you see. Thus the return of some characters in various stories also becomes easily explainable.
The original cover of the book, with a winter sea landscape, is perhaps the clearest summary of its content. A poetic soul of melancholy that walks on the certainty of the cold sand, facing the uncertainty of the boundless sea.
We are not among those who define Cassola as an author pervaded by a pessimistic ideology, rather he dedicates himself only to telling life as it comes, in its normality without any attempt to sugarcoat the pill.
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Carlo Cassola, La visita, Einaudi, Torino, 1962