Book review of Her side of the story by Alba de Cespedes (trans Jill Foulsron)

  Name of Book: Her side of the story 

Author: Alba de Cespedes ( trans Jill Foulston) 

ISBN: 9781662601439

Publisher: Astra House 

Type of book: Italy, 1930s-1946, WWII, daily life, love, coming of age, marriage, expectations, translations, women, broken dreams  

Year it was published: 2023 (1959) 

Summary:

From the author of Forbidden Notebook, Alba de Céspedes, a richly told novel she called “the story of a great love and of a crime.”

As she looks back on her life, Alessandra Corteggiani recalls her youth during the rise of fascism in Italy, the resistance, and the fall of Mussolini, the lives of the women in her family and her working-class neighborhood, rigorously committed to telling “her side of the story.”

Alessandra witnesses her mother, an aspiring concert pianist, suffer from the inability to escape her oppressive marriage. Later, she is sent away to live with her father's relatives in the country, in the hope she’ll finally learn to submit herself to the patriarchal system and authority. But at the farm, Alessandra grows increasingly rebellious, conscious of the unjust treatment of generations of hardworking women in her family. When she refuses the marriage proposal from a neighboring farmer, she is sent back to Rome to tend to her ailing father.

In Rome, Alessandra meets Francesco, a charismatic anti-fascist professor, who ostensibly admires and supports her sense of independence and justice. But she soon comes to recognize that even as she respects Francesco and is keen to participate in his struggle to reclaim their country from fascism, this respect is unrequited, and that her own beloved husband is ensnared by patriarchal conventions when it comes to their relationship.

In these pages, De Céspedes delivers a breathtakingly accurate and timeless portrayal of the complexity of the female condition against the dramatic backdrop of WWII and the partisan uprising in Italy

Characters:

Main character is Alessandra, daughter of an Abruzzan man and a woman who has ancenstry of Austria. She is reflective, meditative and somehow there is a sense that she wants to break from tradition but cannot think of a path. Shadowing the novel is Alessandras mother who seeks love and is a talented pianist. Her choice will forever haunt Alessandra. There is also Alessandras husband Francesco who seems to either take her for granted or has no idea that Alessandra is deeply unhappy. Alessandra romanticized him a lot and doesn't see him as an ordinary man. 

Theme:

Love and marriage are complex topics 

Plot:

The story is in first person narrative from Alessandras point of view, and is divided into three major parts: the first covers Alessandras formative years, from time she is a little girl learning about the world and love and happiness to a dark tragedy. Second part is the time she lives with her paternal family in countryside, giving Alessandra a time to grow up and discover herself and truths. Third is major part where she comes back to the city and meets and marries Francesco as well as facing the all too real side of marriage and privatjons of WWII. Not a single page or word is boring, which is amazing for a 500 page book. Instead the reader just wants to keep on reading and getting lost in her world. 

Author Information:
(From goodreads) 

Alba de Céspedes y Bertini was a Cuban-Italian writer.

Ms. de Céspedes was the daughter of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada (a President of Cuba) and his Italian wife, Laura Bertini y Alessandri. Her grandfather was Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and a distant cousin was Perucho Figueredo. She was married to Francesco Bounous of the Italian foreign service

Ms. de Céspedes worked as a journalist in the 1930s for Piccolo, Epoca, and La Stampa. In 1935, she wrote her first novel, L’Anima Degli Altri. In 1935, she was jailed for her anti-fascist activities in Italy. Two of her novels were also banned (Nessuno Torna Indietro (1938) and La Fuga (1940)). In 1943, she was again imprisoned for her assistance with Radio Partigiana in Bari. After the war she went to live in Paris.

Opinion:

I am definitely at a loss to describe the beauty and complexity of the novel. I know I love it, I know I can relate to it somehow by being a girl and a woman. When I read summer sisters by Judy Blume, perhaps a former classic telling of complexity of female friendships, I felt left out because I never had experienced such close female friendships. This one, this one feels universal because there is something for every woman. A complex bond with mother? Yes. Meditations on love vs marriage as well as differences between them? Yes. Complex relationships? Yes. A world long gone? Yes. It is quite similar to Gone with the wind, but the character of Alessandra is not Scarlett O'Hara, but is instead an everyday woman/girl who was forced to grow up too early. I would highly recommend giving this novel a chance.   

This was given for review 

5 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)