Agostino by Moravia caught me by surprise, to say the least. At first, I found myself enjoying the book on…
Since Alberto Moravia’s novel, Agostino, was a relatively short text in comparison to the past novels we have read, I thought it would be light reading. However, upon beginning the book I quickly came to realize the heaviness of the text and how packed it was in its lesser pages. Agostino’s relationship with his mother […]
This week I decided to read Agostino by Alberto Moravia. It was a short and easy read as advertised. Though this was definitely the easiest read so far, I have mixed feelings on this story. In short summary, this story follows 13 year old Agostino throughout his summer vacation at a beach in Italy. The young teen sees his widowed mother move on with a new man, all while exploring a brand new friend group that seems to revolve around violence and behaviours that stem from poverty. I would call this reading something along the lines of a coming-of-age story, as Agostino discovers sexuality and straddles the line between childhood and manhood.
While I honestly did quite enjoy this story, i found parts of it mildly disturbing. For a while the young 13 year old talks about his mother as a beautiful, inspiring and nurturing role model. For the first few pages he speaks about her with such innocence, and even refers to her as “mamma” plenty of times throughout the novel. However, when Agostino finds himself hanging out with the boys from Vespucci beach, he is introduced to the idea of sexuality, an idea that had never previously crossed his mind. With this new knowledge, he starts to view his mother as a subject of sexual desire. This quite honestly confused me at first. As disturbing as it sounds, I couldn’t tell if the author was trying to imply that the young boy genuinly found his mother sexually appealing, or was simply just using her as a general example to display the sexual awakening the Agostino had undergone. Regardless some of the wording and ways Agostino would describe his mothers body seemed inappropriate.
Another thing that I thought was interesting about this story, was Saro’s relationship with the group of young boys. From what I understood, he was a 50 year pedophile. Other than the hand holding incident that occurred on the boat, the author only alluded to other experiences the boys had had with him. I feel like that storyline was a bit incomplete and i would have liked to have known why he was hanging out with them in the first place, as well as what the other boys had experienced with Saro, and why they continued to hang around him knowing what he does.
My question to you: Did you find Agostino’s thoughts about his mother inappropriate? or do you think this is a normal thought process for a 13 year old to have when discovering sexual identity.
This week I decided to read Agostino by Alberto Moravia. It was a short and easy read as advertised. Though this was definitely the easiest read so far, I have mixed feelings on this story. In short summary, this story follows 13 year old Agostino throughout his summer vacation at a beach in Italy. The young teen sees his widowed mother move on with a new man, all while exploring a brand new friend group that seems to revolve around violence and behaviours that stem from poverty. I would call this reading something along the lines of a coming-of-age story, as Agostino discovers sexuality and straddles the line between childhood and manhood.
While I honestly did quite enjoy this story, i found parts of it mildly disturbing. For a while the young 13 year old talks about his mother as a beautiful, inspiring and nurturing role model. For the first few pages he speaks about her with such innocence, and even refers to her as “mamma” plenty of times throughout the novel. However, when Agostino finds himself hanging out with the boys from Vespucci beach, he is introduced to the idea of sexuality, an idea that had never previously crossed his mind. With this new knowledge, he starts to view his mother as a subject of sexual desire. This quite honestly confused me at first. As disturbing as it sounds, I couldn’t tell if the author was trying to imply that the young boy genuinly found his mother sexually appealing, or was simply just using her as a general example to display the sexual awakening the Agostino had undergone. Regardless some of the wording and ways Agostino would describe his mothers body seemed inappropriate.
Another thing that I thought was interesting about this story, was Saro’s relationship with the group of young boys. From what I understood, he was a 50 year pedophile. Other than the hand holding incident that occurred on the boat, the author only alluded to other experiences the boys had had with him. I feel like that storyline was a bit incomplete and i would have liked to have known why he was hanging out with them in the first place, as well as what the other boys had experienced with Saro, and why they continued to hang around him knowing what he does.
My question to you: Did you find Agostino’s thoughts about his mother inappropriate? or do you think this is a normal thought process for a 13 year old to have when discovering sexual identity.
I realise this may be a somewhat unconventional way to start a blog post that is meant to be part of the course content however, my reading of Agostino was made of up of confusion and feeling unnerved. Whenever I open a new book to read, whatever the reason may be, my first thought is […]
There is so much to think about after reading Agostino. Although I’m confused, not confused in the way where I don’t understand the story, because I definitely understand why this story was written, but confused in the way where I have never seen a book take on growing up, sexuality, etc.. the way this one did, and it leaves me with many thoughts.
I may have said The Shrouded Woman was my favourite so far, but this one now takes the lead. Out of all of the novels I have read so far this one felt the most modern in a way, in terms of writing style and overall content which made it very easy to understand and almost felt like something I picked up myself and started reading, not something for an assignment.
After the first few pages of this novel I could already catch on to what the themes of the story were. There are a couple things that I don’t know necessarily if they have the correct take on, but I’m not one to say they aren’t correct either. We’ve seen these concepts in Psychology courses, specifically the Freudian Oedipus Complex.
This coming of age novel takes ideas from inside of a young boys mind and sees how growing up and going through puberty may really feel. There is such an interesting relationship described with his mother. It is mother son love presented in a way that almost sexualizes it, which left me very confused but also curious to read on and see how Agostinos mind is perceiving this love for his mother. Although I can’t say that this is really how things are growing up, I think the book did a really good job at thoroughly explaining these sexual and jealous feelings that Agostino was feeling to help readers understand
There was one part where Agostino mentions this “hatred” for his mother that leaves his cheeks burning is what he lives for. Like he waits for this burning jealousy to be lit in him everyday, and as much as he despises it and wants to hate his mother so bad, he almost loves it. He hated his mothers love.
This is a sense of passionate jealousy that I have personally felt in past relationships, mostly very toxic ones, and it makes you wonder if this view he has on his mother is really is just a part of growing up or if it is something unhealthy.
Another part to mention was when Agostino described how when he is alone with his mother, “a strong woman, had no need of assistance in climbing back on the boat… apparently indulging in a feminine clumsiness…”, “the mother, a large and dignified woman… and her dignity, a boring habit that she now needed to replace with some awkward playfulness”. I thought these quotes displayed the reality behind a lot of romance, how women can almost make themselves feel small to appeal to the man they are in love with. This isn’t true in every romance but I thought it was interesting how the book touched on this, as I never seen be portrayed before.
There is so much to think about after reading Agostino. Although I’m confused, not confused in the way where I don’t understand the story, because I definitely understand why this story was written, but confused in the way where I have never seen a book take on growing up, sexuality, etc.. the way this one did, and it leaves me with many thoughts.
I may have said The Shrouded Woman was my favourite so far, but this one now takes the lead. Out of all of the novels I have read so far this one felt the most modern in a way, in terms of writing style and overall content which made it very easy to understand and almost felt like something I picked up myself and started reading, not something for an assignment.
After the first few pages of this novel I could already catch on to what the themes of the story were. There are a couple things that I don’t know necessarily if they have the correct take on, but I’m not one to say they aren’t correct either. We’ve seen these concepts in Psychology courses, specifically the Freudian Oedipus Complex.
This coming of age novel takes ideas from inside of a young boys mind and sees how growing up and going through puberty may really feel. There is such an interesting relationship described with his mother. It is mother son love presented in a way that almost sexualizes it, which left me very confused but also curious to read on and see how Agostinos mind is perceiving this love for his mother. Although I can’t say that this is really how things are growing up, I think the book did a really good job at thoroughly explaining these sexual and jealous feelings that Agostino was feeling to help readers understand
There was one part where Agostino mentions this “hatred” for his mother that leaves his cheeks burning is what he lives for. Like he waits for this burning jealousy to be lit in him everyday, and as much as he despises it and wants to hate his mother so bad, he almost loves it. He hated his mothers love.
This is a sense of passionate jealousy that I have personally felt in past relationships, mostly very toxic ones, and it makes you wonder if this view he has on his mother is really is just a part of growing up or if it is something unhealthy.
Another part to mention was when Agostino described how when he is alone with his mother, “a strong woman, had no need of assistance in climbing back on the boat… apparently indulging in a feminine clumsiness…”, “the mother, a large and dignified woman… and her dignity, a boring habit that she now needed to replace with some awkward playfulness”. I thought these quotes displayed the reality behind a lot of romance, how women can almost make themselves feel small to appeal to the man they are in love with. This isn’t true in every romance but I thought it was interesting how the book touched on this, as I never seen be portrayed before.
The first thing I want to recognize is something I said in a discussion group during my class last week. It was along the lines of whether these texts (that I’ve chosen) will all follow the theme of memories, past experience, or just past tense writing in general. This is the fourth book to do […]
The novel “Agostino” by the Italian novelist Alberto Moravia in 1943 describes the transition of the 13 year old boy Agostino from adolescence to adulthood. The book focuses on Agostino’s adolescent struggle on two aspects: sexuality and class division. When reading the book, I find the ambiguous relationship between Agostino and his mother is particularly […]
