Family and Borghesia by Natalia Ginzburg

Italian fiction

Original title – Famiglia was Family’s title 

Translator – Beryl Stockman

Source – Review copy

I was lucky to get sent a copy from Daunt Books of the latest reissue of books by Natalia Ginzburg. I have reviewed three of her other books. So these two short novellas are the latest of her books to be brought back out. Ginzburg won the Strega prize in her lifetime, and she was also a member of the Italian Parliament when she was younger. According to Saint Mathew, She also starred in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film The Gospel. She was considered one of the leading Anti-fascists of her time and was a member of the Italian communist party. These two stories show her ability to look inside the soul and heart of her characters.

The woman was called Ilaria Boschivo. She had been a widow for several years. She was thin and wrinkled with short, woolly grey hair and big blue eyes. She lived alone.

Her daughter and son-in-law lived in the flat next door, and her brother-in-law, Pietro Boschivo, in the flat above.

Pietro Boschivo was an antiques dealer and provided for them all. He was the brother of her late husband, Giovanni Boschivo, a theatrical impresario. A winding staircase separated his flat from hers. Her daughter and son-in-law, who were both eighteen, usually had their meals with her as they had no money and no desire to cook. The daughter was called Aurora and the son-in-law Aldo, his surname being Palermo. Ilaria and her old servant, Cettina, always did the cooking together.

The widow and her cat she does a lot for those in the house.

Family, the main story in this collection, follows a couple who were together until they tragically lost a child. Architect Carmine has moved on when he meets his ex-wife, his new wife, Ninetta. He had studied abroad after Ivana, and he had lost their child, so when they meet, Newton’s cradle-like effect starts on the two of them. What might have been in their lives without that one tragic event in their lives? Eventually, the old flames start hanging out with his ex, and Ninetta is initially ok, but then she changes as the two seem closer. That bond of a lost child is there as we see their past. Carmine had dragged himself up Ivana, a translator on the look for her next ob most of the time. It looks at the ebb and flow of relationships that might have been in people’s lives. Next is another tale looking character. This time, in Borghesia, we have a widow, Ilaria, who is given a kitten. Still, a series of misadventures see her having some similar cats in quick succession as she is living with her brother-in-law and his child. She is like a live-in housekeeper. She connects to the cats, but then as we see what happens to the cat, the events in the house are taking a darker turn.

There were a lot of people with cats and dogs in the vet’s waiting room. Several hours passed by. She spoke to a woman sitting near her, who had an enormous dog on a lead.
‘This is the first time I’ve been here,’ she said. ‘Yes, I can tell you’ve never had an animal before,’ said the woman. Ilaria was struck by this and wondered how the woman could tell.
Perhaps it was the fact that her cat was wrapped in a shawl.
Everyone else had theirs in suitable pagoda-shaped baskets, so convenient for travelling or for taking them to the vet.
That day, she felt as if she had truly penetrated the circle of pet owners and animal lovers, a very special group of people united by a tenuous and yet extremely close bond.

She becomes a pet lover.

I love her style of writing. It is clear and gets to the heart of her character. I was reminded that Jhumpa Lahiri is a fan, in fact, when I read both of her books since she has been living in Rome, and she had included Ginzburg in her ten great Italian stories collection. Both writers are great at human insight, but Ginzburg is also sparse in her writing, and I can see this has now gone into Lahiri’s books. In the first novella, Family captures those what-if moments in life but also regrets shared loss and lives as class and Italian life. Also, how we move on after an event like the death of the first child. How in the son he knows Carmine has not been happy, and maybe he wonders what the first child would have been like. The second tale is sometimes darker as we see cats come and go, but also how the cats in the family home affect all those around Ilaria. These tales look into the heart of families, those little everyday things that makeup life. Have you a favourite book by her?

Winston’s score—A: The aftermath of a breakup and the loss of a child are looked at. Why do the cats keep dying in this house?