DISTRICT
I must admit that when I started reading this book I had high expectations and I was discouraged from the first pages that I was not particularly involved and encouraged to continue reading, going forward, however, I had to change his mind and gradually I learned to know and understand word word after the characters that populate this book, young adults are becoming common together. In the backdrop for their adventures, there is the district of Santa Croce in Florence, a familiar place, populated by friendly faces, and whose walls hold all the hopes of these young people, their dreams, their lives made of small pleasures, affections, simple pleasures and genuine and deep feelings.
Valerio is to tell the story but that it seemed almost disinterested and detached from what he says, at least in the first part of the book, he seems to have a strong personality indeed is often driven by events and rarely takes place, is a boy the same vain as his father called him in the course of the novel, turns out to be insincere and also involved in the relationship you have with Marisa, after he had left behind the adolescent infatuation had to Luciana, but also the custom has turned off and turning into a friendship. Valerio tramples on the feelings of Marisa and uses it merely to satisfy his own pleasure and never open up to him and reveal his true feelings, only the end of the book seems to be aware of its errors and its superficiality after it accrued due to war and the loss of his true love, Olga, had left him to follow her mother in Milan.
The true leader who can unite the group of friends is George, presented as a wise guy, mature, conscious of their actions and statements of position but also reality that surrounds him, he is always ready for dialogue and confrontation and tries to bring out the best from each of her companions. George is driven by strong values \u200b\u200band ideals, but Charles seems malicious hateful and violent, but soon as we understand its nature has been influenced and overshadowed by the loss of his father and the mother's life miserable, and so to escape his inner ghosts covers with fervor the ideals and motivations built on purpose to justify the war propaganda of the time. Shortly before leaving as a volunteer Valerie confides in how it is managed with time and with the advice of George to bend its ugly nature rid of his obsessions and this improvement is due to its very also to the clarification of his relationship with Marisa, who turns out to be the only woman who could ever love, after their reconciliation and betrothal Charles goes to war where he died a few days before the end of the war from wounds in battle, his last wish is to marry Marisa by proxy. Among the existence more troubled and unhappy is to Gino, whose cardinal sin is envy that owns and conditions for life, as he himself admits in a touching letter that he wrote to George, in my opinion this was the most exciting moment of the book, in fact Gino recounts his entire life trying to give a reason for his bad deeds, the first sister to envy the attention that recognize both parents, while he is treated with contempt and beaten by his father, then envy of his friends who living with the carefree years of their childhood and adolescence as he always closed in on itself and its victims suspicious and distrustful nature never fails to make a significant contribution to the company conscious of lacking in something than others to be imperfect and different, that diversity also evidence against his fellow high school, more diligent and full of envy him with all his heart and tries to bring even stooping to perform vile services for them, but in vain. Gino sees happiness by becoming the mistress of a rich young man who meets all her whims and paying by placing in a world of vice and wickedness, but he also becomes the object of his envy, Gino In fact, everything that has no lust, and his growing desire for money that the man refuses to accommodate him to the final collapse, in a rage kills her lover and takes possession of his property and his identity until he was arrested and imprisoned where he died a suicide. The other characters are figures of this secluded, whose psychological traits have just mentioned and which events are reported only in summary form.
At the end I can say that this novel gave me the emotions, even if I do not think to count among my favorite books, in fact in some places I found the style of Pratolini writing a bit 'too articulate and refined for my taste, it certainly can not be say that his language is simple and straightforward, even to understand the meaning of certain phrases I had to reread several times, as I said earlier it seemed that the matter proceed a bit 'fatigue, a feeling that is then attenuated go ahead with the pages say that I appreciated more the second half of the volume, however, recommend it to everyone, at least to get an idea of \u200b\u200bthe old life of the neighborhood, whose inhabitants felt a strong sense of belonging and attachment to place of origin and the people who lived there, a feeling that today has almost disappeared in favor of cosmopolitanism.
