Memorial

A modest little volume of only 122 pages, "Memorial" is just what its title suggests--a memorial to a simple peasant woman, the mother of the narrator. The narration is so moving and personal that it obviously has biographical roots. The life of northern Italian peasants in the mid-20th century is vividly portrayed, as is the life of the woman who, at the start of the book, has already died. As her deathly-ill husband struggles through his pain to complete an altar in her memory, the narrator comes to the realization that "only he who maintains the existence of death present before him proceeds in truth." With his words, the author has created his own memorial to his mother, just as his father struggled to memorialize her with the altar he creates out of copper and wood. The book may be difficult to get into because of its poetic and non-linear style, but the attentive reader who masters the rhythm of the narrative will be rewarded with a reading experience that will long give pleasure in remembrance.