Ruin is the story of Agostino Braida. His family rented
him to a farmer as a farm-hand when he was just a little boy. For seven gold
pieces and a pair of trousers each Christmas, Agostino works every day of the
week without taking a break.
Tobia is
the farmer who is hard for his little helper, but also for his wife and
children. His dream is to once own his own piece of land and not rent it from a
rich man in town. He wants to safe his family from the hardship he endured when
he was a child, but in the meantime the situation is almost unbearable.
Beppe Fenoglio describes the countryside around his hometown
Alba, and he knows how hard the situation for the farmers and the tenants was. He
knows about the heartbreaking poverty and the bitter struggle for the next
meal, because he witnessed it.
The farmers
work hard on their small properties, never growing enough to life from, but too
much to die.
There is no
escape from this poverty and almost no hope. The little hope Agostino has every
now and then is crushed
In the end
Agostino will be alone on the piece of land his parents owned and he will be
the last one standing, his whole family has succumbed to poverty and illness.
A lesser
writer would make this tale of misery into something sentimental or something
laughable.
But not Beppe Fenoglio.
His clear way of writing is without embellishments, but that makes it even more
powerful. The story of Agostino captures you and does not let go. You cannot
escape, just like Agostino cannot escape his fate.
I love the
writing of Beppe Fenoglio and for me
he is one of the greatest Italian writers of the 20th century. And Ruin is just another example of a
wonderful Italian classic.
Original
Italian Title: La Malora
Published in
1954
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