The Heron

The Novel of Ferrara: The Heron by Giorgio Bassani

The Novel of Fera is a collection of six books in which the narrator looks back on Jewish life in Ferrara before and during WWII. This book, the fifth, differs from the previous four in that it is recounted in the first person by a named narrator, and is set outside Ferrara. The middle-aged Edgardo Limentani is a disappointed man. His wife, a Catholic peasant whom he feels is beneath him, is having an affair with her accountant. She is the nominal owner of Limentani's properties, an arrangement put in place at the outbreak of WWII. Limentani has a young daughter, but he is alienated from her and isn't sure whether he really is her father.

The story takes place over one day. Limentani has show more arranged a day's duck shooting in a swamp outside Ferrara, near a village where his cousin, once his closest friend, lives. He hasn't seen his cousin since before the war. The day starts badly, with Limentani being delayed by a conversation with his wife. As the day goes on, his own lethargy and apathy delay him further. He focuses on his misery, his bodily functions, and his disgust for himself, his surroundings and the people he meets. When he eventually meets his guide, hours late, and the shooting begins, the death of a heron brings him a revelation.

The Heron was so very depressing. Limentani is an unsympathetic character, but Bassani makes his misery real and the clumsy translation can't quite dull the intensity. I so wish that a better writer had translated this book. show less

Such a beautiful book. So haunting. Bassani's story of an Italian Jew, a member of Ferrara's aristocracy, who survived the war and the persecutions, going on a hunt for waterfowl in the marshlands and finding himself spiritually lost, questioning the values of the world around him and seeing himself in the helpless agony of a wounded bird, will stay with you long after you have closed the cover. The image of the marshland, the hunt, of Edgardo's thoughts will find their way into your mind at the most unexpected moments.

This was the last of Bassani's Ferrara novel sequence to be published in Jamie McKendrick's new translation for Penguin. This one is a short character study, telling the story of a day in the life of a Jewish minor aristocrat in 1947.

As in most of the other novels in the series, this one is largely about the lingering after effects of Fascism, but it is also about the death of a lifestyle, rather like [b:The Leopard|625094|The Leopard|Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1376481466s/625094.jpg|1132275].

la mia edizione ha 209 pagine!

De man gaat uit jagen, maar eigenlijk gaat het niet om de jacht maar om de man zelf. Zijn leven is voor hemzelf eigenlijk zinloos, en dat klinkt duidelijk in het verhaal door. Jammer dat de context af en toe wat wazig is. Maar dat hoort ook een beetje bij het verhaal dat geen echt einde kent.

Joyce had Dublin Svevo Triëst; het leven en werk van de melancholieke traditionalist Giorgio Bassani is sterk verbonden met de Noord-Italiaanse stad Ferrara, waar hij tot 1943 woonde. Alle verhalen van zijn debuutbundel Binnen de muren (1956) spelen zich er af – bijvoorbeeld dat van de uit het kamp teruggekeerde jood die vergeefs probeert om zijn naam van de gedenkplaat aan de synagoge af te krijgen – maar ook de door Vittorio de Sica verfilmde roman De tuin van de Finzi-Contini’s (1962). Hierin vertelt een joodse jongen over de paradijselijke tijd die hij doorbracht op het landgoed van een oude professor nadat het gewone leven voor hem en zijn vrienden onmogelijk is geworden door de rassenwetten van de fascisten. De trauma’s show more van de jodenvervolging, waaraan Bassani zelf ontsnapte door in het verzet te gaan, spelen ook een rol in zijn laatste roman De reiger (1968), over een advocaat en grootgrondbezitter die tijdens een eendenjacht besluit om een einde aan zijn leven te maken. Bassani’s verzamelde werk is uitgegeven in de mooie band Het verhaal van Ferrara. show less

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