Cesare Pavese and America; life, love, and literature

Reference & Research Book News, May, 2009

Cesare Pavese and America; life, love, and literature.

Smith, Lawrence G.

U. of Massachusetts Press

2008

303 pages

$39.95

Hardcover

PQ4835

Best known for The Moon and the Bonfires, Pavese (1908-50) was an Italian novelist, poet, literary critic, translator, and anti- fascist, who committed suicide at age 41. Blending biography and literary analysis in what is presented as the first full-length study of him in many years, an independent scholar who formerly taught at Harvard discusses how Pavese's immersion in American literature (notably Walt Whitman) and his love affairs shaped his ambivalent relationship with America. Photos feature Pavese, his family, lovers (including American movie actress Constance Dowling), and Piedmont-area haunts.

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