A Tent in This World

Renowned translator Weaver's long-ignored novella, first published in 1950 in the literary journal Botteghe Oscure, blends reminiscence with regret as it offers a closeup of a sensitive young man's growing pains during the years following WWII. Bill returns to Naples in 1947 to visit Luigi, a friend from his days as an ambulance driver in and around the city during the war. He meets several intriguing characters through Luigi: Rina, who flirts with Bill, with Luigi and with insanity; Cesare, Luigi's younger brother, living recklessly on the island of Capri; and the impetuous and irascible Signora Fabbri, Luigi's mother, who rules her household with an excess of concern. Several pleasant but unconnected events--nostalgic sightseeing jaunts, a trip to Capri, a harmless dalliance with Rina--amuse Bill, but ultimately it is the act of writing letters home that provokes in him the self-questioning necessary for personal change. Having outgrown his soldier's uniform, Bill no longer recognizes his identity or his life's purpose. He leaves Naples at the story's end altered both from within and from without--a response to historical progress and to his inevitable abandonment of youthful aimlessness. Astute observations about the nature of language, tourism, alienation and culture lace the novel and offer a rough and early map of the approach taken by one of the great American translators of 20th-century Italian novelists. Charming and intelligent, Weaver's unrevised novella comes to our shores as a late but very welcome guest. (Apr.)