Beppe Fenoglio
La Paga Del Sabato

THE REVIEW

I'll say right away that this is one of the most beautiful books I've read this year.
It was published six years after Fenoglio's premature death from bronchial cancer in 1963, but it belongs to the author's early works.

Negatively judged in 1950 by Elio Vittorini (who curated the series "I Gettoni" for L'Einaudi), but appreciated by Calvino, it was discarded in favor of "I Ventitré Giorni Della Città Di Alba". 
What Vittorini did not like were some strong scenes between Ettore, the protagonist, and his girlfriend Vanda, as well as the neorealistic setting.
Probably Vittorini wanted, as he attempted to do with his forward-looking anthology "Americana", to rejuvenate Italian literature and thus was not interested in texts with veristic flavors.
This might be my interpretation.
The fact remains that beyond his reasons, it is precisely those two characteristics that he was negatively struck by that elevate "La Paga Del Sabato" above the average.
Ettore is a character who is young yet irascible and arrogant, who moves in an environment perfectly reproduced in all its wild atmosphere.
Fenoglio's Langhe are like Conrad's sea, a place where unresolved characters hide and struggle driven by an inner will, which has something mysterious.
An environment carved from the passions of these characters, that never existed and comes to life only in Fenoglio's words. An environment absorbed by literary festivals, amorphous cellars designed by star architects, and disgustingly au courant enology.

The difference between "La Paga Del Sabato" and any neorealistic text is quite evident: the environment is just a backdrop and does not influence Ettore's mentality. Not even, as is often emphasized, does it overly influence the fact that he is a former partisan.
Even in this text, Fenoglio proves himself anomalous, immediately distancing himself from post-war and partisan nostalgia-driven narratives. There is no nostalgia in this book, only a sense of bitterness deposited at the bottom of people.
All these aspects, the Piedmontese Langhe, and the maladjustment of veterans, are just accessories. Fenoglio does not intend to denounce anything.
Neither a certain (seen with today's eyes) social narrow-mindedness nor the inner invalidity of those who went through war. Nothing.

Fenoglio's writing has been defined as "Romanesque", wow, "Romanesque". Like the austere and simple churches adorned with bas-reliefs.
Rough and virile, but in a very different way from Hemingway's characters, Ettore spends his days arguing with his mother because he has no job.
Until one day, determined to change his situation but not to conform with other people, he starts working for Bianco, who is a smuggler.

In some respects, Fenoglio shares the same fate as Soviet writer Isaak Babel: too sincere and endowed with a lyricism distant from politicized criticism, he would gain enthusiastic fame too late.

The Langhe. Yes. What do you see when you think of the Langhe? Think carefully. The hills, the greenery, the giant patchwork of fields and vineyards?