Carlo Cassola
La ragazza di Bube

Val d'Elsa, 1946. Mara, a young 16-year-old girl who lives with her father, a fervent communist, her mother, and her little brother, meets Arturo Cappellini, known as Bube, a young partisan friend and companion of Mara's deceased stepbrother, Sante. The two begin to see each other, and their relationship evolves over the course of the story, becoming inseparable.

Written in a very fluent and accessible manner, the Author creates a neo-realist romance novel set against the backdrop of the post-World War II reality. One of the most successful points is certainly the maturation that Mara undergoes throughout the novel, transforming from a young, frivolous, and at times presumptuous girl into a more serious, self-aware, and, considering everything she has been through, lovable woman. Similarly, Bube changes his view on his past and reaches a sort of enlightenment, realizing that out of pride, he has always done the dirty work and paid the consequences every time.

Truly an excellent novel, but I find some dialogues between Mara and Bube to be too "passionate": they themselves admit to being "ignorant," and by using overly inspired or complicated terms, there's a risk of losing some of the realistic atmosphere. Furthermore, in the end, the events and occurrences are quite few, and Mara and Bube have been together for a relatively short time (indeed, Bube ends up in prison for killing a fascist marshal). Nonetheless, the easy writing that manages to keep it fresh, and the unfolding of events against a socio-political background that influences the course of events, make it a very enjoyable and comprehensive novel.