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Rating: "Heart of Stone" by Sebastiano Vassalli, released in 1996, is not a novel: it lacks a unique protagonist who traverses all the pages from beginning to end; nor is it a collection of short stories, as the characters in the book are always the same, more or less, from beginning to end. So, what is it, then?
I thought about it, and the answer that came to mind is: "a choral novel," similar, mutatis mutandis, to the "Malavoglia" by that master of Verismo, Giovanni Verga. Here, however, the characters are not common folk, but bourgeois people living in a not better specified "city facing the mountains" (the Novara inhabited by the writer who authored the book?)
The author tells us that the protagonist of the story is a large house on the city's ramparts, but this is just a ploy to actually talk about the people who live there; people who intertwine their lives with the history and, above all, with the politics of the time. Indeed, one could say that the real protagonist of the book is precisely this force that governs the people and makes them engage in debates, strikes, and revolutions. In particular, it is socialism that drives the characters' actions, with its anxiety to improve the people's conditions: an anxiety that becomes almost oppressive, forcing some characters to emigrate to America, "where the poor are not obliged to improve their condition" (cit.)
Not being particularly fond of choral novels, I found it difficult to follow the various plots that weave the book, and therefore I couldn't enjoy it much: however, Vassalli's writing is always engaging, and even when you get distracted, it finds a way to draw you back to it.
Recommended book, in conclusion, perhaps only to the loyal enthusiasts of the Ligurian writer.
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