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The Skin

by Curzio Malaparte, David Moore (Translator)

3.97 · Rating Details · 813 Ratings · 102 Reviews

Una terribile peste dilaga a Napoli dal giorno in cui, nell’ottobre del 1943, gli eserciti alleati vi sono entrati come liberatori: una peste che corrompe non il corpo ma l’anima, spingendo le donne a vendersi e gli uomini a calpestare il rispetto di sé. Trasformata in un inferno di abiezione, la città offre visioni di un osceno, straziante orrore: la ragazza che in un tug ...more

Paperback, 344 pages

Published December 31st 1988 by Marlboro Press (first published 1949)

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Community Reviews

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May 18, 2015 Steve added it · review of another edition

Shelves: italian, world-war-2

Curzio Malaparte (1898-1957)

To win a war - everyone can do that, but not everyone is capable of losing one. - Curzio Malaparte

Curzio Malaparte, born Kurt Suckert to a German father and Italian mother, was a journalist and novelist who was a member of the Italian fascist party and took part in Mussolini's march on Rome in 1922. I don't know why he was initially a fascist, but he was too much of a free thinker to be one for long. He was kicked out of the party for his free thinking (and for lamb ...more

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Mar 07, 2016 Violet wells rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

Probably this gets the award for the most cynical novel I’ve ever read. Malaparte is a difficult chap to warm to. He’s racist, homophobic and was a fascist in the early days of Mussolini’s rise to power. Hitler blamed communism on the Jews; Malaparte blames it on homosexuals. What saves him, as an author, is his tremendous wit, his hugely impressive erudition and his ability to write so damn well.

The first interesting aspect of this book is that it perhaps shows how fascism in Italy was of a di Probably this gets the award for the most cynical novel I’ve ever read. Malaparte is a difficult chap to warm to. He’s racist, homophobic and was a fascist in the early days of Mussolini’s rise to power. Hitler blamed communism on the Jews; Malaparte blames it on homosexuals. What saves him, as an author, is his tremendous wit, his hugely impressive erudition and his ability to write so damn well.

The first interesting aspect of this book is that it perhaps shows how fascism in Italy was of a different hue to fascism in Germany. In Germany you feel fascism was largely the extorting opportunism of the disenfranchised lower middle class and intellect was something it always sought to purge; in Italy fascism began its life as an aesthetic and thus had more backing from the intelligentsia. Malaparte is like the personification of the deep embittering disillusionment that arrived when fascism showed itself to be little more than opportunistic thuggery. He’s a man who has been humiliated by his own beliefs. Which is why he is able to write so well about the humiliation of the Italian people when they know the ambivalence of being simultaneously defeated and liberated by the Allies. There are shades of Iraq here – a populace bewildered by the conundrum of liberated or defeated and humiliated.

The book begins in Naples in 1944. The city has just been liberated but resembles some kind of dystopian nightmare in its moral depravity and surreal breakdown of order. You’re never quite sure with Malaparte to what extent he’s exaggerating. He certainly isn’t a reliable reporter. He narrates one scene where American soldiers are paying money to see a Neapolitan virgin. She is a twelve year old girl lying spreadeagled on a mattress in a hovel. Narrates another where an American commander always serves his guests the ubiquitous spam accompanied by an exotic fish from the Naples aquarium because, due to German mines, fishing is banned in the bay of Naples. At the banquet Malaparte attends the served fish in question looks exactly like a girl child. Another scene where a man’s hand is blown off by a mine but no one can find the hand. Afterwards when everyone is eating stew at a field camp Malaparte looks distressed but remains silent. When asked what is wrong he informs everyone the man’s hand was in his stew and he ate it because he didn’t want to put a downer on the convivial mood at the dinner table. And this is what Malaparte does so well – highlights the horrors of war through a filter of macabre psychedelia. His journey through the aftermath of the war is like a relentless acid trip.

Should also be said that there are as many laugh out loud moments in this book as any I’ve read this year. Shades of Nabokov in his black humour. I especially enjoyed the banter between the sardonic and cynical Malaparte and the wet-behind-the-ears idealism and gullibility of his American colleagues. There’s also an absolutely brilliant description of Vesuvius erupting. Not an easy read but decidedly brilliant and original none the less.
...more

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Oct 16, 2015 Mala rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Mala by: Liam Howley

Shelves: metafiction, war-literature

"It is a shameful thing to win a war."

I kept thinking of Iraq throughout this read – the whole idea of *liberating* a country, a people—of the *conquerors* and the *conquered*.
Malaparte's relentlessly sardonic & highly original narrative pits the European sensibility versus the American one & takes it to a point where Henry James' polite prose dared not venture.Tragic yet comic, surreal yet real, cynical yet idealistic – Malaparte performs the tightrope act with aplomb. Not for everyone "It is a shameful thing to win a war."

I kept thinking of Iraq throughout this read – the whole idea of *liberating* a country, a people—of the *conquerors* and the *conquered*.
Malaparte's relentlessly sardonic & highly original narrative pits the European sensibility versus the American one & takes it to a point where Henry James' polite prose dared not venture.Tragic yet comic, surreal yet real, cynical yet idealistic – Malaparte performs the tightrope act with aplomb. Not for everyone though – it's not meant to be liked; it's meant to be understood.
Highlights:
–A dinner party with a special kind of seafood as the centrepiece of the evening - it really is a metaphor for the whole book.
– A volcanic eruption.
–An inside look at the Famous Casa Malaparte, Curzio Malaparte's unusual residence & the Capri location of Godard's famous movie Contempt/Le Mépris.
Here are a few nuggets to convince you:
(view spoiler)[ "General Cork was a real gentleman—a real American gentleman, I mean. He had the naivety, the artlessness and the moral transparency that make American gentlemen so lovable and so humam He was not a cultivated man, he did not possess that humanistic culture which gives such a noble and poetic tone to the manners of European gentlemen, but he was a "man," he had that human quality which European men lack: he knew how to blush. He had a most refined sense of decorum, and a precise and virile awareness of his own limitations. Like all good Americans, he was convinced that America was the leading nation of the world, and that the Americans were the most civilized and the most honourable people on earth; and naturally he despised Europe. But he did not despise the conquered peoples merely because they were conquered peoples.
Once I had recited to him that verse from the Agamemnon of Aeschylus which runs, "If conquerors respect the temples and the Gods of the conquered, they shall be saved"; and he had looked at me for a moment in silence. Then he had asked me which Gods the Americans would have to respect in Europe if they were to be saved.
"Our hunger, our misery, and our humiliation," I had replied.
* * *
"When Naples was one of the most illustrious capitals in Europe, one of the greatest cities in the world, it contained a bit of everything. It contained a bit of London, a bit of Paris, a bit of Madrid, a bit of Vienna—it was a microcosm of Europe. Now that it is in its decline nothing is left in it but Naples. What do you expect to find in London, Paris, Vienna? You will find Naples. It is the fate of Europe to become Naples. If you stay in Europe for a bit you will become Neapolitans yourselves."
"Good Gosh!" exclaimed General Cork, turning pale.
"Europe is a bastard continent," said Colonel Brand.
"The thing I don't understand," said Colonel Eliot, "is what we have come to Europe to do. Did you really need our help to drive out the Germans? Why didn't you drive them out by yourselves?"
"Why should we put ourselves to so much trouble," I said, "when you ask nothing better than to come to Europe to fight on our behalf?"
"What? What?" cried all the guests in unison.
"And if you go on at this rate," I said, "you'll end up by becoming the mercenaries of Europe."
"Mercenaries are paid," said Mrs. Flat severely. "How will you pay us?"
"We shall offer you our women in payment," I answered.
They all laughed. Then they became silent, and looked at me with embarrassed expressions.
"You're a cynic," said Mrs. Flat, "an impudent cynic."
* * *
"Those dead men would have been nothing but putrid flesh had there not been among them someone who had sacrificed himself for the others in order to save the world, in order that all, innocent and guilty, victors and vanquished, who had survived those years of blood and sorrow should not have cause to feel ashamed of being men. Assuredly among those thousands and thousands of dead there lay the body of some Christ. What would have become of the world, and of us all, if among all those dead there had not been one Christ?(...) Even you know it isn't true that Christ saved the world once and for all. Christ died to teach us that every one of us can become Christ, that every man can save the world by his own sacrifice. Christ too would have died in vain if it were not possible for every man to become Christ and to save the world." (hide spoiler)]

And yes for a detailed review,read this.
...more

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Dec 09, 2014 Hanneke rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

'The Skin' must have been considered a very scandalous book in 1947 when it was published. Its tragicomic account of the invasion of Naples in 1943 must have shocked the people who were only just recovering from the horrors of war. I would imagine that they were scandalized by a lot of the distressing and often bewildering observations about their recent past. Malaparte's story is still shocking to read today, so I cannot even imagine what an impact it must have had just after the end of the war 'The Skin' must have been considered a very scandalous book in 1947 when it was published. Its tragicomic account of the invasion of Naples in 1943 must have shocked the people who were only just recovering from the horrors of war. I would imagine that they were scandalized by a lot of the distressing and often bewildering observations about their recent past. Malaparte's story is still shocking to read today, so I cannot even imagine what an impact it must have had just after the end of the war. It is only in recent years that you see books published that allow for some occasional comic remark in a WW-II setting.
The story of what happens at the invasion of Naples and the following years is extremely tragic and farcical as well. I feel that Malaparte's account shows us the true reality of the madness of war. There is an intriguing question throughout the book whether Naples was invaded or liberated by the American army. Malaparte even implies that he and the people of Naples feel sorry for the American conquerors and that they themselves have the preferable position of being conquered. As he puts it in the last sentence of the book: "It is a shameful thing to win a war."
His observations on the behaviour of his compatriots, as well as the American army and himself feel very realistic to me. Yet, there are some shocking stories that feel like scenes from a Jheronimus Bosch painting, as they are so dark and archaic that you have trouble taking in the real picture of what he is relating. This must be the real face of living through a war.
Curzio writes pure poetry for pages at a time. However cruel and even sadistic his observations often are, he does show alot of compassion for the people of Naples and their often grotesque behaviour. There are scenes in this book I will never forget. They are darkness visible. And then again, there are very hilarious scenes as well. Or very tender scenes, like the story of his friendship with the American army officer Jack or his recounting of the death of his beloved dog Febo. I feel that this book has a unique voice in WW-II literature.
So, I loved this book. And I also love that sardonic bastard, Curzio Malaparte. I love the title too. It is so appropriate in that we have only our own skin to live in.
I will read this book again. Highly recommended.
...more

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Apr 05, 2014 Lobstergirl rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Donald Rumsfeld

Shelves: nyrb, fiction

This brutal, beautifully written novel about the arrival of American troops in Naples in 1943, and their two-year occupation, is sad but also deeply, darkly comical. Malaparte, novelizing his real life war experiences, seemed to be sliding back and forth between an ironical tone, and an almost innocent sincerity. It's grotesque and at times surreal, but even when it's surreal it gives the appearance of being real, because that's war - so awful you can't really believe it.

My favorite chapter feat
This brutal, beautifully written novel about the arrival of American troops in Naples in 1943, and their two-year occupation, is sad but also deeply, darkly comical. Malaparte, novelizing his real life war experiences, seemed to be sliding back and forth between an ironical tone, and an almost innocent sincerity. It's grotesque and at times surreal, but even when it's surreal it gives the appearance of being real, because that's war - so awful you can't really believe it.

My favorite chapter featured a fancy dinner where the Allied commanders and guests are served Spam with corn (which horrifies Malaparte) and a giant fish from the Naples aquarium (fishing in the Gulf of Naples is forbidden because of mines) which, to everyone's astonishment and horror, looks like a young girl. (Apparently a manatee from the aquarium was served at a fancy dinner, according to Naples '44: A World War II Diary of Occupied Italy.)

Completely coincidentally, I happened to be reading the pianist Arthur Rubinstein's first memoir My Young Years as I was reading The Skin. There's a passage in it where Arthur goes to Naples as a tourist while in Italy for a concert prior to World War I. Malaparte's descriptions of erupting Mount Vesuvius, and the sex trade in Neapolitan children, were at the forefront of my mind as Rubinstein described riding a donkey to the top of Vesuvius with a conniving tour guide who encourages him to dismount, whereupon he sinks knee-deep into the soft volcanic ash and can't get out. His tour guide demands lira payment before he will throw a rope to Arthur. Then later as Arthur is taking another tour through the city in a horse driven carriage, his tour guide (a different one) points to a house and urges, "Look!" Thinking this was the house of someone famous, Arthur gets out for a closer look, whereupon a mother thrusts her very underage child at Arthur and forces his hand onto the child's small breasts.

I like to take note of these reading serendipities which often happen to me. ...more

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May 11, 2014 Liam Howley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Prefaced by a dedication to "the honorable American soldiers who were my comrades-in-arms... and who died in vain in the cause of European freedom," Curzio Malaparte imparts a warning before The Skin opens. It's a warning that should be heeded.

Naples has been liberated, or is it conquered? Amidst a city in the grips of "the plague", an abominable infestation of moral degeneration, which arrived alongside "the loveliest, the kindest, the most respectable army in the world... born like Venus, of t ...more

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Jan 10, 2011 Conor rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-fiction

I don't know quite how to describe this one, so I'm going to go with some main points.
a) It casts a new light on the lives of liberated peoples
b) It's probably the only really horrifiying war book I've ever read.
c) Somehow a+b=c: It makes other authors who talk about war, including Vonegut, seem like little children reminicing about how much fun war is.
That said, it's amazing. I had some trouble adjusting to the characters and the tone of the book, but as soon as I hit the fire-bombing of Hamb ...more

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Nov 30, 2011 Islam rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Islam by: Milan kundera

Shelves: كتب-للتحميل

موت الروح..قيامة الجسد، والليبرالية المتفسخة
ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ
خلّد بيكاسو بشاعة الحرب الأهلية الإسبانية فى لوحته "الجرنيكا" كدليل مستقبلى وخالد وتيمة موازية للحدث وقرائنه فى المستقبل، لكن لماذا نحس بالبشاعة يصاحبها رعبً مؤلم عندما نشاهد فيلما أو نقرأ كلمات؟، هل يرجع ذلك للثبات واللحظية التى اختزلتها الألوان والخطوط فى اللوحة خلافاً للحركية والنزف المتنامى للمشاعر المحرّضة للمكنون الوجدانى المترسب تاريخياً تحت سطح الحواس.
مقدمة الكتاب-بقلم الناقد السينمائى سمير فريد- لا تغنى عنها ق موت الروح..قيامة الجسد، والليبرالية المتفسخة
ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ
خلّد بيكاسو بشاعة الحرب الأهلية الإسبانية فى لوحته "الجرنيكا" كدليل مستقبلى وخالد وتيمة موازية للحدث وقرائنه فى المستقبل، لكن لماذا نحس بالبشاعة يصاحبها رعبً مؤلم عندما نشاهد فيلما أو نقرأ كلمات؟، هل يرجع ذلك للثبات واللحظية التى اختزلتها الألوان والخطوط فى اللوحة خلافاً للحركية والنزف المتنامى للمشاعر المحرّضة للمكنون الوجدانى المترسب تاريخياً تحت سطح الحواس.
مقدمة الكتاب-بقلم الناقد السينمائى سمير فريد- لا تغنى عنها قراءة الرواية ، أرى المقدمة كعمل تكميلى يفصح عن مخبوء ويحلل ويعرض العمل السينمائى المأخوذ عن الرواية من اخراج الرائعة"ليليان كافانى" والتى لم أشاهد لها غير فيلم واحد وهو الحارس الليلى وأتوق لمشاهدة الفيلم المأخوذ عن الرواية...البطل تمّت تسميته من قِبَل المؤلف على اسمه أيضاً "مالابارته" كشاهد عن التحوّل العظيم التى شهدته أوروبا خلال وبعد الحرب العالمية الثانيةمع التدّخل الأول لأمريكا فى سياسات القارة الأوروبية والسياسة العالمية.

ما لفتنى إلى قراءة الرواية أنى سمعت أن كونديرا كتب عنها فصلا كاملا فى كتابه الجديد"لقاء"، كنت أنتظر عملاً بالغ الضخامة بالغ الملحمية ولكنى لم أجد إلا عملا قصيراً يمتلىء بالوصف مع التجلّى المشهدى لثلاث مشاهد ظهرت كجزر منعزله على السطح السردى للرواية، مشهد الفتاه العزراء التى تقبع فى سريرها ليشاهدها الرائح والغادى بدولار وإثبات أن زمن البكارة قد ولّى وانتهى، المشهد الثانى عندما يموت جندى فى الجيش الأمريكى فى ايطاليا وقبل موته-صغيراً- ينظر أقرانه للإيطالى بطل الرواية بازدراء رغم معاملته الإنسانية للموت قبل أن يأتى ويرغمونه على إضحاك الميت- وهو إقتراحه فى الأساس- حتى يموت موتاً سعيدا قرير البال فيعمل على حكى النكات وتقليد أسلوب موسيلينى فى الحركة والكلام، المشهد الثالث عندما تموت فتاه إثر غارة جوية وقت قيام وليمة كبرى ليقفز المشهد تُقدّم كسمكة"عروس البحر" وتتم المعجزة.

الرواية نقد قاسٍ للفاشية والنازية وكل الأنظمة الشمولية فى تبنيها للأساليب القمعية والرضوخ فى النهاية- بجبن- للمستعمر والمحرّر على حد سواء.

إنها بداية لعصرٍ جديد
...................
التسليع وتشيىء الجسد والشذوذ الفيزيقى والأخلاقى هما شعارات المرحلة المخبوءة تحت شعارات برّاقة تنادى بالحرية ونبذ قيم العبيد، نخاسة مقنّعة تنهار تحت أقدامها القيم وتتفشّى الوحدة والعزلة وانتهاكات الإنسان لروحة فى مقابل اشباع شهوة الشراء أو قتل الجوع فى عالم تفاقمت فيه أعداد الجوعى...فيفا امريكا..فيفا أمريكا...بص شوف أمريكا بتعمل ايه

الرواية من ترجمة الشاعر الجميل صلاح عبد الصبور ...more

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Jun 11, 2015 Cphe rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: war, classic, dark-very-dark, historical, defies-a-genre, new-york-review-books-classics, 2015

I'm slowly making my way through the New York Review Books Classics list and this has been the most intense, compelling and thought provoking novel so far. It's cynical, tragic,and horrifying, a deeply uncomfortable and emotive read at times. Mesmerizing reading and an old cliche I know but it is difficult to put down once started. Others have already alluded to the synopsis of a war torn and devastated Naples. Nothing romantic about this novel, the reader isn't left with any illusions about the ...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Jim rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century-lit, fiction

Curzio Malaparte could only be described as a literary chameleon. The son of a German father and an Italian mother, he was born in Tuscany under the name of Kurt Erick Suckert. He changed his last name from Suckert to Malaparte, the opposite of Buonaparte -- from a good place -- the family name of Napoleon. He began as a Fascist who supported Mussolini, but as a result of his snarky attitudes, he served time in several Fascist jails, until he was released by Mussolini's heir. He was then assigne ...more

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Jan 13, 2011 Angelo Ricci added it · review of another edition

Un fastoso e barocco affresco. Un terribile viaggio dantesco nei più oscuri meandri dell'animo umano, reso ancor più ricettivo dall'esperienza belluina della guerra. Carne, sangue, merda e sperma. Questi sono gli elementi costitutivi della vita. Questi sono i punti cardinali dell'umanità. Inutile pensare il contrario.
Come un quadro di Bruegel, come un bassorilievo di una cattedrale romanica, raffigurante le mostruose fattezze dei demoni, La pelle è il definitivo baedeker per chi vuole orientars Un fastoso e barocco affresco. Un terribile viaggio dantesco nei più oscuri meandri dell'animo umano, reso ancor più ricettivo dall'esperienza belluina della guerra. Carne, sangue, merda e sperma. Questi sono gli elementi costitutivi della vita. Questi sono i punti cardinali dell'umanità. Inutile pensare il contrario.
Come un quadro di Bruegel, come un bassorilievo di una cattedrale romanica, raffigurante le mostruose fattezze dei demoni, La pelle è il definitivo baedeker per chi vuole orientarsi tra lati oscuri dell'orrore. Non possiamo (non dobbiamo) dare giudizi sulle persone che non conosciamo. Così come non possiamo (non dobbiamo) dare giudizi sugli autori dei quali non abbiamo frequentato le opere. Ero prevenuto su Malaparte. Ne scontavo la visione superficiale resa dalla memorialistica giornalistico-letteraria. Una sorta di gentleman un po' troppo blasè, perso in un autocompiacimento tardo dannunziano, da eroe maledetto o presunto tale; quasi un rappresentante di un decadentismo in salsa futurista. Ma, come ho detto, gli autori, come le persone, vanno conosciuti. E la lettura di Kaputt già mi aveva indicato la strada giusta per comprendere questo autore. La pelle è il definitivo completamento di un lungo viaggio attraverso la sofferenza, che ha avuto in Kaputt il suo prologo. Malaparte si mette in gioco senza nessun risparmio, quasi a trasfigurarsi nel portatore e catalizzatore del dolore di una nazione, di un continente, di una cultura. La sua è la totale e irreversibile consapevolezza che i limiti della sopportazione e della crudeltà sono stati ampiamente superati. E non c'è altro che la loro impietosa ostensione, intesa come manifestazione assoluta di tutte le bassezze della violenza, per arrivare alla redenzione. Solo partendo dalla propria carne martoriata, solo avendone la lucida consapevolezza, l'umanità potrà cercare la via del riscatto. Inserito nell'Indice dei libri proibiti dalla Congregazione del Santo Uffizio, La pelle è invece da considerarsi come una manifestazione di pietà per il dolore e la sofferenza dell'umanità. Una manifestazione compiuta sì con l'efferata descrizione della crudeltà ma, proprio per questo, salvificamente irrinunciabile.
http://nottedinebbiainpianura.blogspo... ...more

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Oct 11, 2012 Giovanna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: chi ama la letteratura italiana

Shelves: italia, classici-italiani

Napoli negli ultimi giorni dell'occupazione nazista vissuti in prima persona dall'autore. Una descrizione senza pari di questa città,dei suoi terribili problemi,dei suoi orrori,delle sue insanabili contraddizioni;ma anche della sua bellezza unica e disperata,del cuore e dell'anima dei suoi abitanti,dei tanti dolori e delle poche gioie che sono le due facce di un'unica medaglia,la vita.Un libro bellissimo,crudo e poetico insieme il cui titolo altrimenti insondabile si spiega in queste righe "Oggi ...more

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Nov 17, 2015 Ahmed rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: war, novella, translated

الكتاب 60 صفحة
25 مقدمة
و 35 الرواية نفسها
مختصرة بشكل غريب
قرأتها أثناء الإنتظار في عيادة الأسنان
لا بأس بها

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Jun 06, 2013 Jack Fingon rated it it was amazing

Although I am new to Goodreads, and have posted very little, I have read thousands of books, and once had to sell my book collection in reverse order of preference in order to eat. I consider that the most honest system of rating a book, because your next meal depends upon it.

I want to expand upon this review, but I am going to begin by saying no other book I can think of even approaches 4 stars let alone 5, in comparison to Curzio Malaparte's "The Skin".

I hate the word genius. I am deeply sus ...more

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Jun 13, 2015 Lucie Novak rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I almost forgot about this book when a fellow Goodreads reader Cphe mentioned it today.Thank you!
But now I recall it vividly, with all those sometimes shocking details. We all read it, in a Czech translation, when I was in medical school. It is not for the light-hearted and easily shocked. But of course, those things he is describing most likely all happened, and one should not be more shocked by literature than by history.
Having said that, we often are. That is what real art does to you- make y ...more

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Mar 04, 2012 mai ahmd rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: روايات

رواية قصيرة جدا تتحدث عن آثار الحروب وما تتركه من بشاعات على المجتمعات الإنسانية
مشاهد فنتازية مؤذية كصاعق كهربائي ينهال على رأسك

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Mar 24, 2015 James Murphy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The Skin is a novel whose narrative runs the course of the Italian campaign of World War II, from the Salerno landings to peace. It's not a war novel however, but rather a novel about morality. And it's a novel drenched in symbolism and satire which more than bites, it devours.

Early on Curzio Malaparte writes about Americans: "They do not know although they are in many respects the most Christian nation in the world, that without evil there can be no Christ." The last chapter is called "The Dead The Skin is a novel whose narrative runs the course of the Italian campaign of World War II, from the Salerno landings to peace. It's not a war novel however, but rather a novel about morality. And it's a novel drenched in symbolism and satire which more than bites, it devours.

Early on Curzio Malaparte writes about Americans: "They do not know although they are in many respects the most Christian nation in the world, that without evil there can be no Christ." The last chapter is called "The Dead God." The war is finally over as 2 of the novel's characters return to Naples where Mt Vesuvius--which had erupted earlier in a spectacular description seen as the wrath of God--is finally quiet. The lava beds resemble men entwined in death and the land around--indeed, all of Europe--is strewn with dead bodies. We're told that one of the dead is Christ. So are we to think that evil and war have exhausted themselves? Having traveled with Malaparte the violent length of Italy, we've come to expect that peace will be little better. Europe may be littered with dead but the dead are also leaving to sail back to America to resume their rich, happy, and free lives, away from the poor dead of Europe. The protagonist, named Curzio Malaparte, observes, "It is a shameful thing to win a war." Europe, Christ, all the victors and vanquished have been reduced to skins, all that's left of those run over by war. Encouraged by modern civilization to see their skins as more important than their souls, all the participants have fought to save them, to prevent their being, as in a couple of unforgettable setpieces, flown proudly from a flagpole representing both liberation and slavery and from also being dragged limply behind toward the communal grave we'll all share.

You might be thinking the novel's a vision of hell. I think so, and one can also think of the character Curzio Malaparte--we're told it's a pseudonym chosen because it's the opposite of Bonaparte--as a kind of Virgil who leads several American liberators through the Italian campaign. But Italy is just a corner of hell. All of Europe is a conflagration of brutality which settles uneasily into a plague of peace and occupation. Shame, degradation, and sorrow are as hellish as violence. Malaparte savagely skewers the sacred sense of what it means to be the American liberators of Italy. Naples is the first city so honored by a liberation which also becomes a misery consuming bodies and souls, a moral plague where women are corrupted by prostitution, children corrupted by the material largesse doled out by the liberators, and men corrupted by abjection.

I think The Skin one of the finest novels I've read in several months. While it occupies some of the same satiric and moral ground as Heller's Catch-22, it also shares some of the brilliance. ...more

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Mar 14, 2014 Linh rated it liked it

Thật khó nói về cuốn sách này. Nó có thể là kiệt tác, nhưng đọc nó thật mệt, quá nhiều chết chóc và xác người, thịt người..., chưa kể thái độ luôn khóc lóc gần với khổ dâm của nhân vật kể chuyện. Có nhiều cái nhìn rất định kiến, thậm chí là phân biệt chủng tộc và với người đồng tính quá rõ rệt (nhưng 1 phần có thể là do người dịch?). Cuốn sách có nhiều hình ảnh ám ảnh như trong những bộ phim siêu thực, và ranh giới giữa hiện thực với ảo giác, hiện thực và siêu thực, ghi chép và tiểu thuyết, thực ...more

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Mar 02, 2012 رباب كساب rated it it was ok

صفحات من الألم الحقيقي رصد لمعنى الذل بعد الهزيمة قال عنه المؤلف هناك فارق عميق بين أن تقاتل لكي لا تموت وأن تقاتل لكي تعيش
بعد أن كان القتال عزة وكرامة لأجل الحفاظ على وطن بات قتال من أجل أن تستمر في الحياة بأي طريقة كانت
عنوان الرواية أكثر من رائع فهو بديل لكلمة إحساس فمن يمتلك الجلد هو القادر على امتلاك مراكز إحساسه هو بني آدم بمعنى أصح
بقى أن أقول أن سردها المرسل الانتقالات بين المشاهد في سرعة أشبه بعين كاميرا لا عين روائية ، سرد صادم للحقائق للحالة المذرية التي كانت فيها نابولي بعد الحرب خال ...more

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Oct 14, 2014 Tuck rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: oh-loyd-i-wanna-be-hearkbroken, noir, europa, wwii, nyrb

brutal tales of naples and italy and wwii in general, along with the tales of italian fascim, imperialism, axis courting, ally welcoming. the bitingness satire and irony you will find, with just horrific stories of war and aftermath. sad to say, one could substitute many other cities and countries for naples, usa, italy, germany, with say....usa baghdad iran or usa kabul afghanistan or usa atalanta confederacy or usa black kettle sand hills or usa benghazi lybia or

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Mar 03, 2010 Radwa rated it liked it

قرأت الرواية بالصدفة بعدما سمعت عن الفيلم الذى أخرجته المخرجة ليليانا كافانى عن هذه الرواية فى صورة ساتيركون عن الفترة التى تلت سقوط إيطاليا و ألمانيا فى الحرب العالمية الثانية.
هى رواية قصيرة فى حدود السبعين صفحة إن لم يكن أقل و تمت ترجمتها للعربية - و هى مفاجأة- على يد الشاعر صلاح عبد الصبور الذى لم يكن فى يوم من الأيام مترجما و لم يترجم سوى تلك الرواية فقط.
الرواية جيدة و أتمنى أن أرى الفيلم المأخوذ عنها.

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Oct 09, 2015 Amr Tawwab rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: novel

مرّ وقتٌ طويلٌ مذ أن طافت بروحي مما قرأت.. قبسٌ من تلك الأحاسيس المشتعلة من تلك الجوارح المعذبة بداخلي .. كآدميٍ كُتِبت علي خواصه البشرية .. كثيرٌ من سوء و شر ذكريات أجداده الآدميين

والله إنّي لأحسب المار بها علي أرفف الكتب و ثنايا الحجرات .. إلّا و يظن بتلك الوريقات القليلة ما يمكن أن يجوب بكل عقلٍ سطحيّ عمّا يمرّ بلامبالاة أمام أعين صاحبه
لكنّها لا تُنعَتُ إلّا بالروعة .. و لا تنتسبُ إلّا للعظيم مما أتت به القريحة الإنسانية
فهي نفثة من أنفاس النور الأدبي الفريد .. الذي لا نجده بين جنبات كُتبٍ تت مرّ وقتٌ طويلٌ مذ أن طافت بروحي مما قرأت.. قبسٌ من تلك الأحاسيس المشتعلة من تلك الجوارح المعذبة بداخلي .. كآدميٍ كُتِبت علي خواصه البشرية .. كثيرٌ من سوء و شر ذكريات أجداده الآدميين

والله إنّي لأحسب المار بها علي أرفف الكتب و ثنايا الحجرات .. إلّا و يظن بتلك الوريقات القليلة ما يمكن أن يجوب بكل عقلٍ سطحيّ عمّا يمرّ بلامبالاة أمام أعين صاحبه
لكنّها لا تُنعَتُ إلّا بالروعة .. و لا تنتسبُ إلّا للعظيم مما أتت به القريحة الإنسانية
فهي نفثة من أنفاس النور الأدبي الفريد .. الذي لا نجده بين جنبات كُتبٍ تتخطي صفحاتها المئات

علي قِصرِها .. فهي حارّةٌ حدّ الجنون .. قاسيةٌ حد البكاء .. صريحةٌ حدّ الصمت و الصدمة
يصف فيها الضابط الإيطالي مالابرته حالَ نابولي في أعقاب الحرب العالمية الثانية و وطء جيوش الحلفاء أراضيها باعتبارهم جيش التحرير المجيد الذي قدِّر له مهمة تحرير نابولي و سواها من المدن الأوروبية من النازيين

ذلك الجيش المجيد .. الذي .. لا يختلف عن أي غازٍ آخر لا أملَ له سوى إذلال أهل ما يجتازون من الأرض .. مأخوذين بنشوة الإنتصار و جنون السادية و الانانية الأعمى
و نابولي .. مدينة الفراديس .. تسقط في تلك الحربِ اليومية .. بين كسرة خبز .. و قطعة سكر .. و فرارٍ من الطاعون .. تصرخ بلسان الإنسان المستجير من الحرب .. في وجه الجنود الذين يندفعون لتنفيذ أوامر قادتهم بعد أن تدق الحرب طبولها .. حيث خلفها يختفي القادة إلي أن يُصحَبون إلي أرضٍ نائية .. في موكب المنتصرين .. أو يبحثون عن مرأبٍ آمن .. حتى يجف دماء الجنود في الخارج

"
قبل التحرير .. كنّا نُقاتل لكي لا نموت .. أم الآن فنحن نُقاتل لكي نعيش .. و هناك فرقٌ عميق بين أن تقاتل لتتفادى الموت و أن تقاتل لتعيش
"
كورزيو لامبارته ...more

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Apr 02, 2009 Jenny Beth rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: pour-y-vivre

This book is like no other that i have ever read. Malaparte is so weird and so sharp - this book is like a gutteral jagged durge coming out of post war Calabria. It is shocking and illuminating and difficult. read the book, preferablly near his house on Capri.

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Sep 11, 2013 Aya Fathy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

يا الله ! لماذا صار القتل شريعة ؟

مشهد تسلية المحتضر حتى لا يشعر بالعذاب مشهد أبكانــي ..

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Dec 16, 2011 الصهباء added it

عندما نتحدث عن الهزيمة فهي المذلة ..

وعندما نتحدث عن المذلة فهي الهزيمة ..

أحدهما يقود للآخر وحسب .. والحرب عندما تهزم أرضاً ستنزع عنها آخر قطعة من ملابسها!

وتباً للمنتصر

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Nov 04, 2010 Rosalba rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Riletto la settimana scorsa: Un inno d'amore a Napoli, e tante riflessioni sulla vita, la morte, la guerra e la corruzione.

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Nov 29, 2013 Daniel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nyrb

-.5 stars for some homophobia, sexism, racism, etc

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Jan 22, 2013 Mohamed Nida نيده rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

مشاهد عاصرها مالابارته أثناء دخول قوات جيش التحرير الأمريكي لمدينة نابولي الإيطالية، تكشف عن مدى الخسة التي وصل إليها المنتصر - جيش التحرير - وإمعانه في إذلال المهزوم - السكان المحليين المستسلمين - ليشعر بالزهو والفخر!

ينقل سمير فريد في المقدمة على لسان ليليانا كافاني مخرجة الفيلم المأخوذ عن هذا العمل: "هؤلاء الذين لا يملكون شيئًا لا يستطيعون إلا أن يقدموا أجسادهم إلى الذين يملكون كل شيء."
هذا بالضبط ما حدث مع سكان المدينة، فمع دخول جيش التحرير لمحاربة قوات الجيش الألماني، عاش السكان في ضِعة وهوان مشاهد عاصرها مالابارته أثناء دخول قوات جيش التحرير الأمريكي لمدينة نابولي الإيطالية، تكشف عن مدى الخسة التي وصل إليها المنتصر - جيش التحرير - وإمعانه في إذلال المهزوم - السكان المحليين المستسلمين - ليشعر بالزهو والفخر!

ينقل سمير فريد في المقدمة على لسان ليليانا كافاني مخرجة الفيلم المأخوذ عن هذا العمل: "هؤلاء الذين لا يملكون شيئًا لا يستطيعون إلا أن يقدموا أجسادهم إلى الذين يملكون كل شيء."
هذا بالضبط ما حدث مع سكان المدينة، فمع دخول جيش التحرير لمحاربة قوات الجيش الألماني، عاش السكان في ضِعة وهوان وباعوا أجسادهم ليكسبوا قوت يومهم.
فيقول مالابارته عن الحال الذي وصلوا إليه:" قبل التحرير كنا نقاتل لكي لا نموت، أما الآن فنحن نقاتل لكي نعيش، وهناك فرق عميق بين أن تقاتل لتتفادى الموت وأن تقاتل لتعيش؛ فالذين يقاتلون لكي لا يموتون يحتفظون بكرامتهم ولا يجثون على ركبتهم وهم يهربون في الجبال والغابات، ويعيشون في الكهوف ويحاربون الغزاة في ضراوة الذئاب حربًا شريفة وكريمة.. والنساء لا يلقين بأجسامهن في السوق السوداء مقابل أحمر الشفاه والجوارب الحريرية والسجاير والخبز، بل يعانين الجوع وقساوته في صبر وتماسك.. لقد كان أهل أوروبا قبل دخول جيوش الحلفاء من الأمريكيين والإنجليز يحاربون في شرف لكي لا يموتون، ولكي يحتفظوا بروحهم سليمة.. ولكنهم بعد التحرير يحاربون لكي يعيشوا.. ولكي يحتفظوا بأجسامهم لا بأرواحهم.. لكي يحتفظ كل منهم بجلده وعظمه ولحمه فقط؛ إنها لم تعد حربًا ضد الطغيان ولا حربًا في سبيل الحرية أو الكرامة الإنسانية أو الشرف.. بل هي حرب خسيسة في سبيل لقمة خبز أو خرقة من الملابس الممزقة أو حزمة من القش ليناموا عليها، ولكي يعيش الإنسان فهو لا يتحرج عن شيء، قد يسرق ويغش ويدلس ويقود زوجته، وقد يجثو على ركبتيه ويلعق حذاء كل من يملك لقمة خبز أو قطعة سكر."

في الأحداث حكمة بالغة جاءت على لسان أحد نبلاء المدينة ويدعى الأمير كانديا، عندما أخبروه أن الأمريكيين محررون لا غزاة، فرد بأن: العبيد وحدهم هم الذين ينتظرون محررهم"."

ربيع الأول 1434 هـ
يناير 2013 م ...more

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Oct 31, 2014 Theut rated it liked it · review of another edition

Malaparte è fastidioso. Si compiace di descriverci episodi crudi e crudeli e dopo poche pagine se ne esce con immagini bucoliche, liriche, tenere.
Per i miei gusti però è troppo infarcito di retorica e troppo amante del patetico.
Apprezzo sicuramente di più il suo cinismo (che almeno fa vedere la fine della guerra per quello che è) rispetto al suo sentimentalismo da pochi soldi. Insomma, ottimo il tema, così così lo svolgimento ;)

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Oct 04, 2014 Chris rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: gay, favorites, war, mediterranean

Both heart-wrenching and funny, brutally cynical and deeply human, Malaparte certainly evokes the meaning of life and death in this great work. His prose transported me effortlessly to Naples in 1944 and I felt as if I myself were Jack, the American officer to whom Malaparte was assigned as an Italian liason officer. Readers should pair this book with The Gallery by John Horne Burns: the authors share many attitudes in common, with Burns describing another aspect of wartime Naples, one which Mal ...more

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About Curzio Malaparte

Born Kurt Erich Suckert, he was an Italian journalist, dramatist, short-story writer, novelist and diplomat.

Born in Prato, Tuscany, he was a son of a German father and his Lombard wife, the former Evelina Perelli. He studied in Rome and then, in 1918, he started his career as a journalist. He fought in World War I, and later, in 1922, he took part in the March on Rome.
He later saw he was wrong su ...more

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“It falls to the lot of even the most glorious flags to be thrown in the mud. Glory, what men call glory, is often thick with mud.” — 2 likes

“The price of freedom is high — far higher than that of slavery. And it is not paid in gold, nor in blood, nor in the most noble sacrifices, but in cowardice, in prostitution, in treachery, and in everything that is rotten in the human soul.” — 1 likes

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