false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170667481m/67145.jpg 67145 9 IN 1929, THE FIFTH YEAR of the Fascist era and the twenty-first year of Alberto Moravia's life, the Italian literary world was stunned by the appearance of his first novel, <i>The Time of Indifference</i>. It was a deceptively simple story - five characters, the events of a few days, the intrigues of families and lovers. <br>The place is Rome. The central figure is Michele, a young man in confused but furious rebellion against the emptiness of bourgeois life. His father is dead; his mother, Mariagrazia, desperately clings to her bored lover, Leo; his sister has no hope of marriage or career and bleakly prepares to give herself to Leo as well. A frequent visitor is Leo's former lover, Lisa, ostensibly Mariagrazia's friend, a woman who feels she is in the final late bloom before age destroys beauty. She longs to make Michele her lover, but he is bored and disgusted by her pretenses, her vanity, her desperation.<br>All five are cast loose on the sea of modern life - obsessed with what they want, what they feel they are owed, the wrongs that have been done them, their loneliness. What Moravia destroys forever in this pitiless novel is the illusion that a world of ever-growing material comfort can ever feed the human soul. 1883062 1955 The Time of Indifference: A Novel total:70|5:15|4:25|3:20|2:6|1:4| 70 251 158 4 4 0 false false Sun Jan 25 07:47:14 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 31 09:37:24 -0700 2009
It's wonderfully constructed to take place (in the space of 2-3 days) inside shadowy roo...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Mon Jun 25 12:13:22 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 25 12:26:53 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Sep 10 19:39:16 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 12 04:56:59 -0700 2007
My only experience with Moravia was in a freshman seminar and everything I read that semester was a blur of shifted sleep and collegiate newness, but I sharply remember images from a living room in Rome in "A Time...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sun Jan 06 22:46:22 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 06 22:49:53 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Thu Nov 12 10:04:59 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 12 10:04:59 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Nov 10 10:13:38 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 10:13:38 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Nov 01 18:36:01 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 01 18:36:04 -0800 2009 0 0 true false Thu Oct 29 23:35:21 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 29 23:35:54 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Oct 28 03:48:12 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 27 04:48:57 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 27 04:49:03 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sun Oct 25 06:32:22 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 06:32:22 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Oct 22 13:10:46 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 13:10:46 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Oct 20 12:45:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 20 12:45:00 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Oct 18 16:42:26 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 16:42:26 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Oct 14 22:10:02 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 22:10:02 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Oct 10 10:20:21 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 10 10:20:21 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Oct 07 00:41:20 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 00:41:20 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Oct 01 19:45:14 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 01 19:45:18 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Sep 29 01:42:57 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 01:42:57 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Sep 25 10:32:28 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 10:32:28 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Sep 24 13:00:59 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 24 13:00:59 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=67145