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= Memorable Times = “ The departure was always on the first days of July, not the first, because there were too many people on the train, the second or the third sometimes even after if the brothers were busy doing their exams. Fausto was already waiting the departure with anxiety. He didn’t like the sea; but that short month was the beginning of two long months in the countryside which represented the most happy moments.

incipit

“Before falling asleep, Fausto thought about the next morning, when he would see her again. He took pleasure in it, in seeing her another time; he didn’t have other desires. It would have been easy to speak with her, in particular, after midday, the beach emptied and remained there just them, him and the three girls in order to sunbathe; But why would he do that? If the right opportunity to stay alone with Anna had come along, he wouldn’t have took advantage of it. He wouldn’t have said that he loved her: not for shyness, but because he didn’t care if she knew it.

(…) It was enough that Anna existed. That was sufficient to make him happy. Since it was a steady thought, Fausto was always glad. He didn’t feel the necessity of getting word to the others.”

Memorable Times (p.82)

Memorable Times is a short novel written by Carlo Cassola and published by the publishing house "Einaudi" in 1966. The story recovers a tale of “The Meeting”

and deals with a memorable period oh our life: the adolescence.

The title Memorable Times evokes the eternity of the memories which would keep imprinted in the mind of Fausto Errera, the main character. That summer marks an emotional way point, the boy discovers love, defeats shyness and makes new friends.

Plot
like every summer fifteen year old Fausto  sets off from Rome, to take the train to go to Marina di Cecina and spends a month at the seaside. Even if Fausto doesn’t like the village, he would like to stay in Volterra to spend time with his cousin Giacomo to speak with him about literature.

In Marina the boy is alone just with his mother and his only friend is the lifeguard assistant, Enrico: some years older than him. This is only the beginning of the summer, which is going to change him deeply, it will make him grow up, it will help him choosing his own company and it will make him experience new feelings. In fact Enrico has really changed, he gives Fausto less attentions and he’s in love with Anna, a girl who lives in that village. Despite being introverted, Fausto meets a boy, who works in the furnaces, but he understands that he isn’t the right fellow to go out with.

He builds relationships with Nedo, a boy living in Cecina and Michele, a boy who’s staying next to him at the beach. He finally finds the right company. He builds the most  interesting relationship with Gabriella, a girl who lives in Siena, who decides join the fellowship. Fausto falls for her and experiences love for the first time. The time passes, the company is having fun, but Fausto, after having confessed his feelings for Gabriella, realizes that what he’s feeling for her isn’t real love and that Gabriella is just as the other girls. The young roman boy decides to stay on his own, and uses his moments of loneliness to think about what true love is. Has he ever experienced it?

After long thinking, he understands that he has  been in love with Anna since the first day he met her. His love for Anna determines that behavior which characterizes youth: detachment from his old father, a new strength which shows him a positive world and the idea of becoming a writer, with all the difficulties included. Literature which has always been his biggest passion, becomes a way to adore his lady, thanks to poems that celebrate contemplative love. At this point, Fausto has completely changed, from being a child to being a young men, who gives the right importance to love.

Characters
Fausto :  is fifteen years old and he is native of Rome, he’s a very shy and introverted boy. He prefers to spend the summer in Volterra to talk about literature with his cousin rather than at the sea. In the novel this character will have a notable development.

Enrico:    he’s a little older than Fausto, he works as an assistant of the lifeguard, he is very good looking, mighty and loved by girls.

Anna :she lives in Marina di Cecina, she is a very shy girl, she has  dark hair tidied up in a fringe. Fausto and Enrico are both in love for her.

Gabriella: she is thirteen years old and she comes from Siena. She is always well dressed and despite being the smallest ,she has an attitude that makes her look older. She  has dark hair and green eyes, she has been Fausto’s first love.

The boy of the furnaces: he is a thin boy,with  blond hair and green eyes. After having known him, Fausto realizes that he is not a proper friend for him. he is often disrespected, since he comes from the inferior class and he was hated by the fascists that often reached the point of beating him.

Michele : he is tall, he wears glasses and  has freckles. He’s close to Fausto at the beach, he’s  in love with Vittorina; a friend of Gabriella.

Nedo: he is a very malicious boy, he has many friends and he  loves to joke and to have fun.

Parents of Fausto: they are both old, in fact his mother is 55 years and his father  is 63 years. Their personalities are  very different: his father is hasty and doesn't bear the delays. Instead his mother is quite and calm

Critic
In memorable times the explicit intention of the author of coming coming back to his first literature texts is being revealed. The whole narrative structure doesn't develop a plot, it narrates a period of life, which also describes actions, but is more concentrated in their consequences in the teenagers souls who are experiencing them.

The adjective “memorable” resumes in a clever way one of the main ideas of the cassoliana poetic: for every human being it is “memorable” everything which concerns him and concerned him, not just an event with historical importance for amazing characters. For Fausto, memorable is that period of adolescence with houseworks to prepare his beach’s life. It is confirmed again the importance of literature and the ideals of feelings: a felling is like sense and the destiny of existing, giver of light when we live and so individual good and memorable to give to the memory.

The coordinates of space-time remain miraculously suspended around Fausto’s adolescence; they become signs-images of his existential condition in the moment when, for love, he feels a strong harmony which connects him with the world. His love for Anna determines in his life those new behavior in which it concentrates the mutual change of his first youth.

(informations taken from “Carlo Cassola: introduction and guide to study the masterpiece of Cassola; History and Anthology of the critic” written by Renato Bertacchini 1977; “ invitation to the lecture of Cassola” written by Giuliano Manacorda; 1981”.)

Editions

 * Carlo Cassola, Memorable times Einaudi 1966
 * Carlo Cassola, Memorable times Einaudi 1981
 * Notes 1 Memorable times google books
 * 2 Rodolfo Macchioni Jodì, Carlo Cassola, project Gutemberg

Connected voices
Carlo Cassola

Other projects

 * Wikiquote contains quotes from Memorable times

External connections

 * Short plot: Memorable times (Carlo Cassola)