Zeno's Conscience : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A Tour de Force of Tone
Review: Among its other virtues, well-described by other reviewers here (I particularly like the observation, "Eliot's Prufrock made novel"), this book (in the Weaver translation at least) reveals Svevo as a master of control of tone, or voice: Zeno is not one thing one moment, and another the next -- not wise and then stupid, or good then venal -- he is a very human jumble of contradictions at every moment, in each sentence and paragraph. That's very hard to do when you deny yourself the option of switching to another character's voice or, like Joyce in Ulysses, into another prose style. Svevo performs his tonal tight-wire act straight through this 400-plus-page novel so brilliantly that the sheer technical virtuosity can be overshadowed by the book's more obvious novelties of diction and plot. My rating is really more like 4.5. The only reason I don't give it a 5 is that I didn't find it as laugh-out-loud funny (well, maybe once) or as exhiliratingly smart as the very finest novels in this vein, by Musil, Joyce, Proust, etc.

Rating:
Summary: A Tour de Force of Tone
Review: Among its other virtues, well-described by other reviewers here (I particularly like the observation, "Eliot's Prufrock made novel"), this book (in the Weaver translation at least) reveals Svevo as a master of control of tone, or voice: Zeno is not one thing one moment, and another the next -- not wise and then stupid, or good then venal -- he is a very human jumble of contradictions at every moment, in each sentence and paragraph. That's very hard to do when you deny yourself the option of switching to another character's voice or, like Joyce in Ulysses, into another prose style. Svevo performs his tonal tight-wire act straight through this 400-plus-page novel so brilliantly that the sheer technical virtuosity can be overshadowed by the book's more obvious novelties of diction and plot. My rating is really more like 4.5. The only reason I don't give it a 5 is that I didn't find it as laugh-out-loud funny (well, maybe once) or as exhiliratingly smart as the very finest novels in this vein, by Musil, Joyce, Proust, etc.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Life
Review: I just quit from an engineering consultant coporation last Friday; I will take approximately one month off, then probably to be a business owner with my friend later. When I walked around in the biggest bookstore "ESLITE" in Taipei last Sunday, the book " La Conscienza di Zeno" catch my eyes. Then, I decided to buy it without opening it in the bookstore. I have to admit that I really have an enjoyable Sunday afternoon by reading this lovely masterwork. I can't help myself to stop laughing when I read the confession of Zeno's conscience. I think it's pretty similar to read this novel and someone's diary. But, the difference to our diaries or biographies is that Italo Svevo??s writing skill is much better than us (even better than Milan Kundera), and I think the way that Svevo observes and perceives this world and the life is more interesting than ordinary people. In my eyes, I think the best point of this book is that Svevo tried to stand on an ordinary people??s point to describe a real and ridiculous life, and I really appreciate Svevo??s humor. This is an admirable and recommendable book, especially for people who want to involve into this spectacular and ridiculous world. I haven??t read the English translation of this book yet, but I believe it would be worthy to spend 35 dollars to enjoy an enjoyable summer afternoon or night.

THE MOST DANGEROUS ENEMY OF ORDINARY PEOPLE IS THE ORDINARINESS.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Unkown Writer
Review: I read Zeno's Conscience and As a Man Grows Older years ago, the former when I was eighteen. At my first reading of Zeno, I recall it being funny and insightful, and I recall being taken with the narrator, his awkwardness - his inability to mirror Guido, the handsome, talented and carefree suitor to the woman of his dreams. Of course, I had no one to share my thoughts on the book because no one had ever heard of Italo Svevo which was, and is, a surprise. You pretty much have to stumble upon his work yourself because for the most part I think Zeno won't be taught in classrooms because of his weak moral fiber. He is a cheat, a loser, an attempted murderer, has little will power, is sedentary, rich, and somewhat delusional - not to mention a sexist, though the women seem to be the most steadfast characters throughout the novel, they are men's possessions.

Of course we wouldn't have to look far to find canonical characters who have similar characteristics as Zeno(Huck, Holden, Meursault) but Zeno really isn't a bad guy, just given to fits of weakness and unsteady values.

The first chapter, "Last Cigarette" is awesome, and could be read as a short story in itself - and of course, if you have ever tried to quit smoking or ever need another reason not to begin, this chapter is a hoot, and very cleverly written.

The book can get a little repetitious at times, and it is not a story of intense action, it is presented by an intensely introspective narrator who is full of contradictions and uncertainty. I would recommend this book to anyone who has read and liked the Catcher in the Rye, The Beautiful Room is Empty, The Great Gatsby, The Stranger, On The Road, or Huck Finn - though by no means is Zeno relational to these other books, they have similar narrators.

Rating:
Summary: There's something to it
Review: This is really a strange book: the characters are not that likable, there is practically no plot, and still it is attractive. This is the story of a man that does nothing in his life, except to procrastinate, cheat and waste his time. But he's not unlikable. I think that, in the end, he's even wise.

Zeno Cosini is the heir to a prosperous merchant, and so he has no need to work. He has a bad habit of smoking and he's always trying to quit although in his heart he doesn't really want to. He undertakes therapy to get rid of the habit and his analyst advises him to write down his memoirs, which end up being this book. Zeno tells us about his father's death, the story of his courtship of Ada and his marriage to Ada's ugly (cross-eyed)sister Augusta, a wonderful woman who loves Zeno very much, although he cheats on her constantly. Then we read the story of Zeno's association with Guido, the man Ada finally marries. This is the funniest part of the book.

It is funny without being "comical". Zeno is really a puzzle: sometimes he's despicable, sometimes he's noble and wise. On the whole it is a good novel with a believable story, vivid characters and a sense of humor. But it is strange.

Rating:
Summary: You'll love feeling superior to him....
Review: Zeno is the first anti-hero. He is Eliot's Prufrock made novel. Not for him the daring and indeed the taking of the slightest responsibility or risk; and one feels that he also is consoling himself thinking he could have been something hideous.
He's not hideous: he's petty, selfish, and he puts himself uwittingly in awkward situations because he lacks the courage to assert himself. But he could say that whit a self like his, there's little to assert. Here's a story of a man you can feel superior of, narrated in a manner profoundly influenced by Freudian theories. But he uses the great intuitions of Freud only to justify his own mediocrity and egocentrism. In a way it's funny, in another slightly annoying. It's a good psychoanalytical novel,though.

Rating:
Summary: A Comic and Inventive Masterpiece
Review: Zeno's conscience is best described as the biography of a mollusc, but a very interesting mollusc. It is considered to be one of the first psycho-analytical novels and a classic. It is hilarious and sad at the same time, but above all very well written.

Zeno Cosini is a rich man from Trieste, but his wealth is inherited. He himself is not really good in anything, except making up evasions. He is never really capable of making decisions what he wants to do with his life. The book is a description of his life which he has to write as part of his psychotherapy because he wants to quit smoke in which he does not succeed. Every day he decides to quit, but then takes a last cigarette to celebrate his decision. And that is the way his life goes: he falls in love with a daughter of a merchant, but than in the end marries her sister, he start a relationship with a poor girl but does not want to cheat his wife, he works as a volunteer in the merchant business of his brother in law, sees that things go terribly wrong but is too weak to act.

And still Zeno is not an annoying man: you can feel his desire to be like the other people, he knows what he is doing and at the end we see that he can act, but only when the stimuli are strong enough. A must.