A Contemporary Yet Timeless Tale
This book is a jewel; it is both contemporary and timeless. The characters remain unnamed but are intimately known to the reader. Their joys and sorrows become part of our own lives.
The story opens with a father searching for a wedding gift for his daughter.In his search, he hopes to find the perfect expression of his love, and through his gift, somehow protect her from harm. In another part of Italy, the mother searches for a similar gift, recalling times she spent with the young girl. The author delicately touches on the mother's eagerly anticipated, yet apprehensive, reunion with the young girl's father. She left him a few years after the girl was born, and can no longer recall, with precision or certitude, the impetus for her departure. And many years have passed.
The narrative moves smoothly: A virile, honest, young man asks for the girl's hand. They have been committed lovers for a short time. Happy, free, hardworking, their life together possesses happy promise, warmth and security. The girl has experienced passion before, but this man loves her. She knows.
The blind charm-maker feeds us the tale with slow, patient and rich language. Wisdoms and truths coat the seemingly uncrafted passages with elegance and grace. Each character is rich and complex, but never sappy, overdone or cloying. There is a lot of space, but never darkness, built into this book. It generates more than it says.
The girl baulks at telling her lover that she has been diagnosed as having a terminal disease. Instead she breaks off their union. He is devastated but refuses to leave her. He repeatedly and patiently asks for her hand; she thinks him mad. This continues until she can no longer say no to him. She is scared, frightened for both of them. But his compassion is overwhelming and his conviction pure.
The young man's father is proud of his son and at the same time scared for him. He is confused and yet somehow strengthened by his son's love and resolve, for he knows the girl will soon die. What future can he hope for his son, what future can his son hope for?
As the wedding day approaches and preparations begin, Berger presents a multi-leveled diorama for union, renewed life/death, and inevitable change. Not only do the young lovers unite, the girl's parents also meet for the first time in twelve years. Berger sketches the reunion with subtlety, bringing out the tenderness of the moment.
There is no melodrama, pity, or ego-promoting idealism to be found in this work. It would have been quite easy to place this work in the new genre of AIDS writing, but it is far superior to the plethora of work now being churned out. if he's making a point at all, then it is this