I suppose it's a bit unfair to rate this short novel on its own, given that Pavese published it in a collection of three short novels of adolescence (under the eponymous general title La bella estate). However, since I snagged an old Einaudi hardcover from a Florentine circolo (Communist social center/coffee shop) library that was closing, well, here I am. I do own a ratty old pocketbook of the full trilogy and, since I enjoyed this one so much, I've already committed to reading all three. Yeah, although the quality here is terrific, four stars only for the text's humble scope, more than anything--if all three are as good as this one and their juxtaposition makes a whole greater than the individual sections, this could easily be an overall 5 star collection.

Pavese is probably the best Italian author of the 20th century who seems largely unknown to the English-speaking world. Although I've come across translations of some of his works here and there, it's usually rather rare and they always seem to be remaindered. I haven't read the English translations so not sure why he's not as well known as Calvino, Eco, or now Ferrante (yes, a better writer than all three combined if you ask me), but there's also no accounting for taste.

Anyway, La bella estate is a tender story of a young woman's entrance into adulthood through her friendship with a couple of artists and a model friend, which brilliantly uses nudity as a metaphor for crossing the sexual boundary that cultures put so much emphasis on in their attempt to control and police reproduction--with the added emphasis on public vs. private intimacy that is perhaps more confusing to young people than just pure intimacy, given that young people particularly travel in packs. The gentle melancholy and deceptively simple everyday language (Pavese is, to me, Hemingway's greatest student in ANY language--yes, better than Carver--maybe even better than Hemingway himself often, certainly the later, mediocre Hemingways) work perfectly as we watch Amelia's incremental movement into society, friendship, love and sex. And if this sounds unlikely to be convincing at 80 years distance, I have to say that the female point of view is handled really well and that the novelette also treats of lesbianism and venereal disease honestly and without any sort of embarrassing fanfare. Pavese is one of the best at realistic narrative on sensitive and intimate issues--I'm consistently impressed by his writing.