Conversations in Bolzano, November 2009, 7/10.
Written by Sándor Márai, published by Penguin Books.
Artful and witty, this novel would make a perfect pièce de theatre. SM describes a couple of days in the life of Giacomo Casanova, during which the famous adventurer and womanizer meets again, in unexpected circumstances, the only woman he might have truly loved. Using conversation and soliloquy as a literary expedient, the author explores the personality of this fascinating historical character. Casanova sees himself as an intellectual, a writer who, though not having yet written a line, is accumulating experience to make his writing more compelling and inspired. In fact he is a rather superficial fellow with a penchant for theatrality who takes himself very seriously rather than the profound researcher of the human soul he purports to be. SM is great at capturing the irony of the constrast between Casanova poetic prowess and his soullessness.
