I’ve just read Pavese’s Lavorare Stanca (1936) in the Carcanet parallel text volume Disaffections: Complete Poems 1930 – 1950, translated by Geoffrey Brock.

Reading this first collection straight through left me with slightly mixed feelings, both enthralled and in one way dissatisfied. Some of the strengths of Pavese’s writing and vision are obvious and formidable even on casual acquaintance. His compassion for the labouring poor and the dispossessed, for prostitutes and bullied wives, for the lonely, the violent and the broken by age makes his portrayal of individual characters deeply moving. The cumulative effect is far-reaching. The characters Pavese describes become … Continue Reading