The Watch 1st edition, 1951 hardcover Carlo levi
The Watch, first published in 1951, is a portrait of Rome and Italy in the dopoguerra - the period after the war - when the heroism and sacrifice of the partisan war against the Germans ran head-on into a rockwall of conservative reaction. The year is 1948, the main character works for a newspaper in Rome, his friends and family and partisan comrades are all trying to get by and make do.
The watch of the title was given to the hero by his father; it's broken, he thinks of fixing it, then wonders if it would be cheaper to buy a new, modern watch. Around him people are forever talking, looking for jobs, wasting time in cafes, grumbling about big business, the church, conservative politicians.
The hero is summoned to Naples to visit the sickbed of a favorite uncle. The trip south is dangerous and difficult, along ruined roads through country infested by bandits. The passengers are crowded, they complain and tell stories, all have suffered, none has given up hope.
The Watch is a brilliant and unusual tale of life and its torments, and it ends on a note as sweet as it is bitter.
Features
CARLO LEVI had three careers - as a medical doctor, as one of Italy's leading painters, and as a writer who won an international reputation with his first book, Christ Stopped at Eboli, which tells the story of his exile to a village in the impoverished south of Italy. He died in Rome in 1975.
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