Books: As Some Romans Do

WHEEL OF FORTUNE—Alberto Moravia—Viking ($2.50).

Not every Italian wears a black shirt. Not every Italian writer is dead, like Pirandello, nor in exile, like Ignazio Silone (TIME, April 5). Last week U. S. readers were again introduced to Author Alberto Moravia, in an extremely readable if not altogether first-rate novel which managed to throw some highlights on contemporary Rome without once mentioning Mussolini.

Wheel of Fortune is a surprising book. It sets out like a society farce, develops into the psychological realism of a Stendhal novel, ends like a Dostoievskian drama. And the whole thing leaves an impression as unmistakably Italian as a plaster wall painted to look like marble. A tour de force of remarkable virtuosity, this story of a woman’s disintegration will linger in readers’ minds as a clever analysis but not a revelation.

Pietro, hero of the story, is a young journalist who intends to get on in the world. Already he has raised himself into good society from very poor beginnings; and now he is engaged to Sofia, who is far from pretty but has a title. Pietro thinks of himself as the most honest and well-meaning of men, a kind of Roman Buchmanite. When his fiancée’s brother, Matteo, quarrels with his wife, Maria Luisa, because she has discovered that Matteo is keeping a mistress, Pietro pants to help out. Maria Luisa has left her husband temporarily, is trying to nerve herself to get even with him by taking a lover. She dislikes Pietro, but for lack of anyone better and to spite her sister-in-law tries to seduce him. At the last minute Pietro remembers his principles and reads Maria Luisa a kindly lecture. Now, of course, she hates him.

Sofia is even more of a busybody than Pietro. She not only tries to patch up her brother’s marriage by arguing with Maria Luisa but makes a missionary journey to the mistress, Andreina. Andreina is beautiful but far from dumb. When she learns that Matteo’s money is not his but his wife’s, and that consequently there is no chance of being kept by him any longer and no point in marrying him if he got a divorce, she begins to lay her complicated plans for revenge. First she lures Pietro away from his fiancée. With Andreina as his mistress, Pietro’s Buchmanite conscience is nearly split in two. He tries to break off his engagement, but Sofia takes his scruples as simply another sign of his nobility, hangs on to him.

By now Pietro is madly in love with Andreina, and imagines that because she has become his mistress she loves him too. His faith is soon sorely tried. Stefano, the man who first seduced Andreina when she was 14, appears again, turns out to be Maria Luisa’s brother. Stefano is now a cripple and nearly penniless; his rich sister will have nothing to do with him. Andreina hates Stefano, but to plague Pietro she ousts him, takes the cripple again as her lover. Hatred of everyone and everything becomes more & more her guiding passion. By Roman law, crippled Brother Stefano, not Husband Matteo, stands to inherit Maria Luisa’s wealth at her death. Thinking that if Stefano has the money it would be as good as hers, Andreina determines that Maria Luisa shall die. She tries to get Pietro to do the job; he will not take her seriously. Stefano deserts her, but still she goes ahead with her scheme. And even at the last, with Maria Luisa murdered and three lives wrecked, Andreina’s bitter grudge against the world is still too strong for remorse, too strong for despairing Pietro.

U. S. readers of Wheel of Fortune might find it hard to imagine how such a strictly non-political novel could be considered out of line, even in such a rectilinear country as Duceland. But, though the book was not suppressed, the Italian press gave it not a single mention. Reason: The ruler of Rome’s hive does not approve of such Roman drones as Moravia writes about, prefers to ignore their existence.