Intimate Encounters (Italian Edition)

At the heart of this novel slumbers a ticking time bomb named Belinda, the 17-year-old blonde girl entrusted to her half-brother Mète for safekeeping. In the suffocating backdrop of Rome, they are the "touched ones", youthful heroes of a generation that has had everything without truly possessing it, that has seen it all without understanding anything: the squandering, the dancing, the fluid and pure state of chaos, the metropolitan chases, the ever-lit television casting its blue reflections in smoke-filled rooms. Sandro Veronesi has brought forth his wayward younger siblings, capturing their fleeting and volatile nature, and accelerating their destiny until the destruction of their ambiguous innocence.

Belinda is the focal point of the novel, for at the center of the novel lies desire. A forbidden and continually deferred desire, as befits any respectable erotic desire. A desire that invokes transgression, and indeed Belinda is the half-sister of the protagonist. Belinda is elusive as well as desired, for such is her nature: the ungraspable, the fleeting, the non-belonging, the "foaminess".

From the afterword by Raffaele La Capria, it is clear that Belinda represents the core of the novel, a captivating figure whose very existence is a driving force. The narrative is set against the backdrop of a suffocating Rome, where the protagonists, described as the "touched ones", are part of a generation that has had everything yet possesses nothing, seen it all yet understood nothing. Sandro Veronesi skillfully navigates the volatile and fleeting nature of these youthful characters, accelerating their destiny towards the destruction of their ambiguous innocence.

The desire that lies at the heart of the novel is a forbidden and continuously deferred one, as is typical of any compelling erotic desire. Belinda, the half-sister of the protagonist, embodies this desire, being both elusive and desired. Her very nature, characterized by the "ungraspable", the "fleeting", the "non-belonging", and the "foaminess", is what makes her the focal point of the narrative.

Through this exploration of desire and the complexities of human relationships, Veronesi presents a poignant portrait of a generation grappling with the challenges of their time, where the pursuit of material wealth and experiences has not necessarily led to true fulfillment or understanding. The novel's ability to captivate readers lies in its nuanced examination of these universal themes, as well as the author's masterful handling of the narrative and character development.

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