A wonderful book about the psychology of a near perfect loser character. ( )

I read this book in Trieste... it was the perfect accompaniment to my trip. ( )

Literary masterpiece, with a shocking final twist.

"Confessions of Zeno" is the journal of a middle-aged man in Trieste, Italy (in the NE, near Croatia, Slovenia and Austria). He first describes briefly his difficult relationship with his father, and his problems quitting smoking, but then moves to the heart of his narrative, which concerns his life spent with a successful merchant-class family, with whose father he has a business relationship, and whose two daughters he desires a personal relationship.

He courts each daughter in turn, eventually marrying one, but keeps a mistress for a time, and comes to befriend the man who marries the other daughter, even entering into a business relationship with him. He manages to have a child, and lives a relatively quiet bourgeois existence.

The problem is, he is utterly detached, self-absorbed, and hypocritical. A narcissist's narcissist. When I say "business relationship", I use the term loosely. He despises honest labor!

Worse, during the various troubles he has with his friends and family, he cannot see it is his personality which causes them. The book is subtle and clever, describing the story through his eyes, but still making it clear he is usually the trouble-maker. The unreliability of a narcissist's narrative is its own undoing.

The journal was supposed to have been written for the sake of a psychologist, who is now publishing it to convince his patient he requires more therapy. For the greater part, it is a generally plain book, with interesting characters who take us through interesting adventures, even if those adventures are made comical by the man writing the tale, unaware what a clown he truly is.

But only by the end of the book does the book's full effect dawn on us, and we finally understand the psychologist. The ending is quite subtle. I was shocked enough to re-read the last few pages a few times before actually believing what it seemed to say. But the book's message was that much more effective because of this subtlety. After reading a "plain" book for so many pages, the ending is that much more powerful.

The book's style is clear and engaging, the characters well drawn and endearing, and the stories charming. Many readers will be happy enough to follow this "tragicomic" story for its own sake, but patient and insightful readers will be rewarded with a conclusion that forces them to question what the book had told them all along, and reflect on the meaning of life, love, family, and friendship. ( )

A classic of 20th century Italian literature.

An amazing, dizzying read. Perhaps a little too much on the smoking problem in the 1st 50 pages, but stick with it. Ultimately a minute dissection of a weak and varied man and his feelings for a woman he first hopes to marry, but instead becomes a brother in law too. This woman- Ada- marries the evidently stupendous Guido- the man of wealth, culture, fine violin playing and such coolness. Our man - Zeno - befriends him ... to stay close to Ada- ?, to stay close to Ada ?, out of goodness ?, to undermine him ? Sounds so slow and unimportant but the genius is in the casual changes of mood, tone and action - so real, so true to life. It is called "stream of consciousness" but i think this insufficient for this unreliable narrator. Nothing much happens in this book, but I cherish it. ( )