Most of the time, the image we have of ourselves does not match the one others have of us, but we rarely become aware of this difference. This is precisely what Vitangelo Moscarda accidentally discovers when his wife makes a comment about the crookedness of his nose, something he had never noticed, and then begins to notice other flaws he had never observed before. Then he realizes that throughout his life, the people who know him must have seen him in a completely different way than he thought they did. And so, not recognizing himself in the image others have of him, he begins to reflect on his identity and that there is not just one Moscarda but many, depending on the image each acquaintance has of him, and he begins his effort to discover who he really is for his loved ones and then decompose that image and “prove that he could also not be, for others, the one they believed he was”.

It is a profound novel with many interesting ideas and phrases to highlight that leave you thinking. There are certain moments when the book becomes a bit heavy, but it doesn't take long until some new interesting point appears that immerses you fully in the reading again.

It is a really highly recommended read.

4.5

“Ah!, do you think that only houses are built? I am constantly building myself and building you, and you are doing the same. And the construction lasts as long as the material of our feelings does not crack and as long as the cement of our will lasts.”

“And the others? The others are not at all inside me. For the others, who look from the outside, my ideas, my feelings have a nose. My nose. And they have a pair of eyes, my eyes, that I do not see and that they see. What relationship exists between my ideas and my nose? For me, none. I do not think with my nose, nor do I worry about it when I think. But, what about the others? What about the others who cannot see my ideas inside me and see my nose from the outside? For the others, the relationship between my ideas and my nose is so intimate that if those, let's say, were very serious and this one, because of its shape, very ridiculously, they would laugh.”

"Not my type

**"Life Does Not See Itself"**

La vita non vede se stessa


"We have used, you and I, the same language, the same words. But what fault do we have, you and I, if the words, in themselves, are empty? Empty, my dear. And you fill them with your meaning when you say them to me; and I, inevitably, fill them with my meaning when I receive them. We believed we understood each other, but we did not understand at all."


This passage beautifully highlights the complexity of communication. Even when we use the same words, our individual interpretations can lead to misunderstandings. The words are like vessels, waiting to be filled with meaning, and each of us fills them differently.

"Believe also that if any displeasure may have been caused to you by the experience just had, this is nothing, my dear, because you are not just two, but who knows how many, without knowing it, and always believing yourselves to be one."


Here, the author emphasizes the idea that we are all more than we seem. We may think of ourselves as individuals, but in reality, we are a part of a larger whole, and our interactions with others shape us in ways we may not even be aware of.

"No name. No memory today of the name of yesterday; of the name of today, tomorrow. If the name is the thing; if a name is in us the concept of every thing placed outside of us; and without a name we do not have the concept, and the thing remains in us as blind, not distinct and not defined; well, this that I carried among men, let each one engrave it, as a funerary inscription, on the forehead of that image with which I appeared to him, and leave it in peace and not speak of it anymore. It is nothing but this, a funerary inscription, a name. It suits the dead. To those who have concluded. I am alive and I do not conclude. Life does not conclude. And it does not know of names, life."


This final part makes a profound statement about the nature of life and names. Names are just labels, and they do not fully capture the essence of a person or a thing. Life is constantly evolving, and it cannot be confined by names or definitions. We should strive to see beyond the names and embrace the true essence of life.

(Reread the book to comment exhaustively)