Milena Agus–FROM THE LAND OF THE MOON
Posted in 9a-2011 Reviews, Experimental, Historical, Literary, Sardinia on Jan 27th, 2011
Setting her novel in Cagliari, Sardinia, author Milena Agus creates a story which spans three generations, focusing on women from two families who are joined through marriage. An unnamed contemporary speaker feels particularly connected with her paternal grandmother, and as the speaker pieces together this woman’s life from what she herself recalls and from family lore, she creates a woman who not only searches earnestly for love but is absolutely determined to experience it in all its splendor, believing that it is “the principal thing in life.” The novel deals beautifully with primal events and universal themes—the need to belong, the importance of ties to a community, the yearning for true love, the vagaries of chance or fate, and the importance of memories. As the generations move forward from World War II to the present, each character must protect his/her memories against change in order to preserve a sense of selfhood. It is only the speaker who has the liberty to tinker with the past and/or the truth. Passion, in all its many forms, rules the lives of the characters here—and affects the reader, too.
