Reeds in the Wind by Grazia Deledda (1913)

A story of family, custom, and change in turn of the century Sardinia.

Classics Review: Reeds in the Wind is about village life: tradition, debt, religion, drudgery, and guilt, superstition, class, history. And the changing of all that, and how all that doesn't change. Most of all it's about fate. Italian writer Grazia Deledda (1871-1936) was the second woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, in 1926. She evokes the countryside, the landscapes, life in the village, vividly and precisely. Where everyone knows everybody. Kinship and connections, festivals and farms, clothes and customs. The reader is right there in Sardinia. I had dust on my shoes. The characters, the people are then laid atop this rich background. The aging, Christ-like Efix (... lifting his bloody palms ...); the beautiful and tragic Noemi; the young but lost Giacinto. Although an easy and enjoyable read, it wasn't a must-read. Glad I read it, but I didn't connect quite as well as I wanted to do. Didn't feel it as much as I should. Perhaps the cultural or historical divide is too great? Yet I recognize the quality of the writing, of Deledda's talent, the wealth of the story. Reeds in the Wind may be more for readers who enjoy historical dramas, family sagas where the past comes back to bite the present. For any historian who wants to visit Sardinia in 1900, this is your time machine. For philosophers, Reeds in the Wind is up your street as well: "Tell me, you've been around the world. Is it like this everywhere? Why does fate break us like this, like reeds?" "Yes ... we are reeds and fate is the wind ... why the wind? Only God knows why." A story of the earth, of time, of eternal truths.  [3★]