We did Moravia briefly when I was studying Italian for my Arts degree, so my very first impression of this novel was that reading him in translation makes things MUCH easier.
I feel like Western Europe went through a real thing for these psychological novels in the middle of the 20th century – the obvious comparison is with Camus’s The Outsider, though the contrasts between them are pretty stark as well. This novel is set during Mussolini’s dictatorship, and the protagonist is a relatively minor government official and also, it should go without saying, a sociopath: the “conformist” of the title, whose desire above all is to appear normal to those around him. We’re treated in the prologue to some disturbing scenes from him childhood, and during the body of the novel to an extended section in Paris, the contrast of which to fascist Italy is profound.
I don’t know, I’m in two minds about this. On the one hand, it’s not my favourite kind of writing. The internal landscapes are laboured, and the protagonist’s actions are over-explained to the point of tedium. As a general rule, I like to build up a picture of a character through his or her actions and decisions, not have them all explained for me in advance. On the other hand, almost despite myself, I did feel engaged by this novel. It wasn’t just interesting from a historical perspective, I also found myself genuinely interested in what was going on (and why). Possibly this is a sign that Moravia is a fairly good writer, actually: I liked it in spite of myself. I guess…three stars?