I love Elsa Morante, but this feels a bit like the scraps of greater works.

Before discussing the actual work at hand, I think it would be interesting to consider the publication history of the copy I have in my hands. The Andalusian Shawl, first published as Lo Scialle Andaluso in 1963, ten years before La Storia, which as far as I know, is her most well known work. Lo Scialle Andaluso contains stories that themselves we written for a variety of venues over the course of 30 years (as detailed in the Notes section of my book, some written for cash in pay-per-word magazines, some written as little scraps of stories when she was in her 20's, some written when she was already fairly well known, contemporary with the publication of L'islo Di Arturo). Further, this English translation, published in 2023 by "Edizioni Anarchici", with no credited translator, does not exist as far as I have been able to find on any "Edizioni Anarchici" website I can find. Given Morantes own Anarchist leanings, I would hope that this publication is ideologically motivated, as opposed to a cash grab piggy-backing off the 2023 publication of Lies and Sorcery by NYRB -- although I suspect the latter. All of this to say, in hindsight, this collection of stories feels like scraps of scraps of a great career.

Many of the stories have the hallmarks of what I consider Morante's style (as translated through the lens of William Weaver and Jenny McPhee). Ornate language; children loving, then hating, their mothers; oppressive relationships; pathetically repulsive characters; vaguely psychedelic natural magic, for lack of a better term. All in the stories, to greater or lesser degrees.

Some of the stories, like an early one, both in her career and chronologically in the collection, highlight an incredibly interesting alternative path it seems like Morante could have taken in her writing. I am thinking most notably of the gothic tendencies of The Man with the Glasses. As someone that has read nearly all of the English versions of Morante's work, I found these bits very interesting -- leaning more in to the Gothic and supernatural would have done her well in her writing, in my opinion.

Ultimately, though, it feels like a lot of the stories either retread (again, in hindsight) on ground she has already crossed more expertly in other places in her work. For example, I think the themes of The Andalusian Shawl (the eponymous story of the collection, which E.M. was most fond of, according to the note in my edition) seems to say the same, but less, as what Aracoeli says. The twins in The Grandmother didn't do anything more interesting than 'Useppe did in La Storia, but less fleshed out.

Of the 12 short stories, I feel confident recommending The Man With Glasses, A Man Without Character, and The Sicilian Soldier, the last of which you can find a great discussion of here: https://thetransmetropolitanreview.wordpress.com/2024/08/23/the-sicilian-soldier-by-elsa-morante

overall and as much as it hurts, I would recommend skipping this, unless you are a real Elsa Morante-head.

Andalusian Shawl

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