Lisa, Bright and Dark

Neufeld, John. Lisa, Bright and Dark. New York: Signet Books, 1969.
This is about Lisa Sheffield, 16 years old who suffers a mental breakdown. It is about the daily dairy of observing the onset and progress of mental illness in an American teenager. The novel unfurls through the voice of her friend, Betsy Goodman, admittedly a very minor character in the whole narrative. Betsy studies in the same school as Lisa and is a friend of Mary Nell, who is closely associated with Lisa. So, the story that is opening out before the readers is through a character who is hearing from Mary and then seeing Lisa as a third party in the school. Mary Nell is admired by everyone, including Betsy. Another girl who is very popular in school is Elizabeth Frazer. Brian Morris is the cutest boy in the class and he is in love with Lisa. But, Lisa's wayward behaviour during her illness breaks the relationship. In the beginning of the narrative itself, we hear Lisa speaking to her parents in front of Mary, that she suspects she is going crazy because she is hearing voices in her head. Her parents think this is yet another one of her ploys to gain attention and is least bothered. One day at a party, Lisa suddenly goes away from the crowd and when her boyfriend Brian tries to come to her she rebuffs him. But, she returns after 10 minutes and everyone forgets the incident. Only when Lisa actually is seen cutting herself after the class does the school counsellor, Bernstein, get involved. At his insistence, the parents send her off on a vacation. But, this does not help lisa.
Betsy notices that Lisa had good days and bad days and it could be seen in her clothes. This is the basis of the title of the novel, Lisa Bright and Dark. After she comes back from the vacation, which was a visit to a clinic, Lisa sunk back more into her dark mood. One day she could not give answer to a question in calculus and she goes near the teacher and whispers in her ears the answer. This makes everyone notice that she was not normal.
Betsy describes the fear that everyone felt around Lisa. The friends would ignore her in her dark moods and be with her in her bright ones. But, she is angry with the school authorities who ignored Lisa's symptoms, though she herself felt fear and kept away.
There is a kind of relationship between Elizabeth and Lisa that keeps developing in the narrative. At one point, Betsy notices that Lisa was following Elizabeth around and the latter was ignoring her. Later she says that it was only Elizabeth who was not afraid of Lisa.When Mary and Betsy offer their help to Lisa (after failing to warn Lisa's family about the situation), Lisa herself suggests Elizabeth's name as someone who will understand. Elizabeth, though, comes out as extremely cold when Mary and Betsy confronts her with a demand for help. She joins them but is always critical and at a distance. She doesnt even look concerned for Lisa.
Also, Lisa’s actions could not be explained in anyway. She attacks Elizabeth once and the others could barely save her. Betsy understands that Elizabeth had a strange understanding of Lisa and guessed that she also would have suffered the same problems.
The only glimpse the outsiders get of Lisa’s inner world is through her words. She is very reticent of sharing it too. The fact that everyone remembers is the English world that she builds inside her head. If Lisa speaks with an English accent, then the girls understood that trouble was brewing.
Another interesting angle is the growth of Betsy as a person. She thinks she has only one ambition – to marry someone and live near a beach. Whereas, Mary Nell was ambitious and had leadership qualities. Elizabeth was arrogant and again had the quality of being an important person. Yet, Lisa chooses to trust Betsy because of she would understand her through her feeling rather than her head. Also, the narrative looks at the competition between the girls as a subtext, though the concentration is on their camaraderie.
One day, Lisa walks through the glass-paned door in Betsy’s house in front of her father Mr. Goodman. It is symbolic of Lisa’s final plunge into the world of mental illness and is rightly interpreted by everyone present as a desperate cry for help. But, Mrs. Shilling does not heed inspite of this. We realize that she is just refusing to see truth since it might call into question her own parenting of Lisa.
At this point, Betsy is introduced to Neil Donovan by Elizabeth and she immediately develops a crush on him.

As a Man Grows Older

Svevo, Italo. As a Man Grows Older. New York: New York REview Books, 2001. (First Published in Italian in 1892, this translation in 1932).

Emilio Brentani is a failed writer who is now working as an insurance agent. He is in his mid thirties. He meets Angiolina quite by chance and falls in love with this beautiful woman. He keeps hearing about her past from all sources, including some womanisers like Sorniani. Coming from a poor family, she was once engaged to be married. Her fiance was Merighi who was extremely rich. But, due to some reason, he lost his fortune and Angiolina had to leave him so that he could marry a richer hieress. Sorniani speaks about a gossip about Angiolina that she was carrying on with another person when the Merighi affair was on and this is what actually lead to its demise. Emilio's friend Balli and his sister Amalia are disturbed because they get less of him these days. Yet, he cannot stop himself from seeing her.
Even though Emilio knows that he is in love, he is not ready to commit. He keeps on reiterating to Angiolina that they should behave with prudence, and by that he means he can only consider her a plaything, though he feels love for her. Angiolina is not at all perturbed by these circumstances. She never once demands that Emilio deciedes to marry her. In fact, she takes it for granted that their relationship will remain unacknowledged in public and is least bothered about that.
Once Emilio happens to go to Angiolina's home and discovers the pictures of some of the rakes of Trieste in her bedroom. He is disturbed, but like many other situations in their relationship, Angiolina speaks very naturally about these things and he is not given a space to express his jealousy. So also, Emilio is wild with her while walking through the road and she seems to enjoy the attention of other strangers. But, given the situation of the relationship, Emilio cannot demand more.
They used to joke that it would be better for Angiolina if she can find a victim to marry so that Emilio and she can sleep together more comfortably without the care of pregnency. Surprising Emilio, Angiolina actually gets engaged to a tailor named Volpini. He is not able to bear this and starts seeing her as a strange woman, though he does not propose to her even then. When he asks her if they should cut off from each other she says she does not want to. When he proposes to her in jest, she surprises him furthur by rejecting all the time maintaining that she has to marry Volpini for security since Emilio was never ready to marry her.
We realize that it is Angiolina's sexuality, which Emilio never feels to be his, though she is outwardly showing him all the signs of acquiesence, which is disturbing him. She is for some reason, quite unaware, or refuses to acknowledge this fact. One day, Emilio decieds to confess to Stephano Balli, his sculptor friend who is very dominating, about his troubles. Balli suggests a dinner with his girlfriend Margherita and both of them so that he can see Angiolina for the first time. Angiolina is very excited about meeting Balli because she has heard about him from a girl who was in love with him once. Emilio feels jeaolous of her interest in Balli. Whne they meet it is dark and Balli cannot wait to satisfy his curiosity. He lights a lamp and peers at Angiolina's face. Later, he also shows off his girlfriend Margherita. But, he hurts Angiolina by saying her nose is not perfect. Throughout the dinner, Balli keeps asking Margherita for various signs of submissiveness, like removing her boots for instance. Margherita keeps complying constantly. Angiolina is adamant and this keep Balli trying to insult her and yet flirt with her. Emilio becomes an onlooker to this drama unfolding before him. Emilio compares Margherita and Angiolina and sees the former as "chaste and affectionate aby nature, and her declarations of love were made silently and almost imperceptibly." He also sees Angiolina's blooming health to be a contrast to Margherita's perpetual illhealth and sees Angiolina's obvious pleasure in her body and experiences it as threatening.
This seems to set the tone of the novel - which is about male jealousy and control over women. Angiolina is the villian of the piece. She is valued preciesly for her physical beauty and health. Yet, paradoxically, it is this very beauty which later comes to be percieved as a problem and illness. Her pride in her body, and the easy way in which she deciedes to fool Volpino (though she never declares her love for him and does not come out even once as dishonest) is another point against her, though Emilio never even once offers marriage to her.
The novel is about making (or rather the unmaking) of the masculine man. Brentani is a failed man in more senses than one. He is a writer with a moderate success, but not someone who has been taken seriously. More importantly, he does not take himself seriously. With Angiolina, he is always in doubt. He sees the men around her, and has no way to gauge the scale of passion he arouses in her. He always feels inadequate before her and therefore keeps blaming her as a cheat in his mind.
In contrast, is a successful masculinity type - Balli. He is crudely domineering and women are seen to fall for precisely this crude show of power. Emilio is reduced to absolute silence when Balli is performing his master-servant narrative of masculinity with women around. It is easy for him to get and treat women like preys and they seem to enjoy the strage arrangement. Even Brentani's nun-like and plain sister, Amalia falls in love with Balli and Brentani knows the excitement that Balli seems to evoke in her quite existence.
It is at the insistence of Balii that Brentani breaks off with Angiolina. Balii catches her with another woman and a man and sees that Angiolina is having an affair with the man who was not Volpini. But, he also regrets having broken off from her, though her pain gives him immense satifaction and the first sign that she also loves him.
Emilio undergoes intense pain and loneliness without Angiolina. During this period, he gets to know his sister more closely. He finds out the scale of her unrequitted passion for Balli and unnecessarily gets involved in the affair. he forbids Balli from coming frequently to his house but is later forced to betray about his sister by confessing about her feelings for Balli. Balli is repulsed by the plain girl's passion and keeps his distance from the house. Amalia understands that Balli has left her and is in pain.
Emilio sees Angiolina again by chance and renews his friendship with her. This time, they find out a private place to make love. Angiolina gets a letter from Volpini,in the meanwhile, that he has got to know of her various affairs and wants to break off from her. She composes a letter to him with the help of Emilio professing her sincerity. Emilio feels bad for himself. In his repulsion for her, there is also the element of the middle class hatred towards the working class. Angiolina never speaks about her worries, though it is quite clear from her house situation that she is in financial trouble. Her father is pscychologically disturbed and her brothers are violent towards all the women in the house. At this point, Amalia suffers a nervous breakdown which leads to her death. Emilio keeps feeling that he is responsible for Amalia'a fate. He realizes that he loves Amalia much more than anyone else. In a fit of rage and guilt, he calls Angiolina a whore and leaves her. The novel ends with Brentani reflecting on all these incidents as he grows older.


About the writer
Italo Svevo (1861-1928) whose given name was Ettore Schmitz was born in Trieste into a Jewish family of Italian German descent. 2 publications in the 1890s. A Life and As a Man Grows Older. He was disheartened after the rejection by the public of these works and went to work in his father's paint business. James Joyce had been tutored to teach him English and he expressed his admiration for these novels and Svevo returned to writing. He published Confessions of Zeno in 1923 and also The tale of the Good Old Man and the Lovely Young Girl in 1928, the year he was killed in a car crash.