Forbidden Notebook
Valeria buys a notebook illegally (on Sunday when the seller should have sold only tobacco). But after buying it, she still considers her notebook forbidden because she thinks her family wouldn’t approve of her writing the diary. The very first sentences in the notebook (and also the first sentences of this novel) tell us she considers this writing in a diary as something forbidden.
I was wrong to buy this notebook, very wrong. But it’s too late now for regrets, the damage is done.
Keeping a diary causes Valeria to analyze daily occurrences more closely. She notices everyday events that previously went unnoticed. Before starting her diary, these occurrences slipped her mind entirely. Writing in her diary becomes a routine, a vital practice for Valeria. The diary serves as her sanctuary, a place where she feels safe. (She doesn’t have a room of her own, or even a drawer).
Valeria, at first, wanted to write a serene story of her family. In the end, however, the story does not turn out serene at all. As she continues to write in her diary, she uncovers more and more things that bother her. She realizes that no one helps her with the household chores, and everyone expects her to do them. She is always tired and realizes that her family does not understand her. (Although, when someone offers help, she declines it. )
Forbidden Notebook was written in the 50s by Italian-Cuban author Alba de Céspedes. She wrote several novels and some were banned. De Céspedes is a writer who influenced Elena Ferrante.
I can’t help but notice that this is, in a way, such a timeless story about finding your own voice, about a woman who wants to be treated as an individual and not just a part of the family. Not just a mother or a housewife (the one who cooks, cleans, or irons clothes).
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For more than two weeks I’ve kept the notebook hidden without being able to write in it. Since the first day, I’ve been constantly moving it around—I’ve had a hard time finding a hiding place where it wouldn’t be immediately discovered. If the children found it, Riccardo would have appropriated it for taking notes at the university or Mirella for the diary she keeps locked in her drawer. I could have defended it, said it’s mine, but I would have had to explain it. For the shopping accounts, I always use certain promotional agendas that Michele brings me from the bank at the first of the year: he himself would kindly advise me to give the notebook to Riccardo. If that happened, I would immediately give it up and never think of buying another. So I protected myself stubbornly from having to do that, although—I have to confess—I haven’t had a moment’s peace since I got this notebook.
- author: Alba de Céspedes
- full title: Forbidden Notebook
- genre: literary fiction
- format/type: bookfiction
- country: Italy
- topics: #diary, #postwaritaly, #womenroleinfamilies
- publisher: Astra Publishing House
- publish date: 17 Jan 2023
- pages: 288
My Rating of the Book:
- content: 💙💙💙💙
About the Author:
Alba de Céspedes y Bertini was a Cuban-Italian writer.
Ms. de Céspedes was the daughter of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada (a President of Cuba) and his Italian wife, Laura Bertini y Alessandri. Her grandfather was Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and a distant cousin was Perucho Figueredo. She was married to Francesco Bounous of the Italian foreign service
Ms. de Céspedes worked as a journalist in the 1930s for Piccolo, Epoca, and La Stampa. In 1935, she wrote her first novel, L’Anima Degli Altri. In 1935, she was jailed for her anti-fascist activities in Italy. Two of her novels were also banned (Nessuno Torna Indietro (1938) and La Fuga (1940)). In 1943, she was again imprisoned for her assistance with Radio Partigiana in Bari. After the war she went to live in Paris.
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