How does a cold person live this life well?

There is a saying by Lu Xun that there is no greater sorrow than the death of the heart.

Many people are familiar with this saying, but on the other side of the world, in Italy, there is a man called Alberto Moravia. In Italy, Alberto Moravia was a man who was as much a part of society as Lu Xun was in China.

He was concerned with society and with the modern mind.

In "The Indifferent Man" he gives us a "great drama of indifference" with five main characters.

The storyline of the novel is not complicated.

The characters are the mother, Margo Agrazia, her son, Michele, her daughter, Calla, her mother's lover, Léo, and Léo's ex-fiancée, Lisa.

These five people are the main characters of the story.

Margo Agrazia is a widow in her middle age.

Before she was widowed, she lived a life of pampered nobility, and after her husband's death, she left the family estate to Leo.

Leo, a financial man, enters the life of Margo Agrazia and becomes her secret lover.

Completely enamoured with Léo, Margo Agrázia is convinced of her lover and is relieved to leave all the family's assets to Léo to take care of, without her knowing anything about it.

Under Alberto's pen, Margo Agrazia's daily life consisted of waiting at the table for the servants to serve the dishes, enjoying the food and coffee, and then, in veiled words, imploring her lover, Léo, to spend more time with her.

The family lives in a villa and relies on Léo's help with the estate for their daily expenses.

Unlike his mother's absolute trust in Leo, Mikaelai has doubts about this man.

He always felt that this man was approaching his mother with an agenda, and he even guessed precisely what Leo's dark secret was.

He advised his mother not to take Leo's word for it, but she didn't listen to him.

Leo then takes advantage of this and wants to keep the family's villa for himself, by lying to Margot Agradzia that she is in debt and needs to sell the villa to pay off her debts, and he gives Margot an offer that is clearly below the market price.

All these episodes and truths are presented to the reader by Alberto with a great deal of psychological monologue by the characters.

I had wondered why a noblewoman, so easily duped, had been duped.

Later I realised that Alberto wanted to use the story of Margot Agrazia to give us an image of a woman who was widowed at an early age and who was lonely and helpless inside.

Her emotional attachment is not to her children, but only to her lover Léo.

That is why, in The Cold One, we are presented with large descriptions of dining scenes.

The mother rarely talks to her children; all her focus and attention is given to Léo.

Her words, with their meandering twists and turns, all make one claim: she longs for Leo's love and companionship, and attention.

Unfortunately, Leo's mind was by this time no longer on this ageing lover, but on Margot Agrazia's daughter, Calla, who was only 24 and in her prime.

Perhaps because of her mother's indifference and indifference, and the lack of fatherly love that she had lost at an early age, Calla saw hope in Léo.

She wants to be with Leo because he is rich, well-kept and well-dressed.

Calla feels that the atmosphere at home is dead, that there is no heart-to-heart communication from the family beyond the dinner table, and that she is as desperate for fresh water as a fish on land that is close to suffocation.

Leo's well-timed confession was the catalyst for Calla's decision to be rebellious and break through.

She was aware of her mother's relationship with Leo, and she was torn by her hesitations, but in the end, she chose to take the plunge.

On the occasion of her 24th birthday, after a mental struggle, Calla threw herself into Leo's arms one windy and rainy night and became another of his lovers.

Her affair with Léo is soon discovered by Lisa, who tells Mikelai about it.

When Micaelae learns the truth, his hatred for Leo reaches its peak.

He even thought of killing the man who had coveted his sister and mother.

Lisa tells Mikelai because she is interested in the young man and she is making an overture of affection.

Unlike the other four characters in the book, Michelet is the only one who is honest enough to say that she is "cold".

It is here that we realise that Albera's book is titled "The Indifferent" because of the numbness of the family's daily life, which is characterised by a lack of activity, a lack of warmth, and a lack of indifference.

The mother has a secret lover, which she thinks no one knows about, but her son and daughter know about it.

She is a jealous person and feels that Leo's indifference to her is due to Lisa, his ex-fiancée.

She suffers from mood swings, which depress Calla and Michele but can't do anything about.

The son wants to get away from the coldness of the house, so he gets closer to Leo's ex-fiancée Lisa, who he can't do to fall in love with someone about his mother's age, but who unconsciously visits him many times.

Daughter Calla also wants to get away, and her breakthrough is with Leo.

The confusing relationships between these five people make the novel, The Indifferent Man, seem quite convoluted.

The good thing is that there are not many characters and a great deal of the plot is also psychological activity as described by Alberto.

The book does not seem as difficult to follow as other foreign writings.

The story ends without much suspense, with Michelet putting a gun to Leo's chest, but unfortunately the young man, who is a weakling by nature, does not achieve his long-cherished goal after all.

But that doesn't stop him from being the first to break through the apathy.

He did not continue to act like his mother and sister, pretending and living behind a mask.

He took action, even if it ended in failure.

Alberto completed this novel, The Indifferent Man, at the age of 22, which has also been hailed as the first existentialist novel on the continent, and with it Alberto shot to fame.

The reason for his writing is related to his long struggle with illness as a teenager.

At the age of nine, he was stricken with bone tuberculosis, which stopped his studies. He spent over five years recuperating in bed. It was this period of depression that gave Alberto a more sensitive and delicate observation.

The book does not have the same plot layout as other novels, and in my opinion, his content is even too depressingly trivial, but I have to say that after reading "The Indifferent Man", I just want to tell you that to live a real, hot life, you have to refuse indifference.

This is perhaps where the writer Albera succeeds.