The Story of My Purity

by Francesco Pacifico

Stephen Stephen Twilley (Translator) and Stephen Twilley (Translator)

The Story of My Purity is the uproariously funny novel by Francesco Pacifico.

Thirty years old and already trapped in a sexless marriage, Piero Rosini has decided to dedicate his life to Jesus. Novels and music were filling his head with bullshit; his bourgeois life in a fancy neighborhood had taken him far away from spiritual purity and the Lord's truth. So he's moved to an unfinished housing development on the outskirts of Rome and thrown himself into his work at an ultraconservative Catholic publishing house, editing books that highlight the decadence and degradation of modern society: among them, a book claiming that Pope John Paul II was secretly Jewish.

Witty, irreverent and timely, The Story of My Purity is an unmissable new novel from a brand new voice in European fiction.

Praise for The Story of My Purity:

'And so Pacifico's book falls deliciously into our laps. One of the most talented writers of his generation, one of the few who takes words seriously. This is what one calls style' Vanity Fair (Italy)

'Ho, ho and ho! Insanely funny and terrifically offensive, Francisco Pacifico's novel fell on my head like a bowling ball and knocked me the hell out. Among many other things, it's also a great updating of Roman life. Sure to be a modern Italian classic' Gary Shteyngart

'With these viscerally honest and hilarious adventures of a young Roman struggling to free himself from the cynicism of Berlusconi's "bunga bunga" Italy and the moral absolutism of the Catholic church, Francesco Pacifico revives the Italian comic novel. The writing is ribald but never vulgar, extremely smart about friendship and sex but without pretension. You'll laugh aloud, want to hide your blushing face in the pillow, and argue with the author, all at once' Marco Roth

Francesco Pacifico has written for a number of Italian publications, as well as for Rolling Stone and GQ, and has translated into Italian the works of Henry Miller, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dave Eggers, Will Eisner, and more. He lives in Rome.

Stephen Twilley is associate editor at the online review Public Books and assistant editor at New York Review Books Classics. He is also the translator of Marina Mander's novel The First True Lie (2013).

• ISBN10: 0141399503
• ISBN13: 9780141399508
• Publish Date: 6 February 2014 (first published 5 March 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

Thirty year old Piero Rosini wants to live a life of purity, wholly dedicated to God with a dream of become a modern day saint. Living in a sexless marriage, Piero spends his days working in a conservative Catholic publishing house. Although this publishing house was not conservative enough; they plan to publish a book that makes the claim that Pope John Paul II was secretly Jewish. He plans to leave and start an ultraconservative publishing house, where he can have more control over the content being released. The Story of My Purity is a novel that explores religion in relationship to faith, freedom and purity.

Living life with the idea of becoming a modern day saint, trying to do everything right and be perfect really sets up the satirical nature of this novel. Saint Augustine of Hippo’s autobiographical book Confessions comes to mind when I think about the difference between Saints and people who try to live a sinless life. I found that this novel really dealt with the idea of spirituality and religion in an interesting way. There is an exploration with the idea of freedom and faith when it comes to organised religion (in this case the Catholic Church).

A little understanding of theology really helps understand The Story of My Purity and the humour behind it. Firstly, when it comes to the seven deadly sins; it is alright to feel envy, greed and so on. The Church’s teaching on the seven deadly sins, is that these are gateways that can lead to trouble, so we should be aware of these feelings and learn to understand them. Although, there have been a lot of misconceptions around the deadly sins, that have led to the concept of Catholic guilt.

For Piero Rosini, he never learned to manage his lust, he went to a priest for help and was told not to think about women. Piero really took this advice on board to the point that he was unable to get an erection to consummate his one marriage. His sexless marriage was a result of him constantly trying to not think about sex, or feel a sexual attraction to his own wife. Although it proves impossible to not have sexual thoughts, and Piero’s life of purity began to unravel with the help of an attraction to his sister-in-law and spam emails.

The satirical nature of this novel comes from the fact people do not understand what the Church says about sex. Pope John Paul II did 129 lectures on the Theology of the Body, going through the Churches views on sex and sexuality. These lectures are about understanding your body, your desires and attraction. The theology should never feel restrictive by religion, rather we should be free and it should correct people’s misassumptions on the Churches teaching. Although the author may not have written this as a satire and this was actually his thoughts on Catholicism.

Unfortunately The Story of My Purity was not a great book, I loved viewing the book as a satire and exploring the theology behind it. However it did take a direction that I did not enjoy and ended up falling on its face. I am fascinated by theology and I feel like this could have been a great novel. The predictability of the book was just too much of a stumbling block for me. I am curious on Francesco Pacifico thoughts on Catholicism; I viewed the book as satire and would hate to think of it as anything else. I have also done a video review on this novel, if you are curious; although I think I talk about all the same ideas.

This review original appeared on my blog; http://www.knowledgelost.org/literature/book-reviews/genre/contemporary/the-story-of-my-purity-by-francesco-pacifico/