Agostino's weird self-discovery vacay

 This book made me feel quite uncomfortable and weird when I was reading it. There were a few lines within this book that I had to read over to make sure I was reading it right because they were quiteand were lowkey really gross. For instance when Agostino was looking through the door and watching his mom change and was sexualizing her body at such a young age made me super sad and made me remember how I don’t like Sigmund Freud. This novel has definitely been the easiest read so far in terms of how I understood the text, but the most unrelatable as well. Reading Agostino go through different stages of thinking in such a short period of time kept the book interesting and I really did not know the direction the book was gonna go. 


“Saro was startled, and without letting go he opened his eyes, turned, and looked at Agostino. In the boy's face there must have been such wild-eyed repulsion, such barely concealed terror, that Saro seemed to realize immediately that plan had failed. Slowly, finger by finger, he released Agostino's aching hand…”  


This part I think is where things got super weird for me to read. Because the whole time, I thought of Saro as like their parent figure and little did I think he was gonna turn out to be a pedo and make moves on young boys in a boat, but the weird part to me is, they all still hang around him and the little black boy, who they were so racist to by the way, wanted to go on the boat with Saro and bribed Agostino to not come in with him. I think that part could be somewhat up for interpretation but to my understanding is really sad and disgusting after finding out Saro’s motives on the boat rides. Also where is Agostino’s mom when her young son is off running around with a bunch of strange kids and an old man?? Like she kind of just dipped on boat rides with different men while on vacation apparently while not really questioning where her kid is? That part also seemed weird to me. 


There was also something so symbolic about Agostino breaking is childhood piggy bank to get money to try and go to a brothel. Like that was him breaking out of childhood and losing innocence when he transitions into a more adult way of thinking about some things and learning more about his sexuality and sexuality in general. I guess 13 is the age where you do start being curious about some things and exploring for sure, but this take on it and using Freudian theory made this transition seem a lot more gross than I thought of it to be. This boy Agostino is left at the end of the book in a state of confusion and of no belonging anywhere which leaves us to make up our own ending for him which is very common for the endings of books but I did not like this ending for this particular case. It just left me with a weird feeling after putting down the book and left me thinking if every 13 year old boy thinks like this? 

 

Overall a very easy but uncomfortable read but did keep me engaged and finished it in one sitting. 

Comments

  1. UBCdave31 January 2026 at 23:50

    yup every 13 year old boy :) that's the age men are their most disgusting so I understand your general gross feelings. But I really came to say that I loved your comment about the piggy bank breaking being symbolic, I totally missed that, thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Matteya1 February 2026 at 18:11

    I agree this book was extremely uncomfortable. I went from admiring Saro for taking these boys under his wing to hating him for his intentions :(
    I love what you said about the piggy bank. That's such a great observation and I hadn't thought of that before!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Meta - Sol 1 February 2026 at 18:57

    “There was also something so symbolic about Agostino breaking is childhood piggy bank to get money to try and go to a brothel. Like that was him breaking out of childhood and losing innocence when he transitions into a more adult way of thinking about some things and learning more about his sexuality and sexuality in general”
    Totally symbolic! Good job.
    We can discuss it during the class.
    See you tomorrow.
    Julián.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jon Beasley-Murray2 February 2026 at 01:13

    Don’t forget to use categories or labels (this week: Moravia), also to indicate key concepts and ideas in your post: Freud? sexuality? loss of innocence?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jennifer Kim2 February 2026 at 19:08

    Hello, I also started off by thinking that Saro would be someone Agostino could rely on, to find acceptance when he felt lonely (from being "torn" away from his mother). However, I soon realized that he was not a good influence. This was similar to Berto, who I originally thought was an innocent boy. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete

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