Vasco Pratolini's Family Diary - 1945

In 1945 Rome, Enrico Corsi reflects on his relationship with his eight-years-younger brother Lorenzo, who has just succumbed to a long, debilitating illness in Florence at age 27. Their mother passed away days after Lorenzo's birth from complications of childbirth exacerbated by illness. With their veteran father still in the hospital at the time unable to care for his sons, Lorenzo was taken in by Sig. Salocchi, the butler of a wealthy English baron, literally to be raised as his and his wife's son in privilege, while Enrico remained with their maternal grandmother in relative poverty. The brothers did not get to spend any real time together or get to know each other until 1935, when Lorenzo was on the cusp of adulthood. For Enrico, theirs ended up being a largely strained but still loving relationship. Despite growing up in wealth, Lorenzo, who longed for what Enrico had, namely a history with blood relations, was unable to cope with real life once he no longer had access to that privilege. Although Enrico would admit that his own life was nowhere near perfect, he struggling to discover and thus achieve his own dreams, he tried to get Lorenzo at least to search for his place in life rather than just lament what could or did not be in what cards he was dealt.