The Via Veneto Papers by Ennio Flaiano (1973)

This volume in the original Italian was called something like The Solitude of the Satyr, or, in a play on words, The Solitude of Satire. In any case, the most famous part, essays surrounding the making and genesis of La Dolce Vita, gave the volume its English title. They are a less effective part, leaving an aftertaste of ennui and world-weariness. Flaiano's main theme in all these 'essays' is the degeneration of society and its current tragic absurdities. After The Via Veneto Papers comes the main bulk of the book, and its finer part. These are the Occasional Notebooks, where his humour and belief in life is allowed much more sway, and the sparks of his mind really ignite. Musings of all sorts from zingy fictionalised satires on current mores to heartfelt journeys into the damage we are doing to our spirits in modern life give the true measure of his thought. Finally there are the few pages of his last interview (with Giulio Villa Santa of Swiss-Italian radio) in 1972. It has to be said that there are revelations in this which are not terribly complimentary - his interview responses sometimes show up a kind of blindness, a lack of vital goat- vs sheep-sorting. He still, however, with his faults accounted for, provides a strong-winded and robust cultural commentary.