47 pages • 1 hour read
Thomas PynchonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Fausto Maijstral is Paola’s father. His Confessions are an autobiography, though in them he refers to past versions of himself as though they were different people.
At university, Fausto befriends the writers Maratt (the namesake of a key participant in the French Revolution of 1779) and Dnubietna (“our sins” in Maltese), who view themselves as “a grand School of Anglo-Maltese Poetry” (140). After university, Fausto joined a seminary. His training to become a priest was interrupted when he fell in love with Elena Xemxi (Maltese for “sunny”). Elena became pregnant and eventually gave birth to Paola. Fausto, Dnubietna, and an unscrupulous merchant named Tifkira survive the bombing of Malta, managing to escape to the neighborhood of Ta Kali.
Fausto describes being with Elena during the WWII Siege of Malta. Deeply in love, they stroll through town, eat, and watch children play. As the day grows cold, Fausto feels his anxieties mount.
Fausto blames his affair with Elena on the Bad Priest, who also has a sinister influence on the children who follow him through the streets and keep him under “surveillance” (157). Elena had her own encounters with the Bad Priest, who recommended that Elena abort her pregnancy.
Elena is killed when a German bombing raid blows up her volunteer ambulance.
By Thomas Pynchon
Addiction
View Collection
American Literature
View Collection
Appearance Versus Reality
View Collection
Books on U.S. History
View Collection
Colonialism & Postcolonialism
View Collection
European History
View Collection
Fathers
View Collection
Historical Fiction
View Collection
Memorial Day Reads
View Collection
Memory
View Collection
Military Reads
View Collection
Order & Chaos
View Collection
Satire
View Collection
School Book List Titles
View Collection
The Future
View Collection
The Past
View Collection
True Crime & Legal
View Collection
Trust & Doubt
View Collection
Truth & Lies
View Collection
War
View Collection