Zeno's Conscience (2019)

Anyone who has sworn off a bad habit on a meaningful date and lapsed by lunchtime will recognize Zeno Cosini. Svevo's narrator writes his memoir for his psychoanalyst, and his famous resolutions to smoke one last cigarette, each one followed by another, set the tone for a life of self-serving excuses he narrates with a perfectly straight face. The comedy is quiet and sly rather than slapstick: the joke is how thoroughly Zeno rearranges the truth to flatter himself. William Weaver's translation was the first new English version in more than seventy years, and it reads freshly. Look for it rather than the older Confessions of Zeno.