Agostino: A 13-Year-Old’s Coming of Age Story

The uncomfortable and intimate relationship between a mother and son in Agostino felt similar to that of Swann’s way. Yet, Agostino’s desire for his mother was much more sexual. 

To begin, I noticed there was a lot of language about bodies, particularly women’s bodies. This, in combination with the crying and nakedness of the body in this story, provides a theme of what I believe is vulnerability. The narration surrounding women’s bodies was borderline erotic, in which the descriptions about breasts were vivid. Due to the narrator focusing solely on Agostino’s thoughts, I gathered that these descriptions may be from Agostino’s point of view. That is, Agostino views his mother’s body so lustfully. Agostino wishes to say to his mother, “cover yourself, stop showing yourself to me, I’m not who I used to be” (60), though his mother may not be trying to show herself to him, rather he does not have the self-control not to look. This is also shown by, “alone with his mother, he felt prey to every temptation” (71). Furthermore, it seems as though Agostino is looking for maternal care from the sex worker at the end of the book. 

Agostino compares his mother going on the boat with another man to his cousin choosing to dance with another boy. The narrator writes that Agostino feels abandoned, but is unhappy even when his mother brings him along. This feels as though he has an anxious attachment style where he fears his mother feeling happy with someone else. While he appears to be fearful of rejection and humiliation, also shown by “no one noticed except Agostino. But he was mortified beyond measure and had the impression that everyone had witnessed his humiliation” (7), he did not feel so embarrassed upon being rejected by the other boy in the game of cops and robbers on page 17 and 18. This prompts readers to wonder whether this fear is greater around women or family members. 

As 13-year-olds often are, Agostino is trying to find a place to fit in, going as far as “decid[ing] to be the person [the other boys] wanted him to be, one identical to them” (73). These boys were older than him, and he tried his hardest to mimic their behaviour despite being repulsed by it. On page 98, after being rejected by the sex worker, Agostino was the most upset that “the two men had treated him like a child” (98). On the very last page, Agostino is upset and says to his mother, “you always treat me like a baby” (102), despite the fact that “he wasn’t a man, and many unhappy days would pass before he became one” (102). This ties together that this book is a coming of age story, simply one that we may not be used to due to the themes of sex and, well, a preteen’s desire for his mother. 

I would like to know what you think of Agostino in the comments.

• Do you think that Agostino is a people pleaser, as he does things to upset his mother yet longs to be accepted by everyone?
• How does the limited omniscient narration affect this story? (i.e. the narrator is in third person but focuses on Agostino’s thoughts)