Fleeing War. Due strategie di diserzione letteraria: I parenti del Sud di Carlo Montella e Going After Cacciato di Tim O’Brien

This paper investigates two kinds of desertions represented in two war novels: Carlo Montella’s I parenti del Sud and Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato. I claim that the desertions described in these novels are directly linked with the specific war that is the backdrop of the book. The hero of I parenti del Sud, still confused by Fascist ideology, deserts and run away to a relative’s house in order to clear his head. Instead, in Going After Cacciato, the protagonist’s desertion seems to have the same grotesque and bizarre traits of the background conflict: The Vietnam War.