"La Vita Agra" by Luciano Bianciardi

The protagonist is fired from his job at a mine after an explosion kills numerous miners, due to, for the most part, neglect on the part of management. He is intent on getting revenge and plots to blow up the headquarters of the mining company. He moves to Milan and gets involved with a woman named Anna, a leftist journalist, and takes on a job as a translator. Little by little, his plans fade away and the more and more he becomes ensconced in the “economic miracle” of the new Milan, his ideals fading away like vapor on glass.
The entire novel is a satyrical look of the modern age: advertising (particularly sex in advertising), capitalism, consumerism, etc, and it is brilliantly done, Bianciardi’s “tone” as a writer is not to dissimilar from his American counterparts at the time. (Thomas Pynchon comes to mind). I’m not sure how easy this novel is to find these days (I just happened to stumble on it at The Strand one afternoon) but if you can get your hands on it, I would recommend that you snap it up and read this. For those who are interested in post-War Italian history, this is one not to be missed.