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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
«Chiunque ha un’avventura da raccontare, o di cui si continua a sparlare anche dopo anni e anni. Io no. L’unico episodio che mi piacerebbe strillare al mondo è un petardo che butta giù un paio di case o tre. Una favola bella, seppure triste. Parla di un amore lasciato sullo stradone a mezzanotte».
Storia malinconica, tragica e reale, l'analisi della vita della protagonista ormai anziana, analizzando tutte le speranza infrante e le promesse spezzate. Molto scorrevole e piacevole, ma era davvero necessario la quasi plot line incestuosa che Nives risolve chiedendo a un suo vecchio amante cinquantenne di andare a letto con la figlia diciottenne? Ci serviva davvero?
Lo consiglierei? Sì, è un racconto abbastanza corto e carino, anche se ha i suoi difetti. La gallina è cucciolissima tho.
Storia malinconica, tragica e reale, l'analisi della vita della protagonista ormai anziana, analizzando tutte le speranza infrante e le promesse spezzate. Molto scorrevole e piacevole, ma era davvero necessario la quasi plot line incestuosa che Nives risolve chiedendo a un suo vecchio amante cinquantenne di andare a letto con la figlia diciottenne? Ci serviva davvero?
Lo consiglierei? Sì, è un racconto abbastanza corto e carino, anche se ha i suoi difetti. La gallina è cucciolissima tho.
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
The way Nives’s story unfurled was surprising and moving. There was a wacky energy that I really liked – how a chicken hypnotized by a Tide commercial sets off a meandering and ultimately cathartic phone conversation that rehashes a lifetime of relationships swirling around in a small Tuscan town. The ending clonked a bit but overall I was enchanted by Nives.
Notte al telefono
Parte che non capisco bene cosa dovrà capitare e come. Poi c'è una telefonata e da lì fila tutto, via una cosa, via l'altra. C'è un giocare sui ricordi che mi è piaciuto parecchio, c'è una successione di rivelazioni ma, soprattutto, un modo originale di giocare su un tema che invece originale non è (cosa sarebbe successo delle nostre vite se...). Bravo il Naspini nostro.
Parte che non capisco bene cosa dovrà capitare e come. Poi c'è una telefonata e da lì fila tutto, via una cosa, via l'altra. C'è un giocare sui ricordi che mi è piaciuto parecchio, c'è una successione di rivelazioni ma, soprattutto, un modo originale di giocare su un tema che invece originale non è (cosa sarebbe successo delle nostre vite se...). Bravo il Naspini nostro.
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love how this book unfolds and evolves. Initially, I found it delightfully laughable. When her husband dies, Nives brings a chicken inside to live with her. With the hen's company, Nives doesn't miss her husband at all.
When Nives calls the local vet (of course about the chicken), their long and intimate conversation digs through the past and their family lives in a way that becomes decidedly less laughable. The book keeps its edge of humor, but adds a serious dose of decades of secrets, family, and a happy liberation.
When Nives calls the local vet (of course about the chicken), their long and intimate conversation digs through the past and their family lives in a way that becomes decidedly less laughable. The book keeps its edge of humor, but adds a serious dose of decades of secrets, family, and a happy liberation.
This book is so short, yet it contains an entire lifetime in one phone conversation. A masterful distillation of Tuscan village life, with an old world feeling, although the setting is relatively contemporary (2012 or thereabouts?), and the twists and turns in the family drama are worthy of a British procedural.
I'm asking you as a doctor: is it normal to replace a husband with a chicken, and not to miss anything about the husband, not even for half a minute?
This is advertised as a "story of undying love, loss, and resilience" but I would characterize it as a story of selfishness, cowardice, and stupidity. It's a little mortifying to consider the possibility that more than a tiny fraction of people in the real world might resemble the protagonists. Personally, the only character I found likable was the chicken.
Spoiler
(I'm delighted to report that the chicken gets a happy ending.)That said, the increasingly-salacious conversation between two cranky elderly people that constitutes the bulk of the book is completely absorbing, in much the same way that I imagine soap operas are.
Spoiler
Loriano and Nives have an affair and make plans to elope without warning their spouses. Nives tries to follow through, but Loriano either gets cold feet or was never sincere to begin with. Bizarrely, the book seems to want us to judge Nives to be entirely the victim and Loriano to be pure scum; even Loriano's wife, Donatella, instantly sympathizes with Nives when the affair is revealed. But both of them revealed their reckless disregard for others by having the affair in the first place. And both of them reaffirmed that disregard by their subsequent actions: Nives was ready to ghost her husband (there's no indication that he had wronged her), while Loriano just wanted to keep it all a secret and escape consequences. I think any morally sound handling of this situation would begin with each of them confessing the affair and being honest with their spouses about their intentions, whatever those intentions may be.Spoiler
At the end of their phone call, Nives has developed such a low opinion of Loriano (and a high opinion of Anteo by contrast) that she reinterprets her entire life, now pleased with how things went: "Six lives wouldn't be long enough to leaf through the golden album that has suddenly opened inside me." This strikes me as a paltry substitute for an actually happy life. Can a few years of belated gratefulness really make up for decades of bitter resentment?(crossposted from https://brokensandals.net/reviews/2022/nives)