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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
First published in 1952, Natalia Ginzburg’s All Our Yesterdays is a big-hearted and rambunctious tale chronicling the ups and downs of two Italian families during the Second World War and the events leading up to it.
It’s not an easy book to like — it’s so richly detailed as to be almost impenetrable, not helped by next to no paragraph breaks – but it is wholly immersive once you commit time to it and let the family dynamics and political dramas work their magic.
There’s no central character to steer you through the complexity of lives being lived, first under Fascist rule, then under German occupation, although the blurb on my edition claims it’s Anna, the quiet, teenage daughter of one of the families.
But it could just as easily be Cenzo Rena, the kindly, sociable, well-travelled man more than 30 years her senior, whom she marries to protect her reputation when she falls pregnant to the self-interested boy across the road. (That boy cruelly fobs her off with a 1,000-lire note to arrange an underground abortion, as if that will solve everything.)
Regardless, the narrative offers enough drama and intrigue to keep the reader turning the pages without a main protagonist.
The story is divided into two parts. The first sets the scene and introduces us to a vast cast of characters — two families who live across the street from one another in Northern Italy — and highlights how their secret work to oppose the Fascist regime in the 1930s unites them despite the disparity in their wealth (one family owns a soap factory, the other is headed by a middle-class widower with little disposable income).
The second part focuses more on Anna and Cenzo’s marriage and charts what happens when 16-year-old Anna swaps her familial world for a new life in a new town with a man she barely knows.
This richly drawn novel manages to successfully show how family dynamics and the minutiae of daily life play out against a broader backdrop of political upheaval and uncertainty.
Ginzburg successfully shows how the Italians, confronted with war and its associated violence and food shortages, continued to live their lives as best they could. References to the German advancement across Europe, the fall of Mussolini and the rumours of Jewish persecution are mentioned almost in passing, but for the reader who has the benefit of hindsight, it’s hard not to feel the chilling hand of history.
For a more detailed review, please visit my blog.
It’s not an easy book to like — it’s so richly detailed as to be almost impenetrable, not helped by next to no paragraph breaks – but it is wholly immersive once you commit time to it and let the family dynamics and political dramas work their magic.
There’s no central character to steer you through the complexity of lives being lived, first under Fascist rule, then under German occupation, although the blurb on my edition claims it’s Anna, the quiet, teenage daughter of one of the families.
But it could just as easily be Cenzo Rena, the kindly, sociable, well-travelled man more than 30 years her senior, whom she marries to protect her reputation when she falls pregnant to the self-interested boy across the road. (That boy cruelly fobs her off with a 1,000-lire note to arrange an underground abortion, as if that will solve everything.)
Regardless, the narrative offers enough drama and intrigue to keep the reader turning the pages without a main protagonist.
The story is divided into two parts. The first sets the scene and introduces us to a vast cast of characters — two families who live across the street from one another in Northern Italy — and highlights how their secret work to oppose the Fascist regime in the 1930s unites them despite the disparity in their wealth (one family owns a soap factory, the other is headed by a middle-class widower with little disposable income).
The second part focuses more on Anna and Cenzo’s marriage and charts what happens when 16-year-old Anna swaps her familial world for a new life in a new town with a man she barely knows.
This richly drawn novel manages to successfully show how family dynamics and the minutiae of daily life play out against a broader backdrop of political upheaval and uncertainty.
Ginzburg successfully shows how the Italians, confronted with war and its associated violence and food shortages, continued to live their lives as best they could. References to the German advancement across Europe, the fall of Mussolini and the rumours of Jewish persecution are mentioned almost in passing, but for the reader who has the benefit of hindsight, it’s hard not to feel the chilling hand of history.
For a more detailed review, please visit my blog.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i think some of these words were meant for me
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Interesting character study on what people would do during war time.
like a real window into little everyday lives during monumental world events
I liked but didn’t love this one. Sally Rooney wrote the forward so I may have had too high of expectations going in. I really enjoyed the writing but didn’t feel fully invested in the characters. It took me while to get through it.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No