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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Scorrevole, ripetitivo, molto descrittivo, simpatico, famigliare
Reading this book is what I imagine it might be like to listen to your Italian grandmother tell you a very winding and plotless story - some interesting parts and characters, but sort of skimming the surface. Who are these people? How do they know each other? Oh, we're jumping back in time to this story now? I liked Ginzburg's motif of language and anecdotes connecting her family together through the years. I enjoyed the description of her mother especially. But I kind of felt like we missed out on a lot of the meatier parts of a wartime novel. I get that she's trying to depict the mundane lives they were still able to lead during the war, but still. Her husband was tortured to death by the Nazis and we get, like, 2 lines about it!
funny
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The section on the grief, trauma and stasis of Italy after fascism will stick with me, as will the section of Cesare Pavese’s suicide and how he “thought” himself into it.
The characters are all very flawed as a real family is. It does give me a glimpse into a kind of family that has much more range of emotions than your normal Anglophone family, particularly in my part of the Anglosphere, where reserve is prized almost more than wealth.
It’s also quite funny.
The characters are all very flawed as a real family is. It does give me a glimpse into a kind of family that has much more range of emotions than your normal Anglophone family, particularly in my part of the Anglosphere, where reserve is prized almost more than wealth.
It’s also quite funny.
“It takes one word, one sentence, one of the old ones from our childhood, heard and repeated countless times… and we immediately fall back into our old relationship, our childhood, our youth, all inextricably linked to those words and phrases.”
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
My father always woke up at four o'clock in the morning. After getting out of bed, his first concern was to go and see if the mezzorado had turned out well. Mezzorado was a kind of sour milk he'd been taught how to make by shepherds in Sardinia. It was actually just yogurt….
Whenever we went on our summer holiday we had to remember to bring the mezzorado yeast base, or “mother," which was kept in a small cup, securely wrapped and tied up with string. "Where is the mother? Did you bring the mother?" my father would ask on the train, rummaging through a rucksack.
Whenever we went on our summer holiday we had to remember to bring the mezzorado yeast base, or “mother," which was kept in a small cup, securely wrapped and tied up with string. "Where is the mother? Did you bring the mother?" my father would ask on the train, rummaging through a rucksack.