Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Last Summer in the City

Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Last Summer in the City by Gianfranco Calligarich

4 reviews

jayisreading's review against another edition

reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

I can see why André Aciman wrote the foreword for Calligarich’s book— It’s not only because it’s set in Italy; it’s the writing style and atmosphere (along with all the literary references), the way the characters idly wander and sit with their loneliness that made me wonder to what extent Calligarich (and perhaps similar Italian authors) have influenced Aciman. In his foreword, Aciman writes:

Rome is the lingering, glamorous patina that blinds the characters of Last Summer in the City to the very real fact that they are seriously damaged and marooned.

I think this is a good sentence that makes clear what you’ll find in Calligarich’s novel. Which takes me to the actual novel—

I really did like the way Calligarich lingered, whether it be on moments, through the streets of Rome, or between characters. It almost felt as though you were watching a 1970s Italian film. Rome is a character, in a way, considering the way the characters reacted to the city throughout this novel. Early on in the novel, this is pretty well established, presenting Rome as a woman, with whom “[t]here can be no half measures with her, either she’s the love of your life or you have to leave her, because that’s what the tender beast demands, to be loved.”

It’s a novel in which you observe the protagonist drift and spiral. It’s honestly a rather depressing book, despite having somewhat of a lackadaisical air to it. The emotional delivery was well done, and the translator seems to have succeeded in getting this across.

It’s clear this book is dated in the way Calligarich approaches mental illness (flippantly), female characters (flattened and objectified), and male characters (boys’ club energy along with a dash of chauvinism). The world was very rose-tinted, certainly helped by the lyrical writing. It did get tiring though. Oh, and there was a good helping of blatant homophobia that was entirely unnecessary that really threw me off.

All-in-all, though, it was interesting to pick this book up, especially considering that I’ve barely touched Italian literature (specifically anything dated after the sixteenth century, welp). I’d be curious to read more modern literary works from Italy.

Content Warnings