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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
More of a 2.5 maybe idk up and down and up and down idk what’s happening the whole time!!!
fast-paced
it’s a straight 1970s Call Me By Your Name 🍇🥃
“There was a great sadness on the speed at which the days were getting shorter. As if they were trying to redeem something that was irredeemable. With a sense of heartache, I thought about September, when the ferocity of summer would abate.”
“There was a great sadness on the speed at which the days were getting shorter. As if they were trying to redeem something that was irredeemable. With a sense of heartache, I thought about September, when the ferocity of summer would abate.”
dark
funny
lighthearted
sad
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:
Yes
This quickly became one of my favorite books of all time. It’s easygoing, lighthearted and entertaining with a solid collection of memorable quotes (I’m at the end of my tether, truth be told). The plot was subtle yet compelling, and while the ending was shocking, it still felt satisfactory. I’m looking forward to challenging my Italian and reading the author’s other works.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
adventurous
medium-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
I really enjoyed the writing and the story-telling in this book. I know that it was well done because I’m normally not one to like books or movies etc where the main character is a lousy drunk who can’t do anything right. This book kind of made me think of Inside Llewyn Davis, which is a movie I hate. I compared the two because the main character keeps doing annoying ass things and you just want to shake them and make them do what you think they should do.
However, I really enjoyed this book. I think the writing really helped the reader to understand Leo’s anguish and depression and struggle with alcoholism. I thought Arianna could’ve been a little more three dimensional. She was just kind of mentally ill and unstable without much else going on in her character. Overall quick read and enjoyed it.
However, I really enjoyed this book. I think the writing really helped the reader to understand Leo’s anguish and depression and struggle with alcoholism. I thought Arianna could’ve been a little more three dimensional. She was just kind of mentally ill and unstable without much else going on in her character. Overall quick read and enjoyed it.
Excellent book to read in one sitting, I felt like I was spinning out in real time. Characters were pretty unlikable but that's not necessarily a bad thing, Leo had kind of a 30 year old Italian Holden Caufield vibe going on which I enjoyed. I loved the lucid descriptions of Rome in the late 60s, excellently captured a moment in time and took me there. I recommend!
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
To say this book took me almost a week to finish when it’s less than 200 pages is telling.
This is very much vibes not plot but the vibes were boring and dull.
The 2 main characters were unrelatable and unrealistic, their lives were unrealistic and the conversations they had were bland and so uninformative.
It was very much manic pixie dream girl and depressed hot guy seemingly fall in love after 1 conversation together.
This is very much vibes not plot but the vibes were boring and dull.
The 2 main characters were unrelatable and unrealistic, their lives were unrealistic and the conversations they had were bland and so uninformative.
It was very much manic pixie dream girl and depressed hot guy seemingly fall in love after 1 conversation together.
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Last Summer in the City is a beautifully melancholic love letter to Rome, though their relationship is often unrequited. Leo, an alcoholic drifter, has managed to get through life on luck and friendship. The summer in question is that of his thirtieth birthday, and he feels on the cusp of something. At the start of the book, he is sober (though going in and out of dry spells is a recurring pattern), though his life is pure hedonist chaos – from a newspaper job he rarely shows up for to passing out and coming to days later. Then he meets Arianna, and his life spins from kooky to downright crazy.
Arianna is very much an Italian manic pixie dream girl archetype. She spends languorous days napping, swimming and considering the idea of studying architecture, while her nights consist of quarreling with her sister Eva or playing with her ever-present deck of solitaire. The two fall instantly in love – though they’d each rather die than let the other know their true feelings – and spend their days and nights driving through the streets of Rome, from long afternoons at checked-tableclothed cafes to staying up until sunrise, sampling the freshest bread straight from the baker’s hands. It’s all so gorgeous, yet there is an undertone of warning that pulses just beneath the novel’s surface, cautioning that this kind of life (this luck!) cannot sustain itself, driving the story forward.
Originally published in 1973, this novel was only translated into English in 2021 (sadly, the author’s only work to have been done so yet). Andre Aciman wrote the foreword, which seemed apt as both authors are brilliant at writing about desire, both of desire for other people (often the thwarted kind) and for love of one’s city. This novel is likely not for everyone, but I absolutely loved it, not least of all for lines like: “I opened a book and tried to give myself over to that persuasive inner voice with which we all read. A voice is different for each of us if each of our souls are different, identical if identical, but in every case perfect, with no false notes, the untrained voice we perhaps have before we come screaming into the world. “
Arianna is very much an Italian manic pixie dream girl archetype. She spends languorous days napping, swimming and considering the idea of studying architecture, while her nights consist of quarreling with her sister Eva or playing with her ever-present deck of solitaire. The two fall instantly in love – though they’d each rather die than let the other know their true feelings – and spend their days and nights driving through the streets of Rome, from long afternoons at checked-tableclothed cafes to staying up until sunrise, sampling the freshest bread straight from the baker’s hands. It’s all so gorgeous, yet there is an undertone of warning that pulses just beneath the novel’s surface, cautioning that this kind of life (this luck!) cannot sustain itself, driving the story forward.
Originally published in 1973, this novel was only translated into English in 2021 (sadly, the author’s only work to have been done so yet). Andre Aciman wrote the foreword, which seemed apt as both authors are brilliant at writing about desire, both of desire for other people (often the thwarted kind) and for love of one’s city. This novel is likely not for everyone, but I absolutely loved it, not least of all for lines like: “I opened a book and tried to give myself over to that persuasive inner voice with which we all read. A voice is different for each of us if each of our souls are different, identical if identical, but in every case perfect, with no false notes, the untrained voice we perhaps have before we come screaming into the world. “
reflective
medium-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