Scan barcode
saraaaa's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
When I first approached this book, I expected a historical family saga ending in tragedy; however, it developed into a doomed love story, though still deeply immersed and interlinked with the 1930s Italy setting and the social consequences of the Italian racial laws on the Jewish protagonists. There's a lingering sense of doom every time the future is mentioned – be it projects for the coming year, exams a few months later, even the weather changing with the season. The reader can't but think – they won't get there; they will have been dead by then. That's what genocide is – ordinary lives, wiped out systematically. You know it'll happen, because it's no tragedy: it's a program, with set dates and objectives. The lightness with which even the victims take the racial laws and their implications puts today's political climate in an even scarier perspective.
The novel incarnates the will, or rather, the need to put down on paper the memories of a past, of a micro-culture, of a personal universe that has been wiped out of and by History, and that only survives in said memories; and the author does this very well, as never once I got the impression that the narrator was creating fictitious details to enrich the story, as it often happens when a novel is introduced by a narrator that chose to take a walk on memory lane.
The writing style was quite different from what I'm used to enjoy, especially in that it used very long periods which often took up more than half a page. Still, the short chapters really helped with quick reading. Finally, I really appreciated the very frequent references to other authors and works of literature – from Melville to Manzoni, from Gramsci to Stendhal. Had I more time, it would've been very interesting to see how they interacted with the text on an intertextual level!
The novel incarnates the will, or rather, the need to put down on paper the memories of a past, of a micro-culture, of a personal universe that has been wiped out of and by History, and that only survives in said memories; and the author does this very well, as never once I got the impression that the narrator was creating fictitious details to enrich the story, as it often happens when a novel is introduced by a narrator that chose to take a walk on memory lane.
The writing style was quite different from what I'm used to enjoy, especially in that it used very long periods which often took up more than half a page. Still, the short chapters really helped with quick reading. Finally, I really appreciated the very frequent references to other authors and works of literature – from Melville to Manzoni, from Gramsci to Stendhal. Had I more time, it would've been very interesting to see how they interacted with the text on an intertextual level!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism, Racism, Sexual harassment, and Terminal illness
Minor: Genocide, Racial slurs, Deportation, and Death
asililydying's review against another edition
4.75
honest and always searching for that tinge of the heart in the past, no matter the rending and implacable nature
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism, Toxic friendship, Genocide, Classism, War, and Homophobia
faksi's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism
More...