Take a photo of a barcode or cover
francesca_felicia's review against another edition
4.0
Il viaggio del lettore comincia da Milano dove fa la conoscenza del protagonista di questa fiaba. Si tratta del conte Aleardo, detto Daddo, un giovane architetto appartenere all’alta società lombarda. Egli, nato e cresciuto nell’agiatezza più totale, ignora completamente il mondo reale e, nonostante ciò, come si vede nel corso dell’opera, a modo suo si dimostra estremamente umano e compassionevole.
All’inizio di questo romanzo, che appartiene a più generi contemporaneamente (realismo magico, avventura, critica sociale), Daddo, per volontà della madre e per fare un favore ad Adelchi, un editore suo amico, si imbarca alla volta di terre da acquistare e in cui scovare libri “folkloristici” da pubblicare in patria. Il viaggio lo porterà sulle sponde dell’isola di Ocaña, situata di fronte alle coste del Portogallo. Da qui sogno e realtà cominciano a confondersi, anche se il lettore ne prenderà piena coscienza soltanto verso la fine del libro.
All’inizio di questo romanzo, che appartiene a più generi contemporaneamente (realismo magico, avventura, critica sociale), Daddo, per volontà della madre e per fare un favore ad Adelchi, un editore suo amico, si imbarca alla volta di terre da acquistare e in cui scovare libri “folkloristici” da pubblicare in patria. Il viaggio lo porterà sulle sponde dell’isola di Ocaña, situata di fronte alle coste del Portogallo. Da qui sogno e realtà cominciano a confondersi, anche se il lettore ne prenderà piena coscienza soltanto verso la fine del libro.
madameproust's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
korrick's review against another edition
2.0
I don't understand the point of this book. There's a possible point to it that I understand all too well, but it's such an odiously neurotypical one that I am hesitant to write Ortese off so completely without further inquiry. However, it's rather disappointing that, once again, all the woe and self-acrimony and pitiful horror spawns, for all intents and purposes, directly from the acrid bowels of ableism. If that is truly the case, the magical realism is little more than a fart of failed ethos masquerading as deep religious and social insight into the thoughts of wealthy able people agonizing over whether having equitable, or even romantic, relationships with disabled people amounts to bestiality. A nasty interpolation to be fair, but the last dozen pages or so supports this as much, making my musings on the queer nature of a possibly academic presentation of the furry (in this case scaley) community devolve into disgust. A let down, to be sure, and I'm not if all of Ortese's self proclaimed obfuscations are enough to save her.
I was, I admit, scrambling for a centerpiece for the majority of the narrative. I took refuge in the idea of a Shakespearean Tempest inspired piece, especially in the customary obsession with Italy running through it all, but I still found the wild oscillations of feelings and events, escalating as it did as the narrative progressed, without the value of either entertainment or deeper complexity. Things came to a hallucinatory head as the protagonist literally goes out of body in order to recount the narrative, but as previously mentioned, much like Faulkner, Ortese's writing suffers when it's too clear in its confabulations. I don't fuck with people who use comparisons of disabled people to monkeys or lizards as vehicles for bloated commentary on general humanity, and if that's the lazy rhetorical tool Ortese relied on to tie everything together, she would've been braver to fully commit to the bestiality trope than to drag the disabled community into it. As said, the narrative is convoluted enough that perhaps that's not what the narrative entailed at all. However, I've read enough 'difficult' books to have some measure of confidence in my abilities.
The fact that this book ended much more nastily than expected is even more bitter due to the fact that I know I paid near full price for it, judging by the UCLA bookstore sticker on the back cover. I'd have a harder time with disliking so many of this year's choices if I hadn't gotten the majority of them for a few quarters and a song, so there's benefits to the sporadic and repetitive nature of my book acquiring habits. I'm also fatigued because I know that merely one, if that, review of this book will touch on the sordid nature of its penultimate pages, and all the rest will either marvel or fall before the novel's erratic structure, taking the architectural fripperies as something which can excuse any and all of the novel's other attributes. A shame, really, I'm always looking to support women in translation, but this work seems wildly overrated, at the very least.
I was, I admit, scrambling for a centerpiece for the majority of the narrative. I took refuge in the idea of a Shakespearean Tempest inspired piece, especially in the customary obsession with Italy running through it all, but I still found the wild oscillations of feelings and events, escalating as it did as the narrative progressed, without the value of either entertainment or deeper complexity. Things came to a hallucinatory head as the protagonist literally goes out of body in order to recount the narrative, but as previously mentioned, much like Faulkner, Ortese's writing suffers when it's too clear in its confabulations. I don't fuck with people who use comparisons of disabled people to monkeys or lizards as vehicles for bloated commentary on general humanity, and if that's the lazy rhetorical tool Ortese relied on to tie everything together, she would've been braver to fully commit to the bestiality trope than to drag the disabled community into it. As said, the narrative is convoluted enough that perhaps that's not what the narrative entailed at all. However, I've read enough 'difficult' books to have some measure of confidence in my abilities.
The fact that this book ended much more nastily than expected is even more bitter due to the fact that I know I paid near full price for it, judging by the UCLA bookstore sticker on the back cover. I'd have a harder time with disliking so many of this year's choices if I hadn't gotten the majority of them for a few quarters and a song, so there's benefits to the sporadic and repetitive nature of my book acquiring habits. I'm also fatigued because I know that merely one, if that, review of this book will touch on the sordid nature of its penultimate pages, and all the rest will either marvel or fall before the novel's erratic structure, taking the architectural fripperies as something which can excuse any and all of the novel's other attributes. A shame, really, I'm always looking to support women in translation, but this work seems wildly overrated, at the very least.
verbava's review against another edition
3.0
мммм, італійський шістдесятницький магічний реалізм.
перш ніж вирушити в подорож – на пошуки невідкритих островів, проте з цілковито комерційною метою, – головний герой розмірковує зі знайомим видавцем, яку б таку оригінальну книжку запропонувати публіці, і напів жартома пропонує сюжет про чоловіка, який закохався в ігуану. знайомий його ігнорує, але що ви думаєте, головний герой таки знаходить острів, якого нема на карті, і там закохується в ігуану.
якби цим обмежилося й жили вони довго і щасливо, або недовго і нещасно, або в будь-якій іншій комбінації, цілковито вистачило б. однак дорогою трапилися ще нічні заручини (не головногероєві), візит архієпископа, убивство бога, процес над убивцею й ніби якась філософія, і частина з цього – не наяву, аж здавалося, що от-от хтось закричить off with their heads. усьому цьому коктейлеві трохи допоміг саркастичний останній розділ, але й він міг би бути сухіший і стриманіший.
перш ніж вирушити в подорож – на пошуки невідкритих островів, проте з цілковито комерційною метою, – головний герой розмірковує зі знайомим видавцем, яку б таку оригінальну книжку запропонувати публіці, і напів жартома пропонує сюжет про чоловіка, який закохався в ігуану. знайомий його ігнорує, але що ви думаєте, головний герой таки знаходить острів, якого нема на карті, і там закохується в ігуану.
якби цим обмежилося й жили вони довго і щасливо, або недовго і нещасно, або в будь-якій іншій комбінації, цілковито вистачило б. однак дорогою трапилися ще нічні заручини (не головногероєві), візит архієпископа, убивство бога, процес над убивцею й ніби якась філософія, і частина з цього – не наяву, аж здавалося, що от-от хтось закричить off with their heads. усьому цьому коктейлеві трохи допоміг саркастичний останній розділ, але й він міг би бути сухіший і стриманіший.
shelgraves's review against another edition
An unrateable book. A turns delightful and perplexing.
philadelphiamusicjon's review against another edition
2.0
I can't even tell if this was good or not, the translation was so choppy, i can't imagine this even being translated if it wasn't better than this, the storyline seemed really cool, but the whole thing was disjointed i'm afraid
damianmurphy's review against another edition
5.0
This is so much more than magical realism, of which I'm generally not a fan. The narrative never quite allows itself to settle, shifting from one mode to another and back again before the reader can quite identify it. In other hands, this could be irritating to read, yet Ortese manages to compel the attention through short chapter after short chapter. As another reviewer put it, "It's not neatly any one thing, which is its strength." There's something essential hiding behind every scene, every digression, every nervous exhortation on the part of every character, yet it's impossible to put one's finger on exactly what it is.
Also worth noting—the narrative voice itself is a chief character and has a personality every bit as distinct and mysterious as any of the figures that appear in the book.
I distinctly remember, upon reading the last several chapters, thinking that the story had fragmented and lost its thread, and having a difficult time following the text and imagery. The ending itself was satisfying enough, yet the book seemed to lose coherence in the latter part. Come the next morning, I woke with a crystal clear conception of the final sequence(s) in my mind. The imagery had somehow come together as I slept to form a very compelling and unified whole. Further, this seems perfectly in line the themes and motifs of the story, as if its clarification through the passage of the night is part and parcel of the narrative itself.
Also worth noting—the narrative voice itself is a chief character and has a personality every bit as distinct and mysterious as any of the figures that appear in the book.
I distinctly remember, upon reading the last several chapters, thinking that the story had fragmented and lost its thread, and having a difficult time following the text and imagery. The ending itself was satisfying enough, yet the book seemed to lose coherence in the latter part. Come the next morning, I woke with a crystal clear conception of the final sequence(s) in my mind. The imagery had somehow come together as I slept to form a very compelling and unified whole. Further, this seems perfectly in line the themes and motifs of the story, as if its clarification through the passage of the night is part and parcel of the narrative itself.
dabuknriot's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
addicted2booksstefania's review against another edition
1.0
I suffered through this to be an academic weapon. I loved “Neapolitan Chronicles”, but could not handle this book.