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saintsaens's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Exquisite writing, amazingly handled reflections on the mountains as a whole, but also the development and evolution of life in the current Italian society. The tension between what you want to do and where society needs you to be, the question of knowledge (language, vocabulary, interpretation of environment...) was also always underlying. The relation between Bruno and Berrio is sweet, and full of flaws which makes you feel for them both. It's heart breaking, and you feel the slow but steady destruction of dreams through and through. The only downsides I'm seeing with this book are for one the white-savior / orientalist flavor leading Berrio to go to India. It was full of overused tropes (the wise old foreign man, the children in need of help...) and it didn't add anything of importance to the story that couldn't have been told through another mean. For another is the treatment of women, subtly sexist monochromatic characters who are a repetition more or less of each other when they are actually involved in it. Both those things missing, that book would have been a masterpiece for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cultural appropriation
Minor: Death
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