Reviews

Kieli jota puhuimme by Natalia Ginzburg

bananna's review against another edition

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funny reflective medium-paced

4.0

zosia's review against another edition

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5.0

4.5

lavrendy's review against another edition

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3.0

A surprisingly lighthearted glimpse into the lives of a family under Italian fascism. It was fun to see inside jokes as they formed and the silly conversations among the characters, but I was sad that I didn’t get more of Natalia’s thoughts on things. Her role in the story was purely to observe and I felt that her opinions would have woven the anecdotes together better.

That being said, each of the other characters were brought to life very clearly through her writing and I want to read her fiction to see how it compares :)

savaging's review against another edition

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4.0

This book was recommended by Elena Ferrante, the author of the Neapolitan Novels. Like Ferrante, Ginzburg writes about fascism and war from a perspective that's deeply embedded in everyday family life. She spends more time on the way her mother shops for apples than she does on the details of Mussolini's rise to power. Bombs are dropping and she focuses on the particular gait her father takes as he charges through town ignoring the warnings. It's charming and horrifying. It's deeply personal and also extremely detached, as she slides over her own husband's torture and murder at the hands of Nazis, and instead focuses on the funny little things her friends and family say.

tipperary's review against another edition

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adventurous funny reflective medium-paced

3.75

maribittencourt's review against another edition

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4.0

um livro sobre pequenices, o tempo que passa e a vida que acontece. é interessante ver o contexto histórico - tão intenso e arrasador - tratado de maneira tão cotidiana na vida dessa família.

essa linguagem, o léxico familiar, só é possível a partir da repetição durante todos os anos, especialmente na figura do pai e da mãe. é assim que tanta memória ~banal~ vai sendo guardada. esse cotidiano que a gente perde, esquece, mas que é fácil de retomar quando se reencontra ou se está em casa.

e me é muito curioso essa maneira de escrever 'morna', sem grande suspense ou emoção. ela fala de leone e como ele se vai sem nenhuma ênfase, paixão, em poucas linhas. eu fiquei esperando e esperando..

signebf's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny lighthearted slow-paced

4.0

gloomylamp's review against another edition

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funny informative reflective sad

4.0

_jenny_k_'s review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

4.25

emmasreads's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted slow-paced

1.0