Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Civilisationssammenstød over en elevator på piazza Vittorio by Amara Lakhous

5 reviews

duck20's review against another edition

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dark funny informative fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book is hardly about the murder mystery (the victim is very unlikeable), and instead much more about the dynamics of a diverse Italian community, immigration and the evils of xenophobia. Lakhous really conveys the beliefs, mannerisms and persona's of each resident in such a few pages, and both the symbol of the elevator and the satire is very well executed, creating an engaging and insightful book. I felt as though some aspects of the ending were slightly challenging to understand, but it is nonetheless an easy read that I would highly recommend. 


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charmtroll's review against another edition

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4.25

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notellawilliams's review against another edition

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challenging funny informative mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I loved this book! In simple terms it was fun, colourful, and made me feel more knowledgeable about Italian culture, and the relationships between people of it’s different major cities. I would say that the murder (of which the book is based around) is not the main emphasis of the story, which may be disappointing for some. When it is revealed who, how and with what the murder happened, it is satisfying, however not majorly shocking or fascinating. The majority of the book is listening to different characters moaning about how much they hate each other, which I honestly enjoyed, but I can imagine could get irritating. Just a really fascinating and interesting book!
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lepasseportlitteraire's review against another edition

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emotional funny informative mysterious reflective fast-paced

5.0

🌟 I read this *amazing* book for my first ever book club, the #translatedgemsbookclub by @translatedgems 

🌟 The writing of Amara Lakhous is witty, and WILL make you laugh out loud, literally!

🌟 The story takes place in a building in Rome, where various tenants give their opinion about the suspect of a murder case that took place in the elevator of the building, and while doing so they will also give their unfiltered opinions about immigrants in Italy, Italian decadent economics, mafia, Italian society and most of all how they were surprised to learn that Amedeo (the suspect) is actually an immigrant himself: it is impossible, because you see he speaks such good Italian (🙄)

🌟 As an Italian myself I cannot stress enough how the author of this book is spot on on what I personally see as the main disease of this country: the Italian habit of always blaming “the other”, whether it is the immigrants, or some immigrants rather than other, the Italians from the South, the Italians from the North...

🌟 It also perfectly captures how deeply Italian society is divided and how intolerance and racism runs in this country, division between Italians depending on which region you are from, but also division between good and bad immigrants, depending on how well they “integrated”
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charleyroxy's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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