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dylankakoulli 's review for:
Family Lexicon
by Natalia Ginzburg
A whimsy account of a rather eccentric middle class italian family, growing up alongside -and in the aftermath, of fascism and World War II.
I absolutely loved the premise of this book and there’s no doubt Ginzburg writes so charmingly of family life; from the monotony of the mundane to the damn right unimaginable.
However, about midway through, my attention seriously started to wain. And although I initially loved the -often meandering accounts, of humdrum domestic life. At times these rituals and routines (much like their nature), became rather repetitive to read.
I also found some sections of the novel slightly fragmented in sentence structure -though I’m not sure if this is a translation issue (?) Needless to say there were definitely paragraphs that didn’t flow as well as others...
All in, a rather charming -albeit mundane (at least around the midway mark) celebration of the bizarre rituals, routines and classic witty in-jokes and wise cracking insults, that so often make up family life.
3 stars
I absolutely loved the premise of this book and there’s no doubt Ginzburg writes so charmingly of family life; from the monotony of the mundane to the damn right unimaginable.
However, about midway through, my attention seriously started to wain. And although I initially loved the -often meandering accounts, of humdrum domestic life. At times these rituals and routines (much like their nature), became rather repetitive to read.
I also found some sections of the novel slightly fragmented in sentence structure -though I’m not sure if this is a translation issue (?) Needless to say there were definitely paragraphs that didn’t flow as well as others...
All in, a rather charming -albeit mundane (at least around the midway mark) celebration of the bizarre rituals, routines and classic witty in-jokes and wise cracking insults, that so often make up family life.
3 stars