reads2cope 's review for:

Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg

1.0

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I normally love a story about a dysfunctional family, but this one was just annoying. The racism, xenophobia, and abuse from different family members was repeatedly quoted without commentary. The "lexicon" is also so repetitive that it can only be entertaining to the family it came from. I picked up this book because of a description promising an autobiography of an anti-fascist family during Mussolini's rule. Instead, this book is the same tired arguments about petty issues between family members and friends with every now and then a huge revelation that someone was arrested for anti-fascist activity without ever covering what those activities were, what the political or social changes included (except for paying more for groceries and losing their maid/self-described "slave"), or why the family considered themselves anti-fascist. 
The detached storytelling made all the characters blend together, and without a strong connection to the individuals, there is nothing left to be interested in.