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samarakroeger 's review for:
Family Lexicon
by Natalia Ginzburg
challenging
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Because this book has no chapter breaks but flows smoothly from one topic to another, I found it easy to read while I was immersed in it but really hard to pick it back up again. I read the first half on the TGV from Nice to Paris in late December, and didn’t really properly pick it back up again until March.
This is the most unique and fascinating form of memoir I have seen. Ginzburg all but deletes herself from the narrative of her childhood, instead acting as a passive observer of the comings and goings of her family and friends in the interwar period. Each person is remembered through their repeated catchphrases (their lexicon) in a humorous way, painting a complex portrait of what her family looked and sounded like.
By the time WWII rolls around, Ginzburg has married Leone and they have two young children. Leone is barely present in this book, seemingly too personal a topic for Natalia to broach. The war years pass by rather quickly in the narrative, it is mentioned in a one sentence afterthought that Leone was killed in jail, and we move on to life after WWII.
Politics and war form the backdrop for this family portrait, but they remain minor plot points in the narrative. Instead, we continue to see mundane, everyday life events depicted in an incredibly normal way. This is the quality that first fascinated me about Ginzburg (thanks to Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You no less).
Also: an award for the clearest depiction of ADHD in literature I have ever seen: Balbo and his family.
This is the most unique and fascinating form of memoir I have seen. Ginzburg all but deletes herself from the narrative of her childhood, instead acting as a passive observer of the comings and goings of her family and friends in the interwar period. Each person is remembered through their repeated catchphrases (their lexicon) in a humorous way, painting a complex portrait of what her family looked and sounded like.
By the time WWII rolls around, Ginzburg has married Leone and they have two young children. Leone is barely present in this book, seemingly too personal a topic for Natalia to broach. The war years pass by rather quickly in the narrative, it is mentioned in a one sentence afterthought that Leone was killed in jail, and we move on to life after WWII.
Politics and war form the backdrop for this family portrait, but they remain minor plot points in the narrative. Instead, we continue to see mundane, everyday life events depicted in an incredibly normal way. This is the quality that first fascinated me about Ginzburg (thanks to Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You no less).
Also: an award for the clearest depiction of ADHD in literature I have ever seen: Balbo and his family.