mikekelly4815 's review for:

Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg
4.5
funny hopeful informative medium-paced

At least to me, this was a one of a kind book: an autobiography devoted to capturing the rhythms of family and community against the background of seismic societal change. Ginzburg’s narration is funny, insightful, and honest as she captures the habits and proclivities of the people she grew up with while mostly foregoing descriptions of herself. In that way its almost a record of the social spaces that shaped her rather than a narrative story about the person they shaped her into.