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A review by caramels
Ti prendo e ti porto via by Niccolò Ammaniti
1.0
“Don’t judge a book by its cover” more like “don’t judge a book by its freaking title”, dammit. (But as for the English edition, the cover, too, since it’s really lovely).
Let me start with the most obvious thing: the writing. Especially in some parts, the writing was so less than average that you got the feeling any wannabe author could have written those lines, which left me deeply dumbfounded considering all the literary prizes the author has won over the years. Some examples of that were along the lines of:
- "His smile was like a sunny day in February."
- "His lacrimal glands were drier than the desert."
- "She was so cold and aloof, she must have swallowed a block of ice for breakfast".
and so on.
I mean.. whaaat? The only explanation I can come up with is that the dialogues, descriptions and everything else had to be consistent with the characters of a small village, so the poor writing was sort of done on purpose, but frankly that’s no excuse either, on the contrary if that’s the case it would be more of a sign of laziness than anything.
Secondly, thank you, Mister author, for reminding me that humans are scum and that 90% of the time there’s no logic explanation behind their despicable actions and if there is one it’s really stupid, but I kinda already knew that.
I think the characters were meant to be realistic, but they were a little too realistic, so they ended up being bad, clichéd caricatures.
Also, the only two characters worth your attention, in the end are depicted as weak outcasts that end up being pushed in a corner or crashed either by society or other human beings. A very positive message indeed. (Now obviously books don’t necessarily have to give out an overall positive message and everything, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be pissed off by those that don’t, especially when they don’t make much sense).
Let me start with the most obvious thing: the writing. Especially in some parts, the writing was so less than average that you got the feeling any wannabe author could have written those lines, which left me deeply dumbfounded considering all the literary prizes the author has won over the years. Some examples of that were along the lines of:
- "His smile was like a sunny day in February."
- "His lacrimal glands were drier than the desert."
- "She was so cold and aloof, she must have swallowed a block of ice for breakfast".
and so on.
I mean.. whaaat? The only explanation I can come up with is that the dialogues, descriptions and everything else had to be consistent with the characters of a small village, so the poor writing was sort of done on purpose, but frankly that’s no excuse either, on the contrary if that’s the case it would be more of a sign of laziness than anything.
Secondly, thank you, Mister author, for reminding me that humans are scum and that 90% of the time there’s no logic explanation behind their despicable actions and if there is one it’s really stupid, but I kinda already knew that.
I think the characters were meant to be realistic, but they were a little too realistic, so they ended up being bad, clichéd caricatures.
Also, the only two characters worth your attention, in the end are depicted as weak outcasts that end up being pushed in a corner or crashed either by society or other human beings. A very positive message indeed. (Now obviously books don’t necessarily have to give out an overall positive message and everything, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be pissed off by those that don’t, especially when they don’t make much sense).