Take a photo of a barcode or cover
tsharris 's review for:
Family Lexicon
by Natalia Ginzburg
Not an easy book to read -- or review. Very idiosyncratic, thinly fictionalized family memoir that tells a family's story through the rise of Italian fascism, the war, and the aftermath by weaving together the family's "lexicon," the catch phrases, inside jokes, and other language that every family has and which is impenetrable to outsiders. It's also an account of life in politically dark times, and how people cope with a succession of human-induced tragedies (pp. 147-148 are a gut punch). It makes for an interesting historical document to read alongside Keith Lowe's histories of the impact of World War II on the people who experienced it. But the sprawling cast of characters is hard to keep track of, particularly if you put the book down and come back to it like I did. The book could really use a map of relations among the characters.