“Capable people, honest people can only end up like this. Either in jail, or abroad, or forced to retire to private life.” A little gem to keep among the dear objects of the Italian language. A novel without too many pretensions, if not to tell a simple story, with characters built on the quicksand of human meanness, a sincere mirror of society. Two stories written in different periods that offer a clear point of view...
The books chosen by Andrea Salonia This review is available only in the original language _________________________________________________________________________ Anche qui: perché? Perché ho cominciato a leggerlo, perché Le meraviglie – queste, in particolare, e non altre, fatte di altre parole, di altre storie, di altre suggestioni, di altro… Questo Le meraviglie, edizioni Einaudi, di Elena Medel, poetessa e scrittrice spagnola che non conoscevo, è un romanzo corale, un romanzo di formazione, un romanzo difficile. La traduzione in italiano è...
“Mafia does not exist.” Pages to be framed. Take them one by one and wallpaper the walls of Italian schools, so as to remain fixed in one way or another in the minds of the students, even the most distracted. If you have already read Carlo Levi, here we are faced with something completely different, such as the structure and history of the story, the prose and the story and the power of the words...
The books chosen by Andrea Salonia This review is available only in the original language _________________________________________________________________________ Se sei un medico, dovresti leggerlo. Se sei un paziente, dovresti leggerlo. Se sei un individuo senziente, dovresti leggerlo. Questa la prima e più verace impressione che traggo dall’aver mangiato in un sol boccone Bianco è il colore del danno di Francesca Mannocchi, edito da Einaudi Stile Libero. Anche qui: evviva il passaparola; un’amica, che di lettere e letteratura...
“The steel whale they walked in was deforming.” Let’s start talking about the genre immediately, even if the definition on the cover might seem strange, because more than a novel it is a story of a real event, with a precise and detailed search for testimonies, technically it is a non-fiction novel (translatable precisely with novel, in its broadest sense). As we have said, the book is the result of a long research by the...
Written by Marialia Calabretta This review is available only in the original language _______________________________ Questo libro parla di quanto saldarsi a terra, nel mondo reale, salvi. L’autore espone in modo limpido e razionale le cause e i rischi della progressiva perdita di contatto tra l’uomo e la realtà. Fantasticare, immaginare e proiettare sono attività meravigliose, ma vanno allenate e indirizzate. Le non-cose, così belle e desiderabili, abbagliano, catturano e distraggono: ci fanno dimenticare delle cose. La negatività della resistenza è...
“But the bodies of the sick transform the other bodies.” We chose this book to break the ice on the first ameeting of the book club created together with the friends of the Mondadori Bookstore in Barona (Milan). A collaboration born to relaunch shared reading even in the suburbs of large cities, and which we are sure will last over time. With the usual sincerity, we admit that we started reading the book unconvinced, without...
“Could lies bring happiness?” Dichotomous review, one aspect we liked very much, another much less. An interesting contrast on which we stopped to think perhaps more than necessary, so much so that it took us two days to read the book, over a week to write these words. On the one hand the story told, on the other the author’s stylistic code. But let’s go in order. The story told is that of Olga, a...
“He always has the good face of one who is at peace with his own conscience.” Street stalls where used books are sold should always be blessed. Small sarcophagi of knowing where, if you have the passion to search like modern archaeologists, you will discover unique treasures, capable of making our eyes shine, and broaden our horizon of knowledge. So it was for us with this book and, in particular, for the edition we found....
The books chosen by Andrea Salonia This review is available only in the original language _________________________________________________________________________ C’è sempre una linea molto sottile tra ironia, sarcasmo, sardonicitá e tristezza profonda. Come pure, è davvero labile il confine tra le parole amare e quelle taglienti, capaci non solo di mettere allegria ma di far proprio sganasciare dalle risate. Niente di vero è un romanzo che appartiene a questa categoria dello scrivere, a mio parere, dove non son...
