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9th out of 70 books
—
49 voters
Margherita Dolce Vita
Stefano Benni's enormously popular and distinctive mix of the absurd and the satirical has made him one of Italy’s best-loved novelists. This is his twelfth bestselling book of fiction. Fifteen-year-old Margherita lives with her eccentric family on the outskirts of town, a semi-urban wilderness peopled by gypsies, illegal immigrants, and no end of bizarre characters: a rea...more
Paperback, English Edition, 208 pages
Published
November 1st 2006
by Europa Editions
(first published April 28th 2005)
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Jun 22, 2010
Kelly
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
fans of absurdist comedy, magical realism
Just when I thought I couldn't possibly read about yet another deeply unlikely wise child who watches her totally unaware parents become monsters right before her very eyes, I met Margherita. She may be telling us a story we've heard a thousand times before, (told most recently by Neil Gaiman in Coraline) but spending time with this awesome girl's voice is well worth revisiting this territory. Margherita is a slightly overweight blonde with a heart problem- and she also possesses a wonderfully b...more
This book is a modern satire about how a teenage girl's idyllic life is disturbed when a black cube is built in the field next to hers and the perfect bourgeois family moves in next door. It's a quick page turner, pleasingly critiques modern American life typified by botox injections and McMansions, but don't expect Swift. Perhaps more appropriate for the quirky jr./high school girl-demographic than male 30-something year olds--but not a book you'll regret grabbing from the popular library based...more
Nov 21, 2012
La Stamberga dei Lettori
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
miyuki-inoue
Margherita Dolcevita descrive un piccolo spaccato di vita in scatola, proposto al lettore in maniera dapprincipio spensierata, fuori dalle righe e in gran parte ironica, con un finale, però, tanto assurdo quanto triste. L'autore ci propone due punti di vista: da un lato abbiamo la nostra protagonista a rappresentare un'adolescenza fuori dai canoni tradizionali: Margherita, cicciottella e molto intelligente, si scontra con una realtà fatta di desideri tipici della sua età (come quello di fare l'a...more
You know how sometimes when you want to love a book so much and you just don't? Well I definitely didn't have a problem like that with this book. I LOVED it!
Margherita (dubbed Margherita Dolce Vita by her grandpa, is a 14-year-old girl living with her family in Italy. Her father Fausto is "tall and skinny, and he is meteoropathic, meaning his moods change with the weather". Her mother is Emma, looks "like a used teabag" and "is good as gold, but she has an addiction" which is watching soap opera...more
Margherita (dubbed Margherita Dolce Vita by her grandpa, is a 14-year-old girl living with her family in Italy. Her father Fausto is "tall and skinny, and he is meteoropathic, meaning his moods change with the weather". Her mother is Emma, looks "like a used teabag" and "is good as gold, but she has an addiction" which is watching soap opera...more
I servizi segreti ci osservano, occhio al tecnico della lavatrice, mi raccomando...
Allora, quelli che fanno le copertine, eh, la tizia di questo libro non ha i capelli rossi, ce li ha biondi, o biondicci. Comunque non rossi. questo mi fa pensare che il mondo è pieno di gente che lavora alla cazzo. Io mi permetto di dirlo perchè mantre sono al lavoro io lavoro, non sto certo su ano ... (continua)
Allora, quelli che fanno le copertine, eh, la tizia di questo libro non ha i capelli rossi, ce li ha b...more
Allora, quelli che fanno le copertine, eh, la tizia di questo libro non ha i capelli rossi, ce li ha biondi, o biondicci. Comunque non rossi. questo mi fa pensare che il mondo è pieno di gente che lavora alla cazzo. Io mi permetto di dirlo perchè mantre sono al lavoro io lavoro, non sto certo su ano ... (continua)
Allora, quelli che fanno le copertine, eh, la tizia di questo libro non ha i capelli rossi, ce li ha b...more
I read this a few years ago and loved it. Didn't think it was possible, but I think I love it even more now. I had forgotten how clever and funny Margherita is. As delightful as the relationship between her and Angelo is, my favourite aspect of the book is still probably the writing itself, with lines like "Back then, we both had braces, and when we kissed the metal would clash like a duel in the Iliad" and (to describe sleeping in class) "I fell asleep at the beginning of an equation for calcul...more
While I loved Margherita's observations of her family and her environment, it was difficult for me to get wrapped up in the drama of Margherita's story. For most of the book, I wasn't taking the events that were unfolding too seriously since they were mostly silly, then all of a sudden I was taken by surprise when the mystery unfolded. I was very confused about what it was that I was supposed to take away from the book - my expectations were for a quirky, light read, when in reality this story h...more
Ho letto questo libro di un fiato e fino all'ultimo capitolo ero convinta che gli avrei dato 4 stelle. Doppo aver letto le ultime pagine ero l�� l�� per dargliene una. Alla fine ho ripiegato su tre, visto che il 90% del libro �� bello, ma il finale lascia davvero con l'amaro in bocca.
si capisce bene cosa sia successo e che fine facciano i vari personaggi e si ha quasi l'impressione che l'autore abbia voluto finire il libro in fretta e furia quando c'erano ancora un paio di capitoli da scrivere....more
si capisce bene cosa sia successo e che fine facciano i vari personaggi e si ha quasi l'impressione che l'autore abbia voluto finire il libro in fretta e furia quando c'erano ancora un paio di capitoli da scrivere....more
This starts out very promisingly -- the voice of the 12 year old narrator here beguiles us with the way she looks at the world. She has many names of her own concoction for the clusters of stars in the universe, and the wryness with which she views her own obesity is charming.
Things around her neck of the woods notch up in suspense when some mysterious neighbors move next door, having constructed over night a curious block-like house of black stone, with no windows.
The rest of her family is en...more
Things around her neck of the woods notch up in suspense when some mysterious neighbors move next door, having constructed over night a curious block-like house of black stone, with no windows.
The rest of her family is en...more
I happened upon this at the library and was drawn to its name, author's name and cover. I had heard of Benni and knew him as an Italian satirist. This book felt like it could have been set in the US and saddened me to think how the consumer/material world is affecting Italian "outskirts of town".
I'd like to read this in Italian to better grasp the ending as I had to re-read it about four times and still took different meanings away each time.
Great read and enjoyed Margherita's quips.
I'd like to read this in Italian to better grasp the ending as I had to re-read it about four times and still took different meanings away each time.
Great read and enjoyed Margherita's quips.
“Beh, lo confesso, il treno mi erotizza, perché penso che lì incontrerò il mio grande amore. Immaginavo che da un momento all’altro sarebbe entrato nello scompartimento. Come sarebbe stato? Un giovane rivoluzionario come il Che del poster? Un bruttino intellettuale e dolcemente triste come il cantante dei Radiohead? Una lesbica nera vestita da Batgirl? Il mio adorato Hannibal? Oppure il controllore più sexy del mondo?”
—Stefano Benni, Margherita Dolcevita
I love pretty much every book with a plucky, clever teen girl narrator, and this was no exception, and was overall rather beautifully written and translated. I liked the commentary on childhood/adulthood and on consumerism. The ending felt confusing/short, but that was probably 1. because it was magical realism and 2. because I was rushing to finish it before it was overdue at the library (since I no longer have school to procrastinate, I instead procrastinate the endings of books, it's very ter...more
May 30, 2012
Maria Grazia
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
narrativa-italiana,
stefano-benni
Prima lettura: 2005
Come con leggerezza si può parlare di una tragedia, quella di Margherita e della sua famiglia, ma soprattutto quella di tutti noi, che a furia di voler combattere natura e umanità stiamo diventando mostri plastificati e insensibili, incapaci di vedere la magia della terra, buoni solo come carne da cannoni.
Non il miglior libro di Benni, ma sempre un'ottima lettura, e un diverso modo di approfondire le cose.
Come con leggerezza si può parlare di una tragedia, quella di Margherita e della sua famiglia, ma soprattutto quella di tutti noi, che a furia di voler combattere natura e umanità stiamo diventando mostri plastificati e insensibili, incapaci di vedere la magia della terra, buoni solo come carne da cannoni.
Non il miglior libro di Benni, ma sempre un'ottima lettura, e un diverso modo di approfondire le cose.
This is a hard book to review.
Stefano Benni takes modern life and progress and puts it in the frame and tone of a fairy tale. I would use the term "magical realism".
Margherita and her family--parents, brothers Giacinto and Heraclitus, and grandfather--are all affected when a new family moves next door, building a gigantic, out-of-place glass cube to live in. The neighbors are smooth and sinister, and soon have most of Margherita's family hypnotized with their manipulations. Margherita, however,...more
Stefano Benni takes modern life and progress and puts it in the frame and tone of a fairy tale. I would use the term "magical realism".
Margherita and her family--parents, brothers Giacinto and Heraclitus, and grandfather--are all affected when a new family moves next door, building a gigantic, out-of-place glass cube to live in. The neighbors are smooth and sinister, and soon have most of Margherita's family hypnotized with their manipulations. Margherita, however,...more
A truly fantastic book, loved it. I'd give it four and a half stars if we weren't confined to full stars... and I imagine that I'd be giving the original language version five stars. And a toast. With Earth Balance. Which leads us to recycling... over which we will gleefully leap to get to the heart of the matter which is no matter at all (stop buying shit). Oh, what is going on? Hi ho.
Margherita Dolce Vita is a wise cracking, quick witted 14 year old who I fell in love with. She has an eccentric family (her mother smokes virtual cigarettes) and an incredible imagination (read it to find out about her fictionary).
This book is a social satire that skewers religion, the media, and xenophobia. There are elements of magical realism, so you need to take a leap of faith about the Dust Girl and dream sequences. But, all in all, this is an enjoyable read about a girl who loves her fam...more
This book is a social satire that skewers religion, the media, and xenophobia. There are elements of magical realism, so you need to take a leap of faith about the Dust Girl and dream sequences. But, all in all, this is an enjoyable read about a girl who loves her fam...more
Margherita Dolcevita è il mio secondo tentativo di approccio al Benni romanziere.
Il primo tentativo, con Terra!, era miseramente fallito, così da questo altro romanzo non mi aspettavo più di tanto.
E invece sono rimasta conquistata da questa storia, dove l'umorismo si mescola alla gioia, al dolore, all'affetto, al pericolo... e a molto altro.
Può sembrare una favoletta, ma non lo è.
Divorato in un pomeriggio, Margherita Dolcevita, storia di una quattordicenne un po' in carne e con qualche problema...more
This was a great Benni book. Beautiful political and social commentary with Benni's delicious use and invention of language. It did end with a darker note than I remember from some of his earlier work. I wonder if that is a question of the author aging or something else. Or if I just don't remember the other books so well...
Aug 30, 2007
Alex
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Fans of Italian Lit, Marquez, and the fall of consumerism
Whether it be because I read this after so many titles that didn't strike me, or because it's just that good, herein lies my first of (hopefully many) five star review.
I absolutely loved this book. It made me smile. The language, as Italian literature tends to be, was beautiful, yet often childish given the eccentric young narrator. The book had a foot firmly in magic, which made some passages a bit harder to wrap around, yet there were worrisome amounts of realism. I won't lie, it scared me......more
I absolutely loved this book. It made me smile. The language, as Italian literature tends to be, was beautiful, yet often childish given the eccentric young narrator. The book had a foot firmly in magic, which made some passages a bit harder to wrap around, yet there were worrisome amounts of realism. I won't lie, it scared me......more
I never really bought that the narrator was a 14 year old girl, so every page seemed like the effort of an adult male writer to make a point. The story was weird enough to keep me reading until the end, but it was mainly curiosity rather than a real connection with any of the characters.
With his usual visionary irony, Benni manages to critically analize and mock the cultural involution, which took place along the last 30 years or so, both in Italy in particular and in the West in general.
It's a nicely written, sad story, which truly deserves being read.
It's a nicely written, sad story, which truly deserves being read.
Wow, now this was really something special. Even if I wasn't there all the way for the ending, this book still totally got to me. Think I might make it my go-to present for folks looking for something unique starting right now. I'd recommend it to just about anyone and anything.
Apr 27, 2013
Rubi
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
books-in-their-original-language
Potrebbe sembrare la solita storia di una ragazza e la sua famiglia ma... non è così.
Margherita non è una ragazza qualsiasi; è molto speciale. Quando arrivano i Del Bene, la vita di lei e la sua famiglia cambia tanto...
Ho letto alcuni libri di Stefano Benni, e lui mi piace un sacco. Anche se questo non è dei suoi libri migliori.
Margherita non è una ragazza qualsiasi; è molto speciale. Quando arrivano i Del Bene, la vita di lei e la sua famiglia cambia tanto...
Ho letto alcuni libri di Stefano Benni, e lui mi piace un sacco. Anche se questo non è dei suoi libri migliori.
An in-your-face satire of consumerism and its ripple effects made palatable via the likable, slightly wise, slightly brilliant, 14-year-old protagonist. Darkly comedic, overtly opinionated, seemingly benign. If 3-1/2 stars, were an option, I'd have chosen it.
Un libro specchio di una società moderna. Ricco di significati. L'autore, Stefano Benni, lascia il lettore libero di interpretare i diversi messaggi e di adattarli alla realtà che lo circonda. Anche il finale aperto è folgorante.
A truly unique story. The characters are eccentric and bizarre and Margherita is cheerful and refreshing. Impossible to describe... kind of a mix between a Cohen brothers film and a cartoon. I'm certain that all of the political satire was lost on me which probably hurt my understanding of the ending, but the journey was very enjoyable.
Beh come si evince dal nick lo amo. Un po' perchè la protagonista mi assomiglia tantissimo, un po' perchè lascia quel sapore tra il comico e il malinconico che mi soddisfa sempre.
An accidental libray pick-up, I was surprised i liked this. Kind of fun, silly fantastical crticism. A little heavy handed in its morals but the girl and her grandfather are great.
Margherita Dolce Vita by Stefano Benni
Challenges read for: Goodreads, Europa Editions
Book Cover: I do like the simplistic covers for Europa Editions. This cover is sunny and warm and I like that!
Quirky and fun, a quick read. 14 year old Margherita lives on the out skirts of town, quiet and somewhat isolated until one day the "Black Cube" is erected--life is never the same. Margherita watches her family fall under the spell of these new neighbors, changing them beyond recognition and to a disastr...more
Challenges read for: Goodreads, Europa Editions
Book Cover: I do like the simplistic covers for Europa Editions. This cover is sunny and warm and I like that!
Quirky and fun, a quick read. 14 year old Margherita lives on the out skirts of town, quiet and somewhat isolated until one day the "Black Cube" is erected--life is never the same. Margherita watches her family fall under the spell of these new neighbors, changing them beyond recognition and to a disastr...more
Il potere di una bambina curiosa, l'immancabile confusione tra realtà e fantasia, la sempre sorprendente prosa di Benni: Inventare storie e non finirle.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| La Stamberga dei ...: Margherita Dolcevita di Stefano Benni | 1 | 9 | Nov 18, 2012 06:33am |
Stefano Benni (born August 12, 1947 in Bologna) is an Italian satirical writer, poet and journalist. His books have been translated into around 20 foreign languages and scored notable commercial success. He sold 2,5 million copies of his books in Italy.
He has contributed to Panorama (Italian magazine), Linus (magazine), La Repubblica, il manifesto among others. In 1989 he directed the film Musica...more
More about Stefano Benni...
He has contributed to Panorama (Italian magazine), Linus (magazine), La Repubblica, il manifesto among others. In 1989 he directed the film Musica...more
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“[M]y favorite teacher was explaining that you don't say but however. These are pleonasms: the use of more words than necessary to express an idea. There are times in life that are very but however.”
—
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