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49th out of 70 books
—
49 voters
The Homecoming Party
One of Italy's greatest storytellers delivers a tale that is simultaneously a coming-of-age novel, a love story, and a heartfelt cry against the atrocious standards of living that force so many southern Italians to seek a better life elsewhere.
Paperback, 192 pages
Published
July 27th 2010
by Europa Editions
(first published March 1st 2004)
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I am having a hard time deciding whether to give this four of five stars..... It was truly lovely. You walk away from the book happy b/c you have met some really kind, nice, compassionate and yet perfectly NORMAL people. The story is soothing. You spend all of your time chuckling. I will try and explain.
The book is about a family that lives in an Albanian village in southern Italy. The author comes from Calabria. He knows the milieu and the traditions he is describing. He grew up...more
I am having a hard time deciding whether to give this four of five stars..... It was truly lovely. You walk away from the book happy b/c you have met some really kind, nice, compassionate and yet perfectly NORMAL people. The story is soothing. You spend all of your time chuckling. I will try and explain.
The book is about a family that lives in an Albanian village in southern Italy. The author comes from Calabria. He knows the milieu and the traditions he is describing. He grew up...more
view all 18 comments
Rating: 2* of five
The Book Report: Childhood in poverty-stricken Calabrian town. Son of a father who works in the coal mines of northern France. Half-brother of a Child of Shame his father brings home. Boy to a dog of noble heart, who survives a wild boar attack.
Oh save me please from this childhood of painful partings and painful reunions and painful illnesses and painful convalescences and painful this and painful that and painful the other goddamned thing.
My Review: Published in Italy when th...more
The Book Report: Childhood in poverty-stricken Calabrian town. Son of a father who works in the coal mines of northern France. Half-brother of a Child of Shame his father brings home. Boy to a dog of noble heart, who survives a wild boar attack.
Oh save me please from this childhood of painful partings and painful reunions and painful illnesses and painful convalescences and painful this and painful that and painful the other goddamned thing.
My Review: Published in Italy when th...more
This short bildungsroman is lively, detailed, and richly evocative in a way that's reminiscent of Fellini's film AMARCORD, only the subtext is not 30s Fascism but rather the exigencies of everyday life in a small Calabrian village. The villagers are peasant descendants of Albanian immigrants and speak a creole, Arberesh, that culturally separates them from other Italians. Prospects for a modestly stable and prosperous life in the community are so limited that the father of the main character, a...more
This is a very short coming-of-age novel, told in alternating chapters from the perspectives of Marco and his father Tullio. A lack of economic opportunity in Tullios' small Italian village forced him to leave his family for long stretches of time to find work in France and Germany. Meanwhile, Marco always longed for his father's return. During one homecoming, sitting around a Christmas bonfire and telling stories to "burn their memories," the two bring out their secrets surrounding Marco's sist...more
The Homecoming Party by Carmine Abate
Translated from the Italian by Antony Shuggar
Caution: Do not read while hungry. Heavy emphasis on Italian food delicacies will leave you a bit weak.
The Homecoming Party tells the story of a father and son, and their close relationship despite geographic distance. It tells of the childhood of Marco, a boy who grows up mostly in the care of his mother and grandmother because lack of work required his father to travel to France. This leaves him as the man of th...more
Translated from the Italian by Antony Shuggar
Caution: Do not read while hungry. Heavy emphasis on Italian food delicacies will leave you a bit weak.
The Homecoming Party tells the story of a father and son, and their close relationship despite geographic distance. It tells of the childhood of Marco, a boy who grows up mostly in the care of his mother and grandmother because lack of work required his father to travel to France. This leaves him as the man of th...more
Read for book group this bildungsroman is set in an Arberesh town in southern Italy. Told in first person narration our young protagonist relates a succession of Christmas Eve celebrations that also mark the homecoming of his father who can only find work out of his country. Part mystery, and part coming of age, The Homecoming Party is a vivid portrait of family struggles resulting from an absent patriarch.
I generally like Europa editions. The translation was quite excellent but this particular...more
I generally like Europa editions. The translation was quite excellent but this particular...more
Nov 14, 2010
Lisa Hayden Espenschade
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Readers who like coming-of-age novels and quiet spookiness
Recommended to Lisa by:
Amy Henry
3.5 stars.
The Homecoming Party is a quietly suspenseful short novel about growing up in an Arbëresh town in Italy. I particularly enjoyed watching how Abate incorporated rituals into the novel.
(There's more on my blog here.)
(Thank you to Amy Henry for giving me her advance review copy from Europa.)
The Homecoming Party is a quietly suspenseful short novel about growing up in an Arbëresh town in Italy. I particularly enjoyed watching how Abate incorporated rituals into the novel.
(There's more on my blog here.)
(Thank you to Amy Henry for giving me her advance review copy from Europa.)
really a 3.75...I'm a fan of most books from this imprint, Europa Editions--European bestsellers translated into English and published in paperback form. Elegance of the Hedgehog hails from this house. This novella was easy to read. A coming of age story about a family that lives in an Albanian village in southern Italy. I liked it for this aspect but also for the insight into what's happening in Italy within these small villages to the families and the culture.
This is really better than a three star but not quite a four star for me. The story held my interest and there is definitely a really good sense of time and place. The ending is quite surprising and believable.
I'm a big fan of Europa Edition books, and this one was no exception. They all share a similar tone, but each is a completely different story.
Another of my 'library A-Z' reads, this one, too is, a coming of age story (seems to be a thing with "A' authors?), it also pointed to the situation in sourthen Italy that many must go elsewhere for employment to support their family. This scenario of living apart to survive is foreign to me, as is the setting of the book, but the feeling of family bonds, rootedness, and 'playing the had your dealt' are familiar. Abate (a very good storyteller, btw) writes his tale with compassion and earnestnes...more
A simple and uncomplicated book, about life in Italy, and having to migrate to France for work. About family, and the bonds that hold.
Great, fast read looking at family life and how secrets can danger the happiness of that life...
This reminded me a little of Marcel Pagnol's La Gloire de Mon Père and Le Château de Ma Mère, but grittier. It also introduced me to a language/culture I'd never heard of before, Arberesh, spoken by the descendants of Albanian immigrants in southern Italy.
Lovely coming of age story--reminded me a bit of Willa Cather's books.
Maybe 3.5 stars. It was too reminiscent of The Greengage Summer for me to be able to judge it objectively. It was well-written & accessible - if you're considering reading it and wanting me to help you decide, I recommend you go for it. Sorry I can't really thinbk of anything more to say.
Mar 08, 2012
Susie Kuilan
added it
Short but beautifully written and translated. Nice family relationship story that tugs at heart-strings without being overly sentimental.
Apr 30, 2013
Joanna
marked it as to-read
Apr 23, 2013
Karen English
marked it as to-read
Feb 25, 2013
Finola Cahill
marked it as to-read
Feb 11, 2013
Sam Taylor
marked it as to-read
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Around the World ...: Chrissie recommends: The Homecoming Party | 1 | 13 | Sep 04, 2011 03:23am |
Carmine Abate was born in Calabria, southern Italy. He immigrated to Germany at a young age and now lives in Trentino, northern Italy, where he teaches university. His first book, a collection of short stories, was published in 1984. He has since published numerous prize-winning novels including Between Two Seas and a collection of poetry.
More about Carmine Abate...
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