Reading the 20th Century discussion
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Group Read -> June 2019 -> Nomination thread (A book about Italy won by The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovannino Guareschi)
As I said over in the Midnight Bell thread, I spent some time looking at Italy books yesterday. Lots and lots and lots of books outside of our target time period. I saw several books that I've already read that might be interesting, but I'm not a re-reader. I found something I think might be a bit different for this group, though perhaps more appropriate for the detectives group. Still, I it might have something broader to offer.
The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri.
The Shape of Water is the first in Andrea Camilleri's wry, brilliantly compelling Sicilian crime series, featuring Inspector Montalbano.
The goats of Vigàta once grazed on the trash-strewn site still known as the Pasture. Now local enterprise of a different sort flourishes: drug dealers and prostitutes of every flavour. But their discreet trade is upset when two employees of the Splendour Refuse Collection Company discover the body of engineer Silvio Luparello, one of the local movers and shakers, apparently deceased in flagrante at the Pasture. The coroner's verdict is death from natural causes - refreshingly unusual for Sicily.
But Inspector Salvo Montalbano, as honest as he is streetwise and as scathing to fools and villains as he is compassionate to their victims, is not ready to close the case - even though he's being pressured by Vigàta's police chief, judge, and bishop.
Picking his way through a labyrinth of high-comedy corruption, delicious meals, vendetta firepower, and carefully planted false clues, Montalbano can be relied on, whatever the cost, to get to the heart of the matter.
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I think this might prove an interesting discussion for the setting alone, but also because Sicily has the Mafia and crime/corruption in its history. In the US, it has a reasonably priced (though not cheap) kindle edition, with easy access to even lower-priced used copies. I don't know what might be available in the UK.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "As I said over in the Midnight Bell thread, I spent some time looking at Italy books yesterday. Lots and lots and lots of books outside of our target time period. I saw several books that I've alre..."Good book. Although I'm not sure I would re-read it. I'm getting ready to start the 6th in the series, The Smell of the Night. But I do enjoy the series.
I started Death and the Dolce Vita: The Dark Side of Rome in the 1950s, by Stephen Gundle, quite a while ago. but as I recall it was pretty interesting. Kind of a true crime read.On 9 April 1953 an attractive twenty-one-year-old woman went missing from her family home in Rome. Thirty-six hours later her body was found washed up on a neglected beach at Tor Vaianica. Some said it was suicide; others, a tragic accident. Darker murmurs blamed her death on a drug-fuelled orgy that had gone horribly wrong. The crime gripped the nation. And some were determined to find out the truth of what had happened: the mystery took them from the capital’s seediest back streets right up to the highest office in the land.
Dolce Vita casts fascinating light on the myriad colours and contradictions of Rome in the 1950s. Stephen Gundle portrays the Rome of romance, luxury and glamour; the Rome of flowers, fountains and Vespas. It is Rome as a film set- embodied by Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday. But the murder of Wilma Montesi exposed the other side of this beautiful city: carnal crimes, sex, drugs, corruption and endless cover-ups.
Stephen Gundle picks his way through the evidence to expose the foul underbelly of Rome in the 1950s – a place of bitter hearts and broken dreams.
I've been reading it on Kindle so perhaps it is available internationally.
I have a bowl of cheap whore's pasta (puttanesca with marmite instead of anchovy paste) and a glass of Chianti to focus my attention, but still can't decide between my two favourite books by Italian authors or the first in a popular series I only read the last of.
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It does work Susan, but if you have a more authentic vegan or vegetarian alternative for the salty, savoury ingredient I will give it a try next time.
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SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD
Mussolini was not only ruthless: he was subtle and manipulative. Black-shirted thugs did his dirty work for him: arson, murder, destruction of homes and offices, bribes and intimidation. His opponents – including editors, union representatives, lawyers and judges – were beaten into submission. But the tide turned in 1924 when his assassins went too far, horror spread across Italy, and antifascist resistance was born. Among those whose disgust hardened into bold and uncompromising resistance was a family from Florence: Amelia, Carlo and Nello Rosselli. Caroline Moorehead draws readers into the lives of this remarkable family – their loves, their loyalties, their laughter and their ultimate sacrifice.
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I'll nominate My Brilliant Friend,
the first of the Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante, as I have it waiting on my shelf and have been told it is great. This was published in 2012 but is mostly set in Naples during the 1950s.The Goodreads blurb:
A modern masterpiece from one of Italy's most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante's inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.
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Nominations so far
Elizabeth: The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri
Jan: Death and the Dolce Vita: The Dark Side of Rome in the 1950s by Stephen Gundle
Susan: A Bold and Dangerous Family: One Family’s Fight Against Italian Fascism by Caroline Moorehead
Judy: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
I would like to nominate a classic- Christ Stopped at Eboli.The synopsis: 'We're not Christians, Christ stopped short of here, at Eboli.' Exiled to a remote and barren corner of Italy for his opposition to Mussolini, Carlo Levi entered a world cut off from history and the state, hedged in by custom and sorrow, without comfort or solace, where, eternally patient, the peasants lived in an age-old stillness and in the presence of death - for Christ did stop at Eboli.
This was one of my favourite books when I was at University many years ago, it shows a really unusual perspective on Italy and is beautifully written.
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Susan wrote: "I thought of The Leopard, but wasn't sure it was really within our time frame. However, I guess it doesn't matter too much."I thought of it and discarded the thought for the same reason.
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Well it was written well within our period and although the setting is 19th century it is about the foundations of modern Italy...
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Susan wrote: "Yes, the setting is earlier, but I am not sure of publication date. Perhaps I discarded it incorrectly - Hugh, feel free to nominate. The more the merrier."The original pub date is on most GR pages.
Roman Clodia wrote: "I completely fell head over heels for Ferrante's quartet when I read it!"I read the first book and hated it, I was so disappointed! I have the second book but just can't face it.
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Elizabeth: The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri
Jan: Death and the Dolce Vita: The Dark Side of Rome in the 1950s by Stephen Gundle
Susan: A Bold and Dangerous Family: One Family’s Fight Against Italian Fascism by Caroline Moorehead
Judy: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Pamela: Christ Stopped at Eboli: The Story of a Year by Carlo Levi
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio BassaniGiorgio Bassani's acclaimed novel of unrequited love and the plight of the Italian Jews on the brink of World War II has become a classic of modern Italian literature.
Made into an Academy Award winning film in 1970, "The Garden of the Finzi Continis "is a richly evocative and nostalgic depiction of prewar Italy. The narrator, a young middle-class Jew in the Italian city of Ferrara, has long been fascinated from afar by the Finzi-Continis, a wealthy and aristocratic Jewish family, and especially by their charming daughter Micol. But it is not until 1938 that he is invited behind the walls of their lavish estate, as local Jews begin to gather there to avoid the racial laws of the Fascists, and the garden of the Finzi-Continis becomes a sort of idyllic sanctuary in an increasingly brutal world. Years later after the war, the narrator returns in memory to his doomed relationship with the lovely Micol, and to the predicament that faced all the Ferrarese Jews, in this unforgettably wrenching portrait of a community about to be destroyed by the world outside the garden walls."
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Roman Clodia wrote: "I completely fell head over heels for Ferrante's quartet when I read it!"Me too!
If Hugh does not decide to nominate The Leopard then I will. It is a wonderful book.It is one of the three I wanted to nominate, but I was hesitating about the time frame. It is set during the Risorgiomento (unification of Italy), but was written and published in the twentieth century, so I think we could discuss more recent issues as well as historical ones.
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And, of course, we are discussing Charles Dickens this month.
So Val, if Hugh nominates The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa would you nominate something else? Or shall I just put it down by your name?
Ok I'll confirm my nomination of The Leopard
... but I could still be very tempted to vote for Bassani.
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Elizabeth: The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri
Jan: Death and the Dolce Vita: The Dark Side of Rome in the 1950s by Stephen Gundle
Susan: A Bold and Dangerous Family: One Family’s Fight Against Italian Fascism by Caroline Moorehead
Judy: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Pamela: Christ Stopped at Eboli: The Story of a Year by Carlo Levi
Karen: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani
Hugh: The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
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I nominate
The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovannino Guareschi.Very funny short stories about a priest, a communist and other villagers, which also say quite a lot about post-war Italy.
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Nominations so far...
Elizabeth: The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri
Jan: Death and the Dolce Vita: The Dark Side of Rome in the 1950s by Stephen Gundle
Susan: A Bold and Dangerous Family: One Family’s Fight Against Italian Fascism by Caroline Moorehead
Judy: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Pamela: Christ Stopped at Eboli: The Story of a Year by Carlo Levi
Karen: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani
Hugh: The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Val: The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovannino Guareschi
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Not nominations as I've already nominated but another couple of non-fiction books I've recently enjoyed and might interest others here areFascist Voices: An Intimate History of Mussolini's Italy
and
Dolce Vita Confidential: Fellini, Loren, Pucci, Paparazzi, and the Swinging High Life of 1950s Rome
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Like Roman Clodia, I already feel spoiled for choice so will put my potential nomination back in the locker and try to make a decision based on what we've got so far.
Is anyone else considering a nomination?
Susan wrote: "Oh, I LOVED Don Camillo as a child, Val. I would adore re-visting the books."I remember it as a BBC series, with Brian Blessed as Peppone. But I don't think I ever read the books
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Nominations...
Elizabeth: The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri
Jan: Death and the Dolce Vita: The Dark Side of Rome in the 1950s by Stephen Gundle
Susan: A Bold and Dangerous Family: One Family’s Fight Against Italian Fascism by Caroline Moorehead
Judy: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Pamela: Christ Stopped at Eboli: The Story of a Year by Carlo Levi
Karen: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani
Hugh: The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Val: The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovannino Guareschi
They are available on kindle now in the UK. I can't check kindle availability for the rest of the world unfortunately.
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https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...
Please vote for the book you'd most like to read and discuss
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The Little World of Don Camillo - 4 votes, 33.3%
Death and the Dolce Vita: The Dark Side of Rome in the 1950s - 2 votes, 16.7%
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis - 2 votes, 16.7%
Christ Stopped at Eboli: The Story of a Year - 1 vote, 8.3%
My Brilliant Friend (The Neapolitan Novels, #1) - 1 vote, 8.3%
The Shape of Water (Inspector Montalbano, #1) - 1 vote, 8.3%
The Leopard - 1 vote, 8.3%
A Bold and Dangerous Family: The Remarkable Story of an Italian Mother, Her Two Sons, and Their Fight Against Fascism - 0 votes, 0.0%
VOTE HERE....
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...
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The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovannino Guareschi
The Moderators' Choice to accompany The Little World of Don Camillo is the book which came second in the poll...
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Thanks to everyone who nominated, discussed and voted
Reading the 20th Century
Books mentioned in this topic
The Little World of Don Camillo (other topics)The Little World of Don Camillo (other topics)
The Leopard (other topics)
The Little World of Don Camillo (other topics)
The Leopard (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (other topics)Giovannino Guareschi (other topics)
Giovannino Guareschi (other topics)
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (other topics)
Caroline Moorehead (other topics)
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Our June 2019 theme is...
...I T A L Y
If you feel inspired, please nominate a book set in, or about, Italy that you would like to read and discuss.
It can be either fiction or non-fiction.
Please supply the title, author, a brief synopsis, and anything else you'd like to mention about the book, and why you think it might make a good book to discuss.
If your nomination wins then please be willing to fully participate in the subsequent discussion.
Happy nominating.