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“The Image of the Doll: Tove Ditlevsen’s Worn-Out Language”
By Olga Ravn February 7, 2025

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2...

“All the Ugly & Wonderful Things” was definitely DISTURBING! With themes found in Westover’s “Educated,” Walls’ “The Glass Castle,” & Owen’s “Crawdads”, (neglect, family trauma, drug use, violence) Bryn Greenwood’s novel is certainly controversial, but it’s also a gripping story of forbidden love. Recommended, but with severe caution, as this is not for the faint of heart.

Serafina (Sara) Marsala, an accomplished butcher from Philadelphia travels to Sicily after her aunt’s death to reclaim a plot of family land. While there, she meets many interesting people, eats a ton of great food, and takes in some beautiful sights, all while working through the bureaucratic system to gain possession of the property and to solve the hundred-year-old mystery of who killed her great grandmother.

DNF

Meaningful Quotes:

“Food and art are very capable peacekeepers” (13).

“We are all soldiers of some kind” (28).

“… all the many pompous creatures who strutted with pride just before their fall” (30).

“… history belongs to the people” (36).

“Creating martyrs out of dissidents is like taking a blade to an itch” (37).