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Forbidden Notebook
Forbidden Notebook | Alba de Céspedes
11 posts | 8 read | 41 to read
"Forbidden Notebook promises a new cohort of readers, appetites whetted by the works of Elena Ferrante, Elsa Morante and Natalia Ginzburg. Translator Ann Goldstein has reinvigorated the text." --Joumana Khatib, The New York Times Book Review "Published in Italy in 1952, this intimate, quietly subversive novel is told through the increasingly frantic secret diary entries of a woman named Valeria."--The New Yorker "Reading Alba de Cespedes was, for me, like breaking into an unknown universe: social class, feelings, atmosphere." --Annie Ernaux, Nobel Prize laureate and author of The Years With a foreword by Jhumpa Lahiri, Quaderno Proibito is a classic domestic novel by the Italian-Cuban feminist writer Alba de Céspedes, whose work inspired contemporary writers like Elena Ferrante. In this modern translation by acclaimed Elena Ferrante translator Ann Goldstein, Forbidden Notebook centers the inner life of a dissatisfied housewife living in postwar Rome. Valeria Cossati never suspected how unhappy she had become with the shabby gentility of her bourgeois life--until she begins to jot down her thoughts and feelings in a little black book she keeps hidden in a closet. This new secret activity leads her to scrutinize herself and her life more closely, and she soon realizes that her individuality is being stifled by her devotion and sense of duty toward her husband, daughter, and son. As the conflicts between parents and children, husband and wife, and friends and lovers intensify, what goes on behind the Cossatis' facade of middle-class respectability gradually comes to light, tearing the family's fragile fabric apart. An exquisitely crafted portrayal of domestic life, Forbidden Notebook recognizes the universality of human aspirations.
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Night_Reader
Forbidden Notebook | Alba de Céspedes
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Pickpick

4/5 🌟

This novel explores womanhood and motherhood through the eyes of a woman who secretly keeps a diary. Writing late at night, she's anxious that her family might find it, feeling ashamed of her private thoughts. As she journals, she begins to question her values, family dynamics, and sense of self.

A thought-provoking and engaging read.

16 likes2 stack adds
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MaureenMc
Forbidden Notebook | Alba de Céspedes
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I haven‘t posted a #BookOutlet haul in a while. 😠The top few are (mainly) for my 12 year-old, although I may read some of them before she gets around to it.

Cathythoughts Lovely stack ðŸ‘ðŸ»â¤ï¸ 8mo
LeahBergen Nice! ðŸ‘👠8mo
54 likes2 comments
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quietjenn
Forbidden Notebook | Alba de Céspedes
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Pickpick

Excellent. I suspect I will be thinking about this one for a long time.

Aims42 Ooo I bought this at a library book sale this past summer and haven‘t read it yet. Glad it‘s a winner!! 10mo
merelybookish My favourite read of 2023! 10mo
batsy One of my top reads last year, as well! 10mo
69 likes7 stack adds3 comments
blurb
jlhammar
Forbidden Notebook | Alba de Céspedes
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#Top23of23 Part 2

BarbaraBB Our Fathers will be an all time favorite for me and I am looking forward to forward to The Notebook! 10mo
Tamra Lawson! â™¥ï¸ 10mo
62 likes2 comments
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monalyisha
Forbidden Notebook | Alba de Céspedes
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Pickpick

It's been years since I've read Virginia Woolf but, within sentences, The Forbidden Notebook brought me back to Mrs. Dalloway, to A Room of One's Own, and that impression never left. The first two-thirds of this novel are compulsively readable. Changing the last third is unthinkable; it would be a far less powerful text if it read any differently. Still, the task became grueling. You always want the best for your protagonist. Alas...

49 likes2 stack adds
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Kazzie
Forbidden Notebook | Alba de Céspedes
Pickpick

This was very engrossing. Such a great look into a middle aged European woman 70 years ago. She grabbles with her own rich emotions and opinions, while maintaining a strict societal code. She sees in her daughter a new freer generation - a freedom her son looks to thwart. She is relevant to all as a mother, wife, housekeeper, secretary, but seemingly not as an independent thinker. Recommend!

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jlhammar
Forbidden Notebook | Alba de Céspedes
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Pickpick

Very good. So glad this has been rediscovered and newly, brilliantly translated after being out of print for decades. Originally published as a serial in an Italian weekly magazine 1950-51, I kept thinking about how this must have spoke to the women reading it then. The diary format feels so intimate. Even today, it can be a radical act for a wife and mother to seek privacy, autonomy, time and space to write and reflect on life. Highly recommend!

batsy Lovely review. This was such a brilliant read. 1y
jlhammar @batsy Thanks! I was excited to learn that this same publisher has another of her works coming in November. Different translator though. 1y
62 likes2 stack adds2 comments
quote
jlhammar
Forbidden Notebook | Alba de Céspedes
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“I was wrong to buy this notebook, very wrong.â€

#FirstLineFridays

batsy A great first line! 1y
53 likes1 comment
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BarbaraBB
Forbidden Notebook | Alba de Céspedes
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My Mother‘s Day presents. Kids know me so well 💕 I am super excited about the tagged one, that @batsy and @merelybookish wrote such fabulous reviews about! And I loved another book by Ben Winters and am eager to discover a new one!

TrishB Happy Mother‘s Day â™¥ï¸ lovely gifts. 2y
batsy Happy Mother's Day! Most excellent presents from your sweet kids 💕 2y
Cinfhen Sweet kiddos!!! 2y
See All 12 Comments
Tamra Underground Airlines is a great read! Happy Mother‘s Day! 2y
sarahbarnes Happy Mother‘s Day! The best gift! 📚 (edited) 2y
LeahBergen Good job, kiddos! 2y
Megabooks Happy Mother‘s Day!! T and R did a great job! 💜💜 2y
merelybookish Awesome! I hope it lives up to the hype! â™¥ï¸ 2y
CatMS Love Ben Winters, especially his Last Policeman trilogy. 2y
BarbaraBB @CatMS That is good to know, I only read (and loved) 2y
Suet624 Wasn‘t the Winters book a TOB book? Maybe not. I liked it a lot. 1y
BarbaraBB @Suet624 Golden State was, I think 🤔 it was a great story anyhow so I am eager to read another book by him! 1y
78 likes12 comments
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merelybookish
Forbidden Notebook | Alba de Céspedes
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Pickpick

This book is a gut punch. One Sunday, 43 year-old Valeria, wife, mother, office worker, buys a black notebook that she keeps hidden & writes in on the sly. Her clandestine entries make up the novel. They offer a story of self-discovery as well as the struggle of what to do with that knowledge. First published in Italy in 1952. A tale of the impossibility of women's lives & the danger of finding your writing voice. Sure to be a best of the year!

JamieArc Sounds intriguing! 2y
BarbaraBB I had this stacked already after @batsy review and now I am sure I need to read it! 2y
jlhammar I just bought this one. Can't wait! 2y
See All 20 Comments
merelybookish @JamieArc It's really good. She lives a very mundane life and yet her story is riveting! 2y
merelybookish @BarbaraBB I feel confident saying I think you'd like this one too! @batsy called it part of the feminist canon and that feels accurate! 2y
merelybookish @jlhammar I look forward to your thoughts! I hope you enjoy it too!! 2y
BarbaraBB Thanks Margot! You have convinced me 🩵 2y
TrishB Stacked ðŸ‘🻠2y
batsy Happy that it was a pick for you, too! It's a great addition to feminist literature and so glad to be able to read this via a new English translation. 2y
Cathythoughts Sounds good ! Thankyou 2y
sarahbarnes Wow, I‘m going to need to read this. 2y
squirrelbrain Sounds wonderful - stacked! 2y
LeahBergen I‘ve been eyeing this one! 2y
merelybookish @BarbaraBB I look forward to your review! 2y
merelybookish @TrishB I hope you enjoy it too! 2y
merelybookish @batsy Yes, long overdue apparently! I appreciated Lahiri's introduction that established the book's influence in Italian feminist literature. 2y
merelybookish @Cathythoughts Hi Cathy! I think you'd dig it. 2y
merelybookish @sarahbarnes Yes, you do! 😄 2y
merelybookish @squirrelbrain Look forward to your take on it! 2y
merelybookish @LeahBergen I think any fan of Margaret Laurence would like it. 😀 2y
74 likes11 stack adds20 comments
review
batsy
Forbidden Notebook | Alba de Céspedes
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Pickpick

What happens when a working wife and mother finds a room of her own in the pages of a notebook and starts writing for the first time? This post-war Italian novel, translated by Ann Goldstein, is brilliant. The style is raw and intimate but expressed with such clarity of thought. The facts of a woman's life laid bare is one aspect, but the thing that disturbs and haunts me is what happens when someone starts writing and thinking about their life.

batsy So many lines just stopped me short, like the passage above in the image. "To return to the self I've always thought I was, I have to avoid being alone"—this was another. The more the protagonist writes, the more she discovers herself (or multiple selves?) and they upend the structure of her life, which as she admits, is built upon not knowing too much, by cultivating a sense of ignorance and downplaying intelligence. Devastating! And that ending! 2y
jlhammar Sounds so good! It was already on my wishlist, but I might need to get myself a copy sooner rather than later. 2y
batsy @jlhammar I'm so glad I read it! I hope you like it, too. 2y
See All 17 Comments
BarbaraBB Ooh this sounds so good. Fab review. I have to stack 2y
LeahBergen I‘m intrigued! 2y
batsy @BarbaraBB Thanks! I hope it's something you find worthwhile. 2y
batsy @LeahBergen It's a really interesting look at post-war Italian life and norms. 2y
CarolynM Great review. 2y
batsy @CarolynM Thank you! 2y
Centique Fabulous review Suba! 2y
batsy @Centique Thank you! 2y
merelybookish I just started! Excited to see your positive review! 2y
batsy @merelybookish I hope you like it! One for the feminist canon, imo. 2y
BekaReid @batsy Great review! I just finished reading it this weekend and could echo this! Also, this is one of my favorite quotes (of many) from the book. 1y
batsy @BekaReid Thank you! There were so many great lines in this one. So much to think about. 1y
Mimi28 Oooooooo!! Aaaaahhhhhhh!! Intriguing and also gives me validation for staying away from family even when it wasn‘t just my mom and I. Yea!! Finding yourself and your own likes and dislikes and annoyances away from people especially family. I hope feel validated for the right reasons, lol - stacked 9mo
batsy @Mimi28 Right! It's always a hard balance. The gender norms of when the author was writing this were so rigid that it made me feel suffocated when reading. But yes an excellent book. 9mo
86 likes9 stack adds17 comments