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#narrativaitaliana
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shawnmooney
Proleterka | Fleur Jaeggy
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review
The_Penniless_Author
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Pickpick

This book melted my brain. I can't claim I fully grasped everything Campo laid out in these essays, even after multiple readings. Attention is good, imagination bad. The Gospels, (true) poetry, and fairy tales are good, realist fiction and contemporary are bad. Virtue can only be found in an ascetic, hermetic lifestyle. I'm not sure I can wholeheartedly endorse a worldview that dismisses the Renaissance as a "universal disaster", but I have...?

The_Penniless_Author ...to admit that a lot of what she argues rings true, even when I found myself having an immediate and visceral reaction against it. Whatever else Campo is, she's a genius. I wouldn't say this is an "enjoyable" book (not in a million years), yet I guarantee I'll still be thinking about it long after I put it down. 3mo
The_Penniless_Author I should also mention that Campo writes some incredible sentences. The strength of her opinions lies heavily in the quality of her writing. I'm continually shocked to find myself being persuaded that the correct course in life is to drop out altogether, move to the desert, and become an anchorite Catholic monk. 😂 3mo
The_Penniless_Author I also feel compelled to add that Campo is kind of a whack job and believes that illness has its roots in spiritual decay and asserts - sincerely, by all appearances - that "wild creatures do not usually attack children" because children are "the saint's model". ? You can see her slipping further into religious fundamentalism as the book progresses, and even her excellent writing can't save her from becoming tedious by the end. 3mo
35 likes1 stack add3 comments
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The_Penniless_Author
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#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

To accuse the French fabulists of frivolity because they adorned their fairies with a handful of ostrich feathers is to "have sight and not perception."

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giulia.mosna
Tasmania | Paolo Giordano
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Panpan

2/5 ⭐
Meh. Più un insieme di ricordi e pensieri messi insieme un po' a caso che altro. L'unico personaggio che mi è stato simpatico è Eugenio, sembra che mi piaccia solo come Giordano scrive gli adolescenti ("La solitudine dei numeri primi" è uno dei miei libri preferiti e "Divorare il cielo" mi è piaciuto molto, mentre gli altri suoi libri mi hanno delusa).

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candc320
Let the Games Begin | Niccol Ammaniti
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My #bookspinbingo board is ready to go!

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Astroneman
Family Lexicon | Natalia Ginzburg
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Pickpick
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sue0815
Il fu Mattia Pascal | Luigi Pirandello

“Di quante cose sostanziali, minutissime, inimmaginabili ha bisogno la nostra invenzione per ridiventare quella stessa realtà da cui fu tratta, di quante fila che la riallaccino nel complicatissimo intrico della vita, fila che noi abbiamo recise per farla diventare una cosa a sé”

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The_Penniless_Author
Butterfly of Dinard | Eugenio Montale
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Pickpick

Soft pick. Montale was a poet who also wrote short prose pieces for various newspapers just before and after WWII, most of them lightly fictionalized anecdotes from his own life. This book is a compendium of those newspaper columns, which collectively form a memoir of sorts. I liked the non-linear, piecemeal structure of this, as it seems to mimic what it's like getting to know another person in real life, a series of tiny glimpses that 👇

The_Penniless_Author ...gradually add up to a coherent picture. 6mo
29 likes1 comment
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Dilara
The Nonexistent Knight | Italo Calvino
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Woke up at 2:30 because of a pesky mosquito. Now consoling myself with pancakes for breakfast and the ever-dependable Italo Calvino. Nore sure how I'm going to get through a whole day's work. I wished I didn't need sleep, just like the Nonexistent, robotic, Knight...

28 likes1 stack add
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The_Penniless_Author
Singularity | Dino Buzzati
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#wondrouswednesday @Eggs

1. I'm a published author who makes no money off his books. ? (Well, technically not "no money". I suppose I should be The Hundredaire Author. ?)

2. I've never listened to an audiobook. I do listen to the podcast Backlisted when I'm on the treadmill, though.

3. The Singularity (tagged)

Tag @RaeLovesToRead @IuliaC @Yuki_Onna @CBee @BarbaraBB @dabbe @Ruthiella @IndoorDame @MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm

Eggs I loved True North 🧭 6mo
The_Penniless_Author @Eggs Thanks! It sold fine for a book put out by a small press with no marketing budget. Since this is a hobby for me rather than a living, I usually sink every penny I make into purchasing ads or review copies. I would much rather sell 500 copies and break even than sell 300 and make money out of it. 🙂 6mo
dabbe @Eggs #metoo! 🤩 6mo
dabbe Will do; thanks for the tag! 🤗 6mo
35 likes4 comments