“There is nothing more reprehensible than remaining blind to the problems and pains of others.” Memoirs belonging to the category of texts that must be read compulsorily. Up to the age of twenty it should be read in order to grow intellectually, after to be able to appreciate the hidden nuances and inconsistencies of the human being. A title that came into our hands almost by accident, during one of our reading groups, which turned...
“People are full of surprises, even for themselves, if they are provoked enough.” We thank one of our reading groups who first introduced us to the author and then to the book. The beauty of reading is right here, in the sharing of interests and continuous discovery. Our great miss having never read anything by James Baldwin before. Intense and delicate like few other authors, with a writing born to remain over time and inside...
“[…] and he finally knew the kind of transformation that love had given to all the people he knew, to always escape only him.” A novel full: of what? of life, of contradiction, of feeling, of emotional inconsistencies, of elective affinity, of imagination and reality. If that weren’t enough yet, we also add full of reflections on interpersonal relationships, mistakes, remorse, on man’s inadequacy and wealth. Three divided yet linked stories, with an alternative vision...
The books chosen by Andrea Salonia This review is available only in the original language _________________________________________________________________________ Come resistere a un romanzo il cui titolo recita “Quattro galline” ? Io non sono riuscito: questa nuova scrittrice americana, Jackie Polzin, alla sua prima opera di parole, è stata davvero capace di catturare la mia attenzione. Lei, la copertina nera con una avvenente gallina di razza Dominicana, un geroglifico nero in campo bianco-crema, cresta e piccolo bargiglio rosso,...
“FRIDAY RE-VERSO” “There was nothing I could say about that world except that I had known it, that it had been mine, that it still was.” Cosidering that there is a lot to talk about, here is a brief summary of the plot: forced by her father to separate from his beloved Jade, David Axelrod sets the family home on fire, with nebulous and somewhat delusional purposes. Here it begins: for four years, two of...
“True beauty is always a little creepy.” Classic among the classics of training books, first printed in the early nineties, destined to remain over time, thanks to the topics covered: love, sexuality, friendship, responsibility, social recognition. In other words, what other writers, in other times, would have defined the shadow line. The story is set in a small college in Vermont, where six students of different backgrounds (even if some of them do everything to...
“Pain, when it comes, is not at all what we expect it to be.” Self-criticism: it may be that we did not understand the book, it may be that we were not able to immerse ourselves completely in the spirit that the writer wanted to convey to us, but we were disappointed by the text. We decided to open this writing in this way out of respect for the story told and for the writer’s...
“I think people who only have good experiences are not very interesting.” Chosen as the book for the second appointment of the GLOB reading group (Gruppo di Lettura Occasioni d’incontro – BooktoMi – BooktoMi), we recommend it for the same purpose to other readers, because it is capable of lighting fires of unexpected discussions. But let’s start with the plot. James Sveck is an apparently normal life boy of the American upper middle class. Close...
“FRIDAY DI-VERSO” I listened as in a dream to the roar of the waves and I knew that I would pass the test of my youth and be forgiven. Some books, quick to read, full of life yet airy, fresh, might be worth describing in pictures rather than words. An image that may suggest, perhaps, the state of mind of those who, having closed the book, after the last page, also close their eyes, to let...
“When you are sad you need to feel your pain made into music.” Book of memoirs, in which the writer recounts her experience as a patient in a US psychiatric clinic in the late 1960s. A leap into the void crossed after a perhaps incorrect diagnosis of personality disorder, following an alleged attempt to commit suicide. The stay at the McLean private hospital will last for eighteen months, during which the writer lives in a...
