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April  2008 

 

 

Welcome back Amici to our page for books : 

May 2008

Nobody better than an Italian can analyze the Italians !!!

I personally found this book An Italian in Italy sometimes hilarious sometimes annoying but simply because with honesty it touches some "sensitive " aspects that - I know - are true.

I would certainly suggest it to the ones who want to " know Italy " and not only its monuments.

Beppe Severgnini is a well known columnist for one of the leading Italian newspapers "Corriere della Sera", his talent in describing peoples' characters and behaviors has produced great books such as : An Italian in America  and An Italian in Britain .

 

 

 

I recently read, actually - devoured -, a very nice thriller.

I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing in telling you about it, because the author is Italian and the book Italian too !!!

Now, either you start seriously to improve your Italian language, or more simply keep an eye on the " Thrillers" ground to find the book translated.

Its title is " Niente di vero, tranne gli occhi " = Nothing true, apart from eyes ( I agree with you, probably in English the title will be different !! ) , the author is Giorgio FALETTI. He is well known in Italy because for years has been a pretty good comedian who browsed consistently on the major TV channels.

For a while he disappeared from the screen, probably he had enough of that.

He popped up again a few years ago with a couple of thriller books.

To be honest with you, I thought : "......NAAAA !!! he is just riding his name, he can afford it, surely that book is a floppy !! "

But in Rome railway station, waiting to board the train back home after a tour, searching for an easy book I saw it and I thought : why not ? Let's give him a chance.

And I'm glad I did.

It's a nice story, blending American and Italian countries together, with very modern lifestyles, very nicely described.

Sometimes, even too nicely !!!

In Italy, Giorgio Faletti has reached a very good success as writer ( I think he wrote 4 or 5 books ) and I guess he will appear in your book stores pretty soon.

Keep an eye on him, he deserves a couple of nice evenings !!!

 

I know, I shouldn't make the same mistake again, but still I hope you can get this book sometime translated into English.

Again, I'm talking about an Italian book. Completely different subject this time.

I SEGRETI DI ROMA = The secrets of Rome .

Now, writing about Rome is like going to harvest the whole Mid-West with a small scythe in your hand !!! I guess, you wouldn't know where to start from, but Corrado AUGIAS has the great talent of holding your hand and taking you for a walk around the city where every single stone has thousands of stories to tell.

Do not expect a guide book. He will tell you the stories he likes. Some pretty famous, others known only to few.

And being one of the best Italian journalists and tv commentators, Augias has the gift of grandpa: you could listen or read him for hours, so smooth is his way of unveiling stories that start from insignificant details ending to Heads of State or Popes.

Certainly suggested to the ones having - already - a good basic knowledge of Italian and Roman history.

 

 

I must be honest with you.

I have been extremely contended about writing of these 2 books, so strong is the impression they left in my soul.

Let me tell to the ones who haven't heard about them yet, these stories are about people living in today's Afghanistan.

I belong to the Western world and I feel very fortunate for it, but because of this pride I cannot deny - first of all to myself - the immense responsibilities my world has on the conditions of life of other populations around the globe.

What I felt in reading some of those pages was not only pain and grief, but guilt too.

" Well, That's your problem !!!... " somebody may say.

Yes, that's exactly what it is : my problem.

Now, I am not the right person neither this is the right place to start a talk that inevitably will end into politics, but I am still trying to explain why I have difficulties in turning my feelings into words.

But then, I thought ....... I'm not talking to kids and I'm not running for president. Why shouldn't I talk to my friends with an open heart?......... 

These 2 books are among the nicest works I've ever read in my life and even if some passages resemble more stabbings rather than words, they must - not only deserve - be read.

KHALED HOSSEINI 's  narration is so simple, fluid even bare, that turns from almost intolerable descriptions to peaks of pure poetry with a finger's snap. This is what I think is TALENT, in every field : making difficult things easy.

Either you can do it or you cant, it's impossible to learn that with practice or study. It's in the DNA.

And Hosseini has plenty of it.

Giving you some details, both books tell about stories of individuals and their families in that mangled country which is Afghanistan.

KITE RUNNER has been chronologically the first of the 2 books and its story is mainly concentrated in one particular family that went through all the various periods over the last 20 years. It is narrated as a diary, the kid - main character - is actually writing his story in first person. 

I particularly like in this book the description of feelings - I think they call in INTROSPECTION, with a big, serious word ! - that somehow remind me the Cameos Master Carvers at work.

The poetry in some pages is so light and yet so captivating that only a writer having a background of hundreds of years of Arabian Literature can afford.

I was pretty shaken when I ended it.

But I didn't know yet what I was going through in reading the 2nd !

A THOUSANS SPLENDID SUNS is a more complex book.

Various characters in different places and in different moments mingle their lives, always in Afghanistan.

Being this book - as well as the first - extremely realistic, it's needless to say that several scenes require firm nerves to reach the end. I don't hide the fact that I had to stop reading it in some moments, since the reading - only - made me totally uncomfortable.

I know, the war is war, but still when I think it is happening now, next door, it doesn't leave me

cool.

But again, Hosseini manages to deliver occasional moments of joy that in such terrible environment, really appear like suns.

But not a thousands, I'm afraid.

I am not ashamed to tell you that at the end of the last line I cried like a baby.

You will too.

Wanna a bet ?

This book is a very appreciated present from one of you, Mr G. Raffel, whom here I thank again.

He mentioned it to me while we where visiting the Vatican and St. Peter, last May.

" An elephant in St. Peter ?? I never heard of that !!!", I replied when he approached the subject, and so he promised me this book with the whole story.

I doubly appreciate this present because it must have been not that easy to find it ( The Pope's elephant  printed in 1997-PENGUIN-) and because it is definitely not a sort of subject attracting thousands of "normal " readers.

SILVIO BEDINI is a world known historian and this work is an extraordinary open window on a world that has few competitors as far as interest is concerned.

Just think we are talking about the start of 16th c., when Pope Lio X rose to Peter's throne and among all other presents he received AN ELEPHANT  !!! 

An age in which Columbus was still running around for an open tobacconist, Michelangelo was already fighting with the tragedy of his life - the Tomb of Pope Julius II, supposed to have 42 statues the same size of Moses in Chains, never completed -, elderly Leonardo was spending his last years in Florence before retreating in France but above all, an age in which to become Pope meant playing all kinds of games, games that would turn today many seasoned politicians pale.

The richness of details, the explanations of the intrigues, the depth of these chronicles make this story a nice tour in a complex world that has marked so heavily the development of the Western - and not only - World.

Like all books based on history details, it requires a bit of diligence. I wouldn't give it as a present to somebody not liking to read.

I would have one less friend !!! 

Well, these are our " outings ". 

We surely would appreciate yours, therefore let us know what you have read that you liked ( or hated !), 

there is one empty chair at our table, and that's yours  !!!!

ric@travelingfriends.it

www.travelingfriends.it