Biscia - aNobii

Books (490)

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- Asterios Polyp (232)
- By David Mazzucchelli
- Finished on Jan 8, 2013
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Asterios Polyp

Lovely.

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— Jan 26, 2013 | Add your feedback
The Beginn-
ing Place
- The Beginning Place (10)
- A Novel
- By Ursula K. Le Guin
- Finished on Jan 6, 2013
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The Beginning Place

One of the finest opening sentences I've read in a long time, followed by a couple very promising chapters. Then... wha? It's as if the rest were written in a single all-nighter, with Le Guin desperately tired and just trying to get it over with, somehow, anyhow.

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— Jan 26, 2013 | Add your feedback
- The Child Garden (4)
- Or a Low Comedy
- By Geoff Ryman
- Finished on Jan 14, 2013
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- Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (12)
- By James Agee, Walker Evans
- Finished on Mar 3, 2013
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Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

This is not a book, not really, not quite, it’s something far less structured and far more ambitious. Occasionally maddening, persistently beautiful, very much the work of a young person, but in a way that makes you wish you were that specific kind of young. The prose is on the whole ageless, and st ... (continue)

This is not a book, not really, not quite, it’s something far less structured and far more ambitious. Occasionally maddening, persistently beautiful, very much the work of a young person, but in a way that makes you wish you were that specific kind of young. The prose is on the whole ageless, and stunning.
And Agee may fail in most of what he explicitly sets out to do—to avoid arrogance, to avoid disrespect, to avoid making art—but he’s so human, and honest, and earnest, I would forgive him all of that a thousand times over.
How were we caught? What, what is it has happened?
PS: Agee was also responsible for the screenplay adaptation of The Night of the Hunter, one of the finest and weirdest movies ever made.

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— Mar 4, 2013 | Add your feedback
- The Enormous Room (14)
- By E.E. Cummings
- Finished on Mar 21, 2013
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The Enormous Room

2 people find this helpful

I had no idea that Cummings had written an autobiographical novel, let alone such a stunning one, and I have no clue why it’s so largely forgotten. It has all the exuberance and acuity of his poems, the same deftly hybrid imagery, and the most effective weaving of foreign language into a narrative t ... (continue)

I had no idea that Cummings had written an autobiographical novel, let alone such a stunning one, and I have no clue why it’s so largely forgotten. It has all the exuberance and acuity of his poems, the same deftly hybrid imagery, and the most effective weaving of foreign language into a narrative that I’ve ever read. Plus, he took what should have been a dreary, infuriating waste of time – three months of his life that the French government stole by heaving him into a dentention center on non-existent charges during WWI – and turned it into an exercise in delight. Considering what was going on outside, it wasn't as far a stretch as it might seem to say it was the “best place in the world”, but holding on to that vision and pinning it down for others took a unique talent.
PS: Do be prepared for the affectionate but at times embarrassingly racist description of "Jean le Nègre", though.

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— Mar 22, 2013 | Add your feedback

- Shikasta (19)
- Re, Colonised Planet 5 (George Sherban Emissary)
- By Doris Lessing
- Not Started
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- Vanity Fair (567)
- By William Makepeace Thackeray
- Finished on Jan 18, 2013
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- War With the Newts (12)
- By Karel Capek
- Finished on Mar 8, 2013
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War With the Newts

Humans discover a mysterious, docile, intelligent species, capable of speech, which has been minding its own business on a small island in the Pacific. So they promptly exploit it, abuse it, enslave it, turn it into a commodity, then into a means of radically altering the environment, then into a mi ... (continue)

Humans discover a mysterious, docile, intelligent species, capable of speech, which has been minding its own business on a small island in the Pacific. So they promptly exploit it, abuse it, enslave it, turn it into a commodity, then into a means of radically altering the environment, then into a military tool (this is from 1936), then are surprised when things don’t all work out for the best. Capek knew his humans pretty well.
The style reminds me quite a bit of Bulgakov, i.e., about as good as it gets. God bless the 50-cent book sale rack at my parents' library.

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— Mar 10, 2013 | Add your feedback
- 1914-1991 (2692)
- Il secolo breve
- By Eric Hobsbawm
- Finished on Feb 22, 2013
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1914-1991

1 person find this helpful

Be', menomale che era breve, come ha detto mia mamma dopo aver chiesto cosa fosse quel malloppone.
Negli anni '60-'70 Hobsbawm ha già una certa età e arrivata agli accenni alla "politica d'identità" cominciavo a canticchiare "come old tenured white men throughout the land / and don't criticize what ... (continue)

Be', menomale che era breve, come ha detto mia mamma dopo aver chiesto cosa fosse quel malloppone.
Negli anni '60-'70 Hobsbawm ha già una certa età e arrivata agli accenni alla "politica d'identità" cominciavo a canticchiare "come old tenured white men throughout the land / and don't criticize what you can't understand". (Poi dio bono, quando stai cercando di descrivere l'intero '900 in un solo volume butti via paragrafi interi a parlare del "campus novel"? E di come la gente non ascolta più la musica classica europea?)
Però la prima metà era spesso illuminante, dando una visione panoramica senza perdere la complessità né perdersi nei dettagli.

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— Mar 4, 2013 | 1 feedback
- Amianto (91)
- Una storia operaia
- By Alberto Prunetti
- Finished on Jan 3, 2013
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Amianto

1 person find this helpful
Altro che Acciaio

Regalo natalizio dal mio compagno piombinese, preso alla libreria Coop della sua città (e lo so perché – usciti separatamente per fare compere – l’ho ritrovato piantato lì a leggerlo, rapito, mentre cercavo di strisciare quatta quatta lungo lo scaffale per afferrare una guida micologica senza entrar ... (continue)

Regalo natalizio dal mio compagno piombinese, preso alla libreria Coop della sua città (e lo so perché – usciti separatamente per fare compere – l’ho ritrovato piantato lì a leggerlo, rapito, mentre cercavo di strisciare quatta quatta lungo lo scaffale per afferrare una guida micologica senza entrare nel suo campo visivo). Non posso dare un giudizio imparziale su un libro così profondamente radicato in un territorio, molto particolare, che ho imparato ad amare insieme al suddetto compagno e nella cultura che li ha modellati entrambi. Troverà, spero, anche molti lettori che non hanno mai soppesato un pezzo di loppa etrusca, che hanno solo un’idea vaghissima di come sia fatto un altoforno o di quanto prenda un cassintegrato, che non hanno mai sentito raccontare gli incidenti d’acciaieria come se fossero storie di fantasmi ascoltate e ripetute fin da piccoli, che hanno poche certezze sulla causa dei tumori in famiglia: quindi certi brividi di riconoscimento non possono essere universali. Però la forza e frequenza di quei brividi significa che Prunetti ha fatto un lavoro eccelso nel descrivere questa realtà così complessa – dove sono le stesse divinità fuligginose a dare sia il pane, sia la morte – attraverso un semplice flusso di ricordi, in stile informale e vernacolare. E’ intriso di una nostalgia stranamente simile ai racconti di un ottantenne sui tempi di guerra, nella sua commistione di tragedia generale e personale, orgoglio, affetto e rabbia; nostalgia terribilmente combattuta verso un mondo, anche in questo caso fondato sulla violenza, che rimane inestricabilmente intrecciato con la trama di tante vite uniche. Come quella del suo babbo, che di quel mondo è stato figlio e vittima.

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— Jan 26, 2013 | Add your feedback

- La donna sulla luna (4)
- By Carol Ann Duffy
- Finished on Apr 20, 2012
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- For the Maintenance of Landscape (2)
- Selected Poems
- By Mia Lecomte
- Finished on Apr 12, 2012
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- Far From the Tree (5)
- Parents, Children and the Search for Identity
- By Andrew Solomon
- Finished on Nov 26, 2012
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Far From the Tree

1 person find this helpful

Flawed yet fascinating. Above all, a good conversation starter—and by that I don’t mean “will help you pick up babes on the train”, but that it brings into a very public arena (it’s barely been released and is already super-hyped in the media) a series of questions and debates that have been out the ... (continue)

Flawed yet fascinating. Above all, a good conversation starter—and by that I don’t mean “will help you pick up babes on the train”, but that it brings into a very public arena (it’s barely been released and is already super-hyped in the media) a series of questions and debates that have been out there for quite a while, but not in gleaming stacks at the front of the Barnes & Noble. And it does so through a hook that pretty much anyone can relate to: we aren’t all transgender, or deaf, or autistic, but many, many people are parents and everyone is somebody’s child. The overall premise may not really hang together, but it's a good excuse for doing a lot of interesting interviews (though I might have preferred a more Studs Terkel-style approach, with less input from Solomon except at the beginning and end).
Kathryn Schulz has a thoughtful review in New York Magazine (http://www.vulture.com/2012/11/andrew-solomon-far-from-the-tree.html) and I don't have a lot to add except that I’m not quite as won over by the good parts and more annoyed by the grating parts, especially in the chapters on delinquency and on the children of rape. Solomon seems like a genuine sweetheart of a person, as well as an excellent writer, but he is a very rich very white very man, and despite having made far more effort than most people do to understand experiences outside his own, does hang onto some rather racist and sexist attitudes here and there. I’m also not sure whether my problems with these particular chapters are more indicative of Solomon knowing less about these subjects than others, or me knowing somewhat more: I hadn’t really read anything about dwarfism or Deaf culture before, for instance, so I’m easy to impress and unlikely to catch any sour notes.
Overall, though, highly recommended. And since it was passed on to me by a friend who’s enthusiastic to be dealing with it in a professional context, but I don’t think has read the whole thing yet, I’m gloating and biding my time: having had a lengthy argument with said friend and a third party a few years back over whether a hypothetical parent should allow a hypothetical male child to go to a hypothetical nursery school wearing a hypothetical skirt, I’m hoping that Solomon will help me get the last hypothetical word.
(He also managed to do something that doesn’t happen very often: make me feel a twinge of sadness about not having children. Considering that he directly addresses one of my reasons for not having them—that it’s the mother of all crapshoots, whereas after having spent half my life shooting craps I’m curious to experiment with the illusion of control—that’s a big achievement and one for which I’m grateful, because it would be sadder in a way never to feel that twinge.)

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— Nov 27, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Cyberiade (368)
- Urania 1258
- By Stanislaw Lem
- Finished on Dec 23, 2012
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Cyberiade

2 people find this helpful

Preso dalla biblioteca nella traduzione (dall'inglese, mi pare, ma geniale) del grande, grandissimo Riccardo Valla, scomparso meno di due settimane fa. Non potrei immaginare persona più adatta a dar voce allo spirito arguto di Lem! Avrei voluto scrivergli con i miei complimenti ma mi vergognavo trop ... (continue)

Preso dalla biblioteca nella traduzione (dall'inglese, mi pare, ma geniale) del grande, grandissimo Riccardo Valla, scomparso meno di due settimane fa. Non potrei immaginare persona più adatta a dar voce allo spirito arguto di Lem! Avrei voluto scrivergli con i miei complimenti ma mi vergognavo troppo perché lo conoscevo appena e nonostante il suo garbo e la sua umiltà, mi sarei sentita un topolino che squittisce complimenti a un unicorno. Quindi ora mi tocca consegnarli all'etere. Grazie di aver reso così bene questi viaggi tra le stelle, godspeed per il tuo.

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— Jan 26, 2013 | Add your feedback
- Deviazione (371)
- By Luce D'Eramo
- Finished on Nov 2, 2012
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Deviazione

Madonna, che personaggio ferocemente coerente anche nei suoi dolorosissimi dietrofront. Ma sono 370 pagine di estremo disagio, con la narrazione che si fa sempre più confusa man mano che l'autrice, intrappolata nella matassa della propria autobiografia tormentata, dà strattoni ai fili nel tentativo ... (continue)

Madonna, che personaggio ferocemente coerente anche nei suoi dolorosissimi dietrofront. Ma sono 370 pagine di estremo disagio, con la narrazione che si fa sempre più confusa man mano che l'autrice, intrappolata nella matassa della propria autobiografia tormentata, dà strattoni ai fili nel tentativo di confessarsi e liberarsi in qualche modo dalla Lucia ventenne, e questi non fanno che sfilacciarsi ulteriormente. E' comunque una storia stupefacente, però a chi non conosce D'Eramo consiglio Racconti quasi di guerra: quasi tutti gli elementi autobiografici ci sono, e soprattutto la descrizione magistrale del caos che regnava in Germania negli ultimi due anni della guerra (troppo spesso si ha un'immagine semplificata dell'efficienza nazista, che per molti versi si limitava all’efficienza nello sterminio), caos che poteva essere sia micidiale, sia salvifica per la massa brulicante di stranieri anche fuori dai campi che cercavano disperatamente di sopravvivere nascondendosi nelle sue crepe. Comprensibilmente, è molto più lucida – anzi, cristallina – quando non si sente in dovere di spiegarsi e si limita a raccontare.

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— Jan 26, 2013 | Add your feedback