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Books (241)

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- Il codice Da Vinci (41472)
- By Dan Brown
- Finished on Jan 4, 2005
  
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Il codice Da Vinci

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LA COPPA PIU' DESIDERATA

Lo regalarono a mio papà per Natale, qualche anno fa, quando andava molto di moda. Quindi fui curioso di dargli un'occhiata.
Adesso non voglio mettermi anch'io a dire "geniale" o "schifoso", perché non mi è sembrato né l'uno né l'altro!
Come giallo (o thriller?) l'ho trovato avvincente ed ... (continue)

Lo regalarono a mio papà per Natale, qualche anno fa, quando andava molto di moda. Quindi fui curioso di dargli un'occhiata.
Adesso non voglio mettermi anch'io a dire "geniale" o "schifoso", perché non mi è sembrato né l'uno né l'altro!
Come giallo (o thriller?) l'ho trovato avvincente ed è stato questo aspetto che me l'ha fatto leggere tutto ed anche abbastanza rapidamente. Per capirci, trovo che sia uno degli esemplari meglio riusciti di thriller dei nostri tempi (molto commmerciale, insomma...)
Poi per quanto riguarda tutto il polverone religioso-e-compagnia-bella non lo so e, sinceramente, non è che mi interessi così tanto. Certo, nella mia ignoranza in materia, alcune "rivelazioni" (vere o false, originali o scopiazzate che siano) hanno comunque divertito... A distanza di quattro anni, in pratica, mi ricordo che l'autore vede quella paradisiaca fessura intrainguinale femminile un po' dappertutto, e io, da buon maschietto socialmente, culturalmente e religiosamente un po' represso, non posso non apprezzare! :p

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— Jan 12, 2009 | 3 feedbacks
- La sonata a Kreutzer (5083)
- By Lev Nikolaevič Tolstoj
- Finished on Jan 25, 2005
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- Il Vangelo secondo Gesù Cristo (7173)
- By Jose Saramago
- Finished on May 28, 2005
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- Lettere contro la guerra (3518)
- By Tiziano Terzani
- Finished on Jul 22, 2005
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- La morte a Venezia (7646)
- By Thomas Mann
- Finished on Jun 24, 2005
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- The Hollow (90)
- By Agatha Christie
- Finished on Apr 7, 2005
  
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The Hollow

WONDERFUL

Seriously candidate to be my favourite by the author (upon some thirty books read). It is not a simple detective story, which a murder happens in and Poirot investigates. It is a collection of characters who, in my opinion, represent various sides of our personality.
In strict order of apparit ... (continue)

Seriously candidate to be my favourite by the author (upon some thirty books read). It is not a simple detective story, which a murder happens in and Poirot investigates. It is a collection of characters who, in my opinion, represent various sides of our personality.
In strict order of apparition:
Lucy Angkatell: probably my favourite. Marvellous, brilliant, clever, absent-minded, charming, irresistible.
Midge: little Midge, oppressed by a fate that is not tho one of her dreams and surrounded by people that she judges happier than her.
John Christow: an established professional, intolerant of others’s ignorance or stupidity but, at the same time, full of life, of energy and of desire to realize something useful for the neighbour; finally, also conscious of some debt left with his past.
Gerda Christow: a slow-minded person, not particularly brilliant; but devoted and scrupulous.
Henrietta Savernake: strong, first of all. And alone, with her art. Well conscious of her qualities and of her limits. Together with John, probably the most in-depth character.
Poirot: the same old Poirot but less protagonist than usual (“To you it is unbearable that anyone should be hurt. But to some minds there is something more unbearable still: not to know. To the scientific mind, truth comes first. Truth, however bitter, can be accepted and woven into a design for living.”).
Edward: shy, boring, insignificant. Until the day something lights up in him too.
And, in the end, that little old woman taken to the hospital. A trait-d-union between the living and the dead, between the beginning and the epilogue of the novel. Probably the most living one; rather the most.
Unforgettable every scene with Lucy, the dialogues between Henrietta and John, the sketches with the servants, the final dialogue between Henrietta and the old woman in the hospital, Edward’s oven scene.
Certainly, a lot of sentences could seem trivial and the scenes stereotyped, but I found in them as well the power of the novel: trivial and conventional but, at the same time, real and effective. There are love stories, regrets, struggles for survival, tiredness and jealousy.
And the impression – clear – to be really at the Angkatell’s house, surrounded by people extremely intelligent and brilliant.
And, hovering about everyone and everything, that aunt Agatha’s sense of ineluctability of one’s fate.

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— Dec 15, 2008 | Add your feedback
- Margherita Dolcevita (9656)
- By Stefano Benni
- Finished on Jul 27, 2005
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- Postern of Fate (57)
- By Agatha Christie
- Finished on Dec 8, 2008
  
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Postern of Fate

PUZZLED

One of the latest Christie’s novels, placed after World War Two.
The main characters are Tommy and Tuppence, that investigate upon facts happened at the beginning of the century (some sixty years before, then). The inquiry develops through dialogues and talks with people that remember, believe ... (continue)

One of the latest Christie’s novels, placed after World War Two.
The main characters are Tommy and Tuppence, that investigate upon facts happened at the beginning of the century (some sixty years before, then). The inquiry develops through dialogues and talks with people that remember, believe to remember, forget and get mixed up. The reading was pleasant and, after two books, I can definitely affirm that I like this couple.
But, to be fully honest, I didn’t understand everything in this novel: a lot of names, objects, places and puns which made the book fascinating to me but, on the contrary, I also found some confusion; the doubt (strictly personal) that the text contain some mistakes (as if it were just a proof) and a resolution of the story that didn’t satisfy me completely.
For this reason I’d like to compare my opinion with somebody else who read this novel!

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— Dec 15, 2008 | Add your feedback
- Mrs.McGinty's Dead (89)
- By Agatha Christie
- Finished on Aug 15, 2005
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- I Miserabili (168)
- 3 voll.
- By Victor Hugo
- Finished on Mar 20, 2006
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- Journal d'un curé de campagne (36)
- By Georges Bernanos
- Finished on Sep 27, 2005
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- Tutti i racconti (1923-1926) (1909)
- By H.P. Lovecraft
- Finished on Oct 9, 2005
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- Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore - Enrico IV (3267)
- By Luigi Pirandello
- Finished on Oct 20, 2005
  
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Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore - Enrico IV

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Non mi ha lasciato niente e mi sono anche un po' annoiato. In generale, devo ammettere, mi piace molto di più vedere le rappresentazioni teatrali dal vivo. Spero che mi capiti l'occasione, perché a dare un brutto voto a un'opera di Pirandello mi sento un po' blasfemo!!!

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— Dec 14, 2008 | Add your feedback
- Miti greci (121)
- By Lucilla Burn
- Finished on Oct 28, 2005
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- And Then There Were None (658)
- By Agatha Christie
- Finished in Mar 2006
  
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And Then There Were None

I read this book more than once, in Italian and in English.
It is unnecessary to recall the plot, since everybody knows it by now. It belongs to the group of Agatha Christie's books in which - in my opinion - a very good plot goes along with a valid psychological characters' analysis: Vera Claythorn ... (continue)

I read this book more than once, in Italian and in English.
It is unnecessary to recall the plot, since everybody knows it by now. It belongs to the group of Agatha Christie's books in which - in my opinion - a very good plot goes along with a valid psychological characters' analysis: Vera Claythorne, Mr. Justice Wargrave and Dr. Armstrong, particularly, are the three most deeply described.
In other commentaries I read the expression "Crime and Punishment" referred to this book and I find it adequate: the punishment, as well as in Dostoevskij's novel, is not only the material one inflicted by other people; on the contrary, in both the novels, the worst punishment is the one caused by one's own conscience...
Vera's inner thoughts and monologues, mixed with the memories that come to surface and that she tries to drown (they too...) are very effective; as well as general Macarthur's attitude, sitting on the terrace and looking to the sea, waiting for the end; finally, as well as that impossible rebellion, by each of them, against the guilts of their past.

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— Dec 13, 2008 | Add your feedback