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Avg. Rating: 4.275I think this was my first taste of Italian fiction, and I really enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend this collection to anyone who's experiencing the genre for the first time, although it is a very long and immersive read.It's nice to have a little biography of the author before each story, to give some personal and historical context, especially for the speculative fiction and magical realism that might require a bit more context. It also gave me the opportunity to learn
You can see Jhumpa Lahiri's impeccable work as an editor in this brilliant collection of Italian short stories. If you are interested in Italian literature, this book is an excellent introduction to many authors, some of them absolutely central in the development of this particular literary tradition. If you simply love short fiction, this collection is a source of eclectic pleasures. You might like some stories more than others (that is normal, especially since their styles and themes are so di...
Maybe only for the diehard Lahiri fans? This book is described as a survey of 20th century Italian short stories translated for an English audience. The story selection, however, seems much more targeted to those already passingly familiar with Italian short fiction. Again and again Lahiri introduces an author with some version of "their best known work was X, and they won a prize for Y, but here is Z." It is the equivalent of a person introducing you to the Beach Boys by saying, "their most pop...
You don't need to be a literature scholar to admire Jhumpa Lahiri's work of rediscovering, compiling, and often translating Italian authors from the twentieth century who were probably virtually unknown outside Italy (or a little circle of scholars), plus selecting works from well-known writers such as Levi, Calvino, and Morante. The book covers as many Italy regions and literary styles as you can imagine, with the common background of a them young, contradictory, and never dull country.
A marvelous collection of short stories from my favourite authors: Natalia Ginzburg, Italian Calvino, Luigi Pirandello, Giovanni Bernard, Dino Buzzati and many many others. A wide variety of styles and topics to give the reader a glimpse into Italian life and culture beyond what can be seen by even the most curious of tourists..The authors of these forty stories mostly worked in the twentieth century and thus provide a fascinating background into what the Italian contemporary society is based on...
There is much to enjoy here. The selection is wide ranging, concentrating on 20th century writers, presumably choosing the best of each writer's short fiction. The writing is confident and uninhibited, with many passages of unembarrassed and often harsh self-examination. The respective roles of males and females is a recurring theme. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if quality rather than inclusion played a higher role in the selection process, with fewer authors represented but more t...
Una raccolta interessante per tutti coloro che vogliano approcciarsi alla letteratura del '900 italiano scoprendo anche autori non conosciutissimi come Savinio e la De Céspedes. Le brevissime introduzioni della Lahiri non forniscono altro che qualche informazione di tipo biografico, una paginetta scarsa per raccontare vita e opere principali. Ho pianto calde lacrime leggendo il racconto della Ortese "Gli occhiali", a mio avviso il migliore della raccolta.
There's a nice range of stories and styles with such a wide selection that there's bound to be something for everyone but becomes a bit of a slog when one dull or uninteresting story follows another. 'Bago' by Alberto Savinio was definitely my personal favourite but 'The Long Voyage' by Leonardo Sciascia is a runner up just for its funny punchline of an ending.
SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!! I say immediately there is nothing so different than the anthology books we have in our italian high schools ( in italian language only) or the texts that in the university courses for the additional exams of Literature ( in our old Degree ) can be found, we Italians are used to see collections like this.I had already read more than half of the stories you can find here, but was a real joy the same... i reread and relived the past days of my adolescence and the first years of