The exam period ended and so have the holidays already… I had planned a few books to read in July and August but was far less quick in reading them. Here we go, we can always hope for the better. Italian books are usually a balm for me in the heat and this July I managed 2 crime novels by 2 of my favourite crime novelists, Cristina Cassar Scalia and Alberto Manzini. Sabbia Nera was great, another intricate, twisty plot led by our much beloved Vanina Guarrasi… as for ELP, Rocco Schiavone is always Rocco Schiavone, slick, messy and heretical as high ranking police officer. Both books made me reflect on the things we do to keep sane in our secret individual lives of the mind and heart. But the best was Io Resto Qui by Marco Balzano. A story of a submerged Tyrolean village, of parenting, survival and pain that only comes from displacement–from home, from one’s allegiances and loved ones.
Finally, I went on a trip along a literary memory lane by reading Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe. A book set in 1950s Nottingham, as England was edging from end of war poverty into the boom and change of the 60s, populated by vivid, bright and dark characters. I had not imagined that the protagonist could be so relatable in today’s climate–where work is still not paid enough and yet it is far less stable and where whatever safety nets there are, they are so flimsy that one wonders how useful they can be.
Now it is back to Feminist critique for the book club, with Germaine Greer’s the Whole Woman… wish me luck.
arigoesaround 