Average customer rating:
- "Alibi" is morally uncomfortable
- Alibi Review
- Should have been better (story & writing: 2 stars, editing: 0 stars)
- Everyone is crooked
- It is not romantic anymore
|
Alibi: A Novel
Joseph Kanon
Manufacturer: Henry Holt and Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Historical
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Thrillers
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
Suspense
| Thrillers
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
Kanon, Joseph
| ( K )
| Authors, A-Z
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Fiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Prodigal Spy
-
Los Alamos
-
The Good German: A Novel
-
Hitler's Peace
-
The Foreign Correspondent: A Novel
ASIN: 080507886X
Release Date: 2005-03-24 |
Book Description
It is 1946, and a stunned Europe is beginning its slow recovery from the ravages of World War II. Adam Miller has come to Venice to visit his widowed mother and try to forget the horrors he has witnessed as a U.S. Army war crimes investigator in Germany. Nothing has changed in Venice-not the beautiful palazzi, not the violins at Florian's, not the shifting water that makes the city, untouched by bombs, still seem a dream. But when Adam falls in love with Claudia, a Jewish woman scarred by her devastating experiences during the war, he is forced to confront another Venice, a city still at war with itself, haunted by atrocities it would rather forget. Everyone, he discovers, has been compromised by the Occupation--the international set drinking at Harry's, the police who kept order for the Germans, and most of all Gianni Maglione, the suave and enigmatic Venetian who happens to be his mother's new suitor. And when, finally, the troubled past erupts in violent murder, Adam finds himself at the center of a web of deception, intrigue, and unexpected moral dilemmas. When is murder acceptable? What are the limits of guilt? How much is someone willing to pay for a perfect alibi? "If you like historical novels with hefty shots of sex, obsession and death, Alibi is your book of the year....There are touches of le Carr and Graham Greene, but Kanon is too good to ape another writer. He pays homage to Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, with his obsessive characters and oppressive atmosphere, but Kanon's obsession in Venice is more destructive, appropriate to a later, more violent age." -- The Globe and Mail "A great thriller, filled with superb details of a weary city amid the accusations and denials that the end of war always brings." - The Hamilton Spectator Set against the magical, but sinister, backdrop of Venice, Kanon has fashioned another spectacular historical thriller. - The Toronto Sun With skilful prose, Kanon creates the historical atmosphere of post-war Venice and he evokes the elegant charm of the city with its picturesque maze of canals. He presents credible and intimate love scenes[and] Kanon does a good job of revealing how the narrator is caught by his internal conflict and how he has to deal with his own demons. - The Edmonton Journal
Customer Reviews:
"Alibi" is morally uncomfortable .......2007-10-13
Alibi is wonderfully written (I really love Kanon's writing) and it is extremely uncomfortable reading, as the moral compass keeps shifting. I found it impossible to stop reading and was physically and emotionally exhausted at the end. I loved this book!
Alibi Review.......2007-10-11
This book was chosen by my book club for the September reading. It is a mystery and a love story based in Venice. In my opinion, I thought this book well worth reading. It keeps your interest until the end.
Should have been better (story & writing: 2 stars, editing: 0 stars).......2007-07-09
One would expect a former "book publishing executive" to have the editorial skill himself, or the ability to command it from someone else, to avoid the mistakes that permeate the text: incorrect forms of Italian words; inconsistent italicizing of Italian words and phrases; mistakes in punctuation; bottled mineral water in 1945 (and if it wasn't bottled--it's just "poured" by a waiter--how did the character know it was mineral water?).
Worse, however (by far), is the unlikable and unbelievable cast. The lovers behave with a startling lack of affection. Their love is mentioned occasionally (it seems to come and go), but their conversations and the way they treat each other--especially the way she treats him--conveys distrust, disinterest, even dislike. The hero is disdainful of his mother, no reason given. Of the other characters, both villains and good guys, only one, in the background for most of the book, is the least bit interesting.
This was my first Joseph Kanon novel; it didn't inspire me to read earlier ones.
Everyone is crooked.......2007-05-27
First off: This is an incredibly good book. Just click and buy it right now, you won't be disappointed.
Alibi is set in post war Venice - a city that never saw front line fighting, a jewel that appears on the surface to be untouched by the Nazis and the Fascists. Oh, but then just hang on for an incredibly good ride.
Everyone has something to hide. Everyone made their deals with the devil. Occupied Italy tainted everyone who strived to survive the war, and now the war is over, but the taint persists. The old scores need reckoning.
I will not spoil this excellent story. There is just too much in this book, and you know who most of the bad guys are. I'm not too sure there are many good guys. Just get it right now.
It is not romantic anymore.......2007-05-20
After World War II Venice was still beautiful. The narrator's mother, Grace Miller, had known Linda Porter, the composer's wife. Adam Miller traveled to Italy after spending time in Germany doing de-Nazification work. Bertie Howard helped Grace with furnishings. He gave parties. At one of them Adam meets Claudia Grassini, a camp survivor. Fortunately for her she had never left the country. At the time only foreigners were living well, the Italians were poor. It is difficult for Claudia to adjust to the postwar period. She is filled with hate.
Adam worries that his mother is going to marry someone, Gianni, who wants her money. Claudia claims that Gianni murdered her father. Gianni and Claudia's father had known each other at medical school. When the Germans came to a hospital where Gianni worked, he pointed out Claudia's father to them. Moving the very sick man resulted in his death. Claudia's people had lived in the ghetto until the time of Napoleon. Claudia's father had believed he would be safe from the round-ups of the Jews in the hospital. Regrettably his classmate Gianni had idenitified him. Gianni claimed he reported him because he was already dying and that he saved the life of a partisan. Later Adam speaks with someone who knows all about the partisans and is in a position to cast doubt on Gianni's story.
There is a spot of disturbance and then Adam and Claudia attend a party given by Mimi, Celia de Betancourt. An Inspector Cavallini is there, too. Subsequently Mimi's ball is given a two-page spread in the newspaper. The fact that Gianni is missing is investigated.
Kanon clearly has the ability to create a murky atmosphere laced with complex ethical issues. The contrast of the Americans' delight in the Italian scene and the abject poverty of the Italians, near starvation, causes the sensitive reader to shudder. The American narrator comes to wonder whether he has misjudged Gianni and a host of other characters in the novel. This work is the sort of ground raked over in SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron. World War II circumstances created many ambiguities of behavior.
Customer Reviews:
Great Italian Cookbook!.......2007-01-09
I lost this cookbook during a divorce recently and just HAD to buy another one to replace it. It is a collection of wonderful authentic Italian recipes compiled by a community of wonderful authentic Italian cooks.
Trip down memory lane.......2005-08-23
I nearly wept the first time that I read through this cookbook. So many of the dishes were variations on meals--and treats--that my Italian-American great-aunt and grandmother had cooked for me as a child. Admittedly, few of the recipes are especially sophisticated (Italian home cooking tends to rely on good ingredients and simple preparations rather than on special techniques), and nearly all require some tweaking to taste. But for the experienced home cook, they are a gold mine of memories and inspirations from the first and second generations after the immigration boom.
Real Italian recipies.......2001-12-24
These are great authentic Italian recipies. Some are straight from Italy, some are recipies made after people immigrated here using what was available. I'm Sicilian, and I grew up with homestyle Italian cooking, and this is it.
I don't know how the person who was disappointed with it could claim it wasn't "authentic". Maybe they were comparing it to restaurant food. Well, Italian restaurants are like Chinese restaurants in what they cook for the customers is usually much different than what they would cook at home. So, maybe the misconception stems from there.
Trust me. It's authentic. The only better book I've seen is The Sicilian Gentleman's Cookbook (of course, being Sicilian I'm biased) which I believe is out of print. My Scottish-German wife now cooks like my grandma used to :-)
This book reminds me of an Italian version of The Joy of Cooking. Straightforward recipies from Nona's kitchen. No frills, just good eats.
Just Like Mama Julia Made.......2001-11-15
This book brings back wonderful memories for me! I was fortunate enough to grow up two doors away from an Italian lady, Julia, who made wonderful homemade pasta dishes. She made huge family meals and would share the leftovers with my family! I have been a lover of Italian food ever since. I don't live near Julia anymore, so she suggested that I buy this book and make my own Italian meals. I am happy to report that the recipes are simple, delicious and reminiscent of the Italian cooking I grew up with. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves authentic Italian food.
DISAPPOINTED!.......2001-10-31
My Italian recipes have been supplied by older Italian immigrants and have been just wonderful. After I read the reviews of this book, I thought I'd actually gain more in enjoyable Italian cooking. I was wrong...this book was a great disappointment to me. My business is baking, I own a wholesale commercial bakery and supply local establishments, and I'm a really terrific chef...making REAL Mexican, Italian and Greek foods for my husband, but this book didn't live up to the reviews. I've better recipes in my own stash than supplied in this book. I'm sorry I wasted the money on it.
Book Description
Unabridged, 6 cassettes, 9 hours
Customer Reviews:
Allineare un romanzo meraviglioso ! (Truly a Wonderful Novel).......2007-08-02
This book was literally tossed at me with the comment "I think you'll like it." What an understatement. Truly one of the better novels I have read. A terrific story, extremely well developed characters, and an easy read. Hadn't heard of RPE, but I definitely am a new fan. The story is a love story that takes place in Italy. I have never been there, but I must say after reading this one it's next on my travel list. Our main character Eliana leaves the states to marry Maurizio (who turns out to not be such a nice guy). They have a sickly son who is left to the care of Eliana while her husband is off traveling and in the company of several different women. When a new man moves into their apartment building, an American named Ross, he an Eliana start up a relationship that of course Maurizio is made aware of by one of his employees who lives in the village. Of course what is good for him is not OK for his wife...things get ugly, to the point of Maurizio threatening to take their child Alessio, away from his mother. I don't want to divulge too much of the plot to you. I can honestly say it was one great read, I didn't want it to end.
A wonderful story, .......2007-06-12
I loved this book, its one of Richard Paul Evans best. The sunflower is a wonderful book also. Hard to put down. Great Book!!
You won't be able to put this one down!.......2006-10-20
This is a great book - one I could not put down until I had it completely read! It is a story in which a lot of people can relate to and it offers hope to others in similar situations.
You will not be alble to put this book donwn.............2006-06-23
This is the very first book that I have read by Richard Paul Evans and I was hooked by the time I finished reading the first chapter. Very powerful story about love. By the time I was done reading the book my husband had purchased all other titles written by Mr. Evans. Read the book, you will be just as hooked as I was.
Absolutely Fantastic.......2006-06-08
I rarely have the chance to read (have two boys and third on the way) and I just happened upon this book at the bookstore and the cover caught my eye. I read the jacket and decided to give it a try. It sat for months on my dresser before I finally got to pick it up. I read half of the book in just a few hours...it is a wonderfully written novel and I am definitely going to be reading the rest of his books. The characters come to life and it's extremely difficult to put down! Definitely the best book I've read in YEARS!
Average customer rating:
- Wonderful study of elegant collector and art dealer
|
Significant Things: A Novel
Helen McLean
Manufacturer: Simon & Pierre
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Canadian
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1550024418 |
Book Description
A man of innate taste and discrimination, Edward has become an art dealer and collector of fine antiques and paintings. During his first six idyllic years he was the centre and focus of his mother's existence. Betrayals and unhappiness in subsequent years have led him to form almost fetishistic attachments to beautiful objects, as a substitute for the human relationships that have invariably failed him. Now in his late forties, on a holiday in Sicily, Edward falls deeply in love with a young English-Italian artist, but he has not yet learned that there is a difference between loving and possessing.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful study of elegant collector and art dealer.......2005-09-08
This book follows the life of an art dealer and antiques collector from his difficult economic but secure emotional beginnings in Toronto to his move to England as the stepson of a wealthy manufacturer and back to private school in Toronto. It then covers his development in England and Canada as a connoiseur and collector of fine objets and as a person with thwarted needs and desires. McLean's prose is elegant and her painterly descriptions wonderful and entrancing. The reader goes through just about every emotion with the character, and as an observer. It is impossible to put down, and one is sad to see it end. This is as good a story, and as well-written as any by McLean's contemporaries.
Customer Reviews:
Not traditional at all .......2007-04-18
this book/ recipes are AMERICAN-italian recipes, not traditional Italian recipes from Italy.
on top of that the recipes are very basic, and lack a lot of dishes, such as Lasagna with meat sauce ( only vegetable/ non meat ones are included). Lasagna recipes use Ricotta, which is not a traditional ingredient. Adding Ricotta is a american version.
Fetucchini Carbonara uses butter along with bacon, heavy cream and wine, a true italian recipe does not do this
all in all, this book is 3 stars- It's OK
definitely NOT true authentic Italian recipes.
Book Description
Breaking a lifelong silence, the last surviving child of Benito Mussolini opens the floodgates about his father.
In this historical, revisionist memoir, Romano Mussolini (September 26, 1927-February 3, 2006), the last surviving child of dictator Benito Mussolini, contributes his unique perspective to the growing body of work that portrays Il Duce's era. Through Romano's portrait of never before publicly shared memories and feelings, My Father Il Duce brings alive the domestic scenes of his childhood particularly when they intersected with his father's public role. He also relates in detail the memories of his mother, Donna Rachele, who lived until 1979 and often spoke with Romano about his father.
Romano's memories, sorted by chapter, but not presented chronologically, shift between his own recollections of time spent with his father to the years after Mussolini's death in 1945. The prose lingers and then artistically moves forward, melancholy to fierce to vulnerable, like the notes of the jazz music played by Romano during his acclaimed musical career.
Mussolini is presented here as a man who was supremely convinced that he was the master of his life: "'Everything happening around me,'" my father used to say, "'leaves me indifferent. I consciously choose 'Live dangerously' as my life's motto. As an old soldier, I say, 'If I advance, follow me. If I retreat, kill me. If they kill me, vindicate me.'" He saw his existence in scenes of high drama, envisioning in the end, Romano tells us, that he would be placed in front of throngs at New York City's Madison Square Garden and then executed in a macabre spectacle.
In this memoir, Romano does not truly ponder the consequences of his father's alliances and dictatorship, though with at least one notable exception that he gave considerable thought to his personal anger toward Hitler for "stabbing my father in the back at his darkest hour." Instead, he seeks to render concrete the memories that he held silent over a lifetime before they were lost to history.
The fascist order that Mussolini created and imposed upon Italy is one that Italians and students of history the world over are still interpreting. Indeed, his legacy was centerstage in the May 2006 Italian national elections, and one of the deputies in the Italian parliament today who represents his alliances is Alessandra Mussolini, Romano's daughter and defender of her infamous grandfather. As the trend of historical revisionism in Italy continues, in particular regarding the role of fascism, some of this kinder, gentler Mussolini is already widely accepted.
Thus, My Father Il Duce (in Italian Il Duce Mio Padre) was published to great attention and controversy in Italy in 2004 and quickly became a bestseller. Romano often appeared on Italian national television and in newspaper interviews. In part, this illuminates that fascist supporters are alive and well, while also confirms even among non-supporters, the ongoing attraction to the cult of personality Mussolini masterminded.
In Italy, this public discourse about Mussolini is common. However, for others it is important to establish a context for Romano's memoir. This is accomplished here through an accompanying masterful twenty-one page introductory essay by one of the world's foremost authorities on Italian political culture, Alexander Stille:
Writing the introductory essay to
My Father Il Duce is a bit like writing the warning label on a powerful drug that has its uses but must be taken with care and knowledge of its possible side effects.
Romano reached his goal of living to see the first publication of his memoir in Italian. As for this English-language edition, he earlier expressed approval of the front cover design. On January 1, 2006, he received the translated English language manuscript of his writing. During the last month of his life, he approved it. Romano Mussolini died on February 3, 2006, at age seventy-nine in a Rome hospital soon after heart surgery.
Romano's death made international news. The New York Times obituary reported: In the 1950's and 60's he was in the vanguard of Italian jazz with his group the Romano Mussolini All Stars, and he played with American greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Chet Baker. Mr. Mussolini gained even greater international fame with his first marriage, to Anna Maria Scicolone, the sister of the actress Sophia Loren....Despite his own scrupulous avoidance of politics, politicians from Italy's right wing-parties widely lauded Mr. Mussolini and his family name in statements they released: "Romano knew how to make us love him for his humanity, his art, but also for the dignity and coherence with which he defended his family from attacks and demonizations."
Through Romano's worldwide celebrity and well-regarded nature, his words in defense of Il Duce, albeit ones he no doubt wrote as a son who loved his father, offer a rare insider's perspective that can help us better understand, and therefore more readily defeat tyranny. This memoir's account of history further reminds us of the continuing need for our vigilance in the pursuit of truth. 18 historical photographs.
Customer Reviews:
My Father: Il Duce reveals the human and family side of a complex historical figure........2006-12-10
Written by Romano Mussolini, the son of infamous Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, My Father: Il Duce: A Memoir of Mussolini's Son contributes to history by shedding new light into aspects of the private life of "Il Duce". A riveting story of a state figure who went to great lengths to keep his private and public lives separate, who openly stated that he chose "Live dangerously" as his life's motto, and of a family that existed in continual danger of assassination, My Father: Il Duce reveals the human and family side of a complex historical figure. Highly recommended.
Il Duce, the Family Man .......2006-11-03
This unique short memoir, a best seller in Italy, is really about a son's blind and unconditional love for his father, even if this father had been a member of the grotesque family of 20th-century fascist monsters who ultimately were responsible for the slaughter of millions. In a penetrating introduction by the Italian political culture authority Alexander Stille, the fond recollections of Mussolini as an attentive and loving father who encouraged his son to pursue music, who always "performed" his family duty toward his wife, and who frequently entertained the kids with fabulous family stories, are put into perspective with citations of the cold historical facts. One has to read this brilliant introduction to really get those facts, as Romano Mussolini fails to deliver any of them. In fact, his recollections are about a more or less normal family life, if that can be said, and about the unfair treatment his father suffered at the hands of an ungrateful public who forgot all he did for them. The allies also aren't presented with any love or affection. There are anecdotes here that are worth reading as well, but in the end, one wonders how Romano could have steered clear of all the blood and gore, cruelty and absurd bravado that his father brought into the world. To me, this is more of a psychological study of one man's delusions and prejudices than a historical document. Nonetheless, it's provocative and well worth the quick read.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent Debut but Without Punch
- Subtle portrait of relationships
- Grace and subtlety
- "Relationships: a series of separations and reunifications"
|
The Honeymoon: A Novel
Justin Haythe
Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Revolutionary Road
-
Suite Francaise
ASIN: 0871139146 |
Book Description
In his debut novel, The Honeymoon, Haythe delivers a deeply observant and nuanced tale, set in London and Venice at the end of the twentieth century, in which a young man looks back on a series of events that have caused his life to unravel. Until the age of twenty-one, American-born Gordon Garrety hasn't reflected much on his unusual and peripatetic childhood, spent largely as the traveling companion of his eccentric mother, Maureen. Only when Gordon meets Annie, several years his senior, does he begin to emerge from the sphere of his mother's influence. The first time they meet, Gordon and Annie make love in a park and soon after are married. Over the course of a year in London, Gordon and Annie construct for themselves an idea of married life, into which Maureen's restless spirit occasionally intrudes. Accompanied by Maureen and her bibulous Swiss fiance, Gerhardt, Annie and Gordon finally take their long-delayed honeymoon to Venice, where they are instantly seduced by the world's most unlikely city. Beautifully crafted, gently funny, and genuinely surprising, Justin Haythe's remarkably assured debut will astound readers with its dead-on depiction of the dangers of desultory and privileged lives.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Debut but Without Punch.......2005-11-23
I was interested in this book because it was written by a screenwriter and I wanted to see whether the two disciplines complimented each other or not.
On the whole I found the novel to be well structured and well paced, with excellent character observations and a brevity of prose that was refreshing.
However, I also felt that it was a novel that was written almost as a compositional task rather than out of any passion or human empathy. I didn't really feel any sympathy with the main protagonists and so the story I felt was slightly dull.
I can see why it was placed on the Booker Prize Long List in the UK, because for a debut it is very good, but it lacked any fresh or potent message apart from an obvious one, that of privileged people who act selfishly - which isn't a very original idea.
Subtle portrait of relationships.......2004-06-29
The Honeymoon is insightful and beautifully written. It is told from the point of view of a young man who has barely just begun to figure out what he has observed and what he has lived. The effects of the narrator's past on his current situaton are revealed over the course of the book -- slowly, but with a quiet kind of deliberation that gives you time to really understand what he has gone through. The two relationships -- between the narrator and his mother and the narrator and his wife -- are examined with all their complications, and though it would be easy to assign blame, neither the narrator nor the reader can take the easy way out. A really lovely book.
Grace and subtlety.......2004-03-30
The book was the best impulse buy I've ever made. Rarely in life do risks pay off as splendidly as this one did. (...) There is a delicacy and a sublety in Haythe's writing that is quite wonderful.
Haythe has a real ability to recognize, and exploit, the gravity of a simple face to face encounter. There is nothing trivial about Haythe's writing. Every moment has a consequence that the characters must suffer through. He successfully recognizes and brings our attention to the minutae of the everyday, the small things that are often crushed by the larger, more memorable of life's moments. Haythe takes the time to closely look at what the rest of us only see.
"Relationships: a series of separations and reunifications".......2004-03-25
This is a strange, bittersweet, and self-reflective novel. Lacking a readily recognizable plot line, the story is really a collection of vignettes structured around the first person point of view of Gordon Garrety, a rather disaffected and indifferent young man, who reminisces on his unusual relationship with Maureen, his volatile, and self-absorbed mother. When Gordon meets and marries Annie, a rather easy going working girl, Maureen and her irascible fiancée, Gerhardt invite them both to Venice on a honeymoon. What follows is a slowly paced, but rather intense account of their holiday in Venice, where an incident of sudden fury against Annie, puts Gordon at terrible odds with his Mother.
The strength of this novel is the way Haythe paints an indelible and detailed portrait of his characters, and it is obvious from the outset, that with all their faults he adores them. Rich, uncommitted and somewhat bored, his characters move through a world of privilege and stuffy entitlement. The narrative is told in the first person so attitudes and opinions are filtered through Gordon's point of view as he spends much of the novel ruminating on the type of woman that Maureen once was. Maureen is a difficult woman - dogmatic, self involved and self obsessed with "a willingness to distort the truth." Even though she "continues to hold and influence over him, she has already set some record of their life together."
Haythe's writing is subtle, fluid and descriptive, and like a painting he is intent on describing the intimate details of unconventional lives. Maureen is described as an aging beauty with "her skin taut on her thighs" and "beneath her white skin is a delicate design of blue veins like cobwebs beneath a frost." Her indubitable passion is art and painting, and Gordon watches her unquestioningly as tears role silently down her cheeks while she stands before Vermeer's Lady in a Red Hat, or Hopper's Sun in an Empty Room. There are some great moments in Honeymoon, particularly Gordon and Annie's sardonic wedding reception, which takes place in a London pub, and where family and guests seem strangely at odds with each other. And there are also some wonderful descriptions of Venice, set against the backdrop of the characters' inevitable maneuverings. This is an intuitive and subtle portrayal of family relationships bought to the edge, and is a wonderfully accomplished first novel. Mike Leonard March 04.
Book Description
In the original introduction to Pascal D'Angelo's Son of Italy, the renowned literary critic Carl Van Doren praised D'Angelo's autobiography as an impassioned story of his "enormous struggles against every disadvantage." In his narrative of his fruitless labor as a "pick and shovel" worker in America, D'Angelo, who immigrated from the Abruzzi region of Italy, describes the harsh, often inhumane working conditions that immigrants had to endure at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, interested in more then just material success in America, D'Angelo quit working as a laborer to become a poet. He began submitting his poetry to some of America's most prestigious literary and cultural journals until he finally succeeded. But in his quest for acceptance, D'Angelo unwittingly exposed the complexities of assimilation. Like the works of many other immigrant writers at the time, D'Angelo's autobiography is a criticism of some of the era's most important social themes. Kenneth Scambray's afterword is an analysis of the complexities of this multifaceted autobiographical voice, which has been read as a simplistic immigrant narrative of struggle and success. Guernica's edition of Son of Italy is its first English reprint since its original publication in 1924.
Average customer rating:
- The son of superman is indeed human.
|
Atoms, Bombs, and Eskimo Kisses: A Memoir of Father and Son
Claudio G. Segre
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Scientists
| Professionals & Academics
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Physics
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Italy
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0670863076 |
Customer Reviews:
The son of superman is indeed human........2007-02-02
I just finished reading this book and found it superb. It is uncomfortable reading at times but it is meant to be: its stated aim is to describe and try to understand a strained but very important relationship, that of son and father.
It is superb because, though we are convinced of the structural difficulty and the great father's objective cold and aloof personality, we also learn to see the real love between son and father (both ways) and we learn the most Jewish of qualities "Hemla", a kind of empathy or compassion which the son exhibits right through. It is also a sociological masterpiece: it is a slice of life in transplanted cultures, in the migrant experience and, on another level, the engine of excellence (high demand from self and those close to you).
I am so glad I stumbled upon this book. I recommend it.
Book Description
"An Italian ROOTS." The Washington Post Book World
At long last, Gay Talese, one of America's greatest living authors, employs his prodigious storytelling gifts to tell the saga of his own family's emigration to America from Italy in the years preceding World War II. Ultimately it is the story of all immigrant families and the hope and sacrifice that took them from the familiarity of the old world into the mysteries and challenges of the new.
From the Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
Please don't make me read this book.......2006-08-14
I have tried. I really have. And I admire the writer but other than brief flashes in the hundred or so pages I read, the book is stultifyingly boring. There is a wonderful story here that gets so bogged down in continuous reportage and research; makes me wonder, what is the writer trying to hide, because what is so important about this story gets lost; obscured by the maddening overexplanation and baroque rendering of items,details,people and events. Is all this necessary? What do you leave in and what do you leave out? I would say, from what I read, leave out half of it. Talese, maybe it's his father's fault, wants to spend half a year, in reality it took him something like thirteen years to produce this book, making a custom made suit that he spends countless hours tearing out and restiching, redesigning, etc. What he ends up with is no better than something store bought. I think what is mainly missing from this work is an essentiall passion. Let me explain. I think Talese has it, or how else could he devote so much time and effort to this project, but he has successfully killed it. He gets so lost in his own brilliance that he fails to tell a good story. This is a dead book, kind'a like a beautiful flower preserved; the color faded,with no scent. The book doesn't live and I could'nt read it, and as any kind of example of creative non-fiction, or literary journalism, I have to go against most of the reviews of the book. I wouldn't call it a waste of time but I want something where the author hasn't killed the drama of the story with mortifying detail and unnecessary sidebars.
Interesting.......2005-10-08
Gives a lot of historical information in a novel. My favorite kind of book! Somewhat confusing at times.
Nonfiction, or facts based on perspective?.......2004-01-09
Like most everyone who lives in the United States, our ancestral heritage may contain an assortment of interesting stories of people, places and events that make us who we are today. The heritage of Gay Talese is yet another of those interesting stories. Talese chronicles his family's past . The majority of the tale discusses the effects of World War I and II on both his and his extended family in his former home of southern Italy.
Dear reader must be prepared for two major overbearing characteristics of this book. First, the paperback novel is more than six hundred pages of small print. Second, this book is published under the auspices of being questionably "non-fiction." One may find much of the book required a large degree of imagination to recreate actual conversations and events. Like any other person who is affected by world events, we may only surmise how history has influenced our own individual positions. Although the book is in some ways informative, it is as much an opinionated characterization of facts. Sadly, the ending doesn't so much as conclude, as it just runs out of steam. Even with all of these downfalls, it remains an informative and interesting read.
Unto the Sons.......2001-03-04
As an Italian reader I found this book very involving and enjoyable.
It's a passionate, well written story of emigration, and it's a story about roots and identity.
In my opinion the only fault of this book is that it isn't the story of the whole family, but only of half of it.
The Talese saga depicts a world crowded with very interesting and well-portrayed male characters. It's the story of their dreams and their disappointments, of their failures and their achievements and of the risks they dared to take in the struggle for a better life in the old and in the new world throughout a century. It's a story about the troubles of a double loyalty and, to some extent, it's a journey home.
And I must say I found very interesting to look at a piece of italian history through the eyes of a second generation Italian-American.
In sharp contrast, the female characters are pale ghosts, barely sketched shadows wandering in the narrow space of an old house, of a narrow Southern Italian village, of an American store. Even Ippolita, the grand-grandmother, the only non-conventional woman of the family, remains hidden to us. And I happened to wonder whether Talese is not able to find anything really worthy of attention in these women and in their lives,portrayed as just spent in the shadow of their men (fathers, husbands, sons), or if they live in a world of their own, completely impenetrable to him. Whatever the answer, Talese seems to be aware of this imbalance: the title of the book is "Unto the Sons" and the sons are the male children.
An epic tale.......2000-06-08
This is a sweeping epic about an Italian family. Gay Talese has a rich family history and he tell's their story (in a way it is his story) with the voice of a novelist.
There are many characters who might appear uniteresting if we were to "meet them on the street," but Talese's ability to get under their skin, as it were, gives them individuality, personality and humanity. And this is the story of the characters: it is not contrived by the author--though, of course, he tailers their stories to fit HIS book.
This is not a romanticized tale. Sometimes it is dark, with stern, superstitious ancestors and bleak events. Yet when it was over I felt a warmth for most of the characters in it.
This is the epic of many Americans. My own ancestors had many similar experiences. My ancestors are fairly recent German and Swedish immigrants, but much of their story is the story of the Talese family. It is the story of our own individuality striving against our heritage and either coming to terms with it or rejecting it.
Gay Talese has helped my understand myself in terms of my own heritage through this excellent book.
Books:
- American Mourning: The Intimate Story of Two Families Joined by War, Torn by Beliefs
- And I Haven't Had a Bad Day Since: From the Streets of Harlem to the Halls of Congress
- Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy
- Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
- Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant
- Breaking Through
- Breaking Through
- Capitalism and Slavery
- Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present
- Colored People: A Memoir
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Eisenhower on Leadership: Ike's Enduring Lessons in Total Victory Management
- The Scent of Shadows
- Mr. Ives' Christmas
- My Dog's Life: A Photo Journal of Unconditional Love
- Physik
- Systematics and the Fossil Record: Documenting Evolutionary Patterns
- Robot Building for Beginners
- John Burroughs: An American Naturalist
- Made in Korea: Chung Ju Yung and the Rise of Hyundai
- 2003 Northern California Business and Buyers Guide
