MISTERI D'ITALIA
I have noticed the last twelve crime books I read included six which are Italian.
A seventh the French prize winning book Holy Smoke by Tonino Benacquista is set almost entirely in Italy.
"This sort of sadness has always prevailed among intelligent Italians, but most of them to escape suicide or madness, have taken to every known means of escape......a passion for women, for food....above all for fine sounding words."
Ignazio Silone [quoted in The Dark Heart of Italy by Tobias Jones]
A seventh the French prize winning book Holy Smoke by Tonino Benacquista is set almost entirely in Italy.
"This sort of sadness has always prevailed among intelligent Italians, but most of them to escape suicide or madness, have taken to every known means of escape......a passion for women, for food....above all for fine sounding words."
Ignazio Silone [quoted in The Dark Heart of Italy by Tobias Jones]
Perhaps crime fiction reading is my escape.............food and women are too exciting.
posted by Uriah Robinson at 12:27 PM
6 Comments:
Yes, something about Italy and the Italians. Jenny has just spent the last hour on her "teach yourself Italian" CD (she's 11 and decided she wanted to learn the language), and Malcolm is now on the second of the Carofiglio books (A Walk in the Dark)...so he must have enjoyed the first.
I'm in the middle of Roesanna, btw, moving North a bit. Liking it so far.
Italian just sounds so good. When I lived in London I went to Covent Garden to hear Domingo, Pavarotti and young Carreras in all the popular Italian operas. I could not understand a word but they sounded great, even from the high altitude seats.
Does Malcolm agree that AWITD is better than IW?
Does Roseanna wear her 42 years age well?
Not to throw any dampers on anyone's ideas about Italians, but a few years ago I read a newspaper story about a survey that said Italians had sex less often than anyone else in Europe.
Separately, I read that Spaniards sleep an hour less than other Europeans and that Madrilenos sleep an hour less than other Spaniards. No word on what they do with all that extra time.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder is More Fun Away from Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Norm, the first time I saw an opera live was in Mannheim -- it was Verdi's Otello sung in German. I didn't understand a word either, but was I blown away. I agree that the language doesn't matter, it is the emotion that is evoked -- we have lots of Puccini, Verdi (and Wagner, but he isn't very Italian) going here.
The jury's out on Malcolm's views on the 2 Carofiglios -- will let you know! -- and I'm posting now about Roseanna.
Norm I will leave you to respond to Peter as it is your blog and what is more I am nonplussed! ;-)
Maxine, I assume you are nonplussed by Peter's observation that Italians have less sex than other Europeans.
It does not surprise me a combination of large plates of pasta and all the energy the Italians expend slamming their fists on their car horns and shouting at other motorists mean they fall asleep easily.
As for the Madrilenos the son of a friend was staying in Madrid and assumed his hosts weren't serving any dinner that night so he went to bed.
At 11.00 he was woken by the family as they were going out for their evening meal!
I assumed that that statistic was due to Italians' tendency to wait so many years before leaving home. Living under the same roof as Mum and Dad would naturally put a damper one's amatory tendencies.
If you feel a hankering for a bowl of lamb stew at 3 in the morning, Madrid is an unparalleled place to be.
========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
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