I’ve never bought a book on a whim, without having
ever heard of its title and without knowing anything about it except that it
has a cool cover page. Luckily my mom has (although not often) and this is the
fruit of a trip to a dingy remainder bookshop and the smirking face of Hugh
Grant on a front cover.
Being about theatre, the book has a clear
British air about it – magnified by the fact that everything is set in the years
immediately following the Second World War and the (rightfully) glorified
victory in the Battle of Britain.
An Awfully Big Adventure
is an awfully heavy
book masked (at least in its Italian edition) as a light-hearted journey of
self-discovery. It took me quite a few pages before I started to understand the
depth of the novel I was reading, but when I started to realize what I was
dealing with I was completely wrong-footed.
I still can’t listen to a speaking clock without
thinking about this book. And, for much that I don’t like Chinatown-like twists (something I already mentioned) this one
totally shocked me.
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