The typical book that my family keeps aside for me because "it's on Italian Fascism".
Problem is: half of this book is pretty much my PhD thesis (which I wrote - but not published - way before, by the way). Better written, with much more literary fluorish (though with no historical embellishment) than my work, and ultimately read by a lot more people than the dozen unlucky academics and friends who had to read my dissertation. Still, the overlap was a bit too signifcant for me to find much pleasure in the sections on Leone Ginzburg.
And the other half was a beautiful portrayal of family life in Fascist Italy. Problem is: there are so many of them around, and I'd always pick the family lives of unknown peasants over the family lives of people who just happened to be lucky enough to have a grandson who would go on to become one of the most acclaimed Italian writers and one who (unlike me!) has actually managed to re-ignite the interest of many Italians in their country's own past.
So, this is arguably a vanity project, but one that is extremely well-written and worthy of a read, even when half of the book doesn't reserve any surprises (for me, at the very least).
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