Il Bell'Antonio - Vitaliano Brancati

Further proof that, on occasion, you can get really good books from the book-crossing shelves at Turin airport (though way too often there's nothing at all, or something that looks way too spiritual and in a language I can't understand).

I honestly thought I had watched the movie version, then two chapters into the book realized that I probably didn't. Like a number of other books by Brancati, it is an "old" story that doesn't look dated (and probably, sadly, is not too far from what still happens in some settings in the 21st century).

It reinforces so many stereotypes about Italian culture. Yet, stereotypes are not always inaccurate (actually, at least in the Italian case, they're very often spot-on despite not being exactly pleasant) and this book says quite a lot about standards of masculinity in my country...

Il Cavaliere Inesistente – Italo Calvino

Easily my least favourite book from Calvino’s Ancestors trilogy – probably because it’s, well, a bit too Calvinoesque. I have never been a fan of epic chivalric tales, even less of epic chivalric tales written in the 20^th century and with constant allegoric and fantastic elements.

The trilogy overall (which also includes Il Visconte Dimezzato and Il Barone Rampante) perfectly sums up my relation with Calvino: if he goes all medieval on the reader he loses me (the Visconte, possibly, being the exception), if the allegoric passages occupy essentially one entire book (like in this case) I’m not interested, if his fantastic tales are just too much to be even very faintly and remotely possible, I’m out. At the same time, if he softly touches upon immature love, or silly but understandable moral principles, I may get hooked.

And since Il Cavaliere Inesistente does the three things I dislike about Calvino, its love story is too forcefully epic and poetic, and Agilulfo’s moral stand is silly yes, but a bit dated (surprising in a medieval book, eh?) – well, I’m afraid this book is just not for me.