Terre Rare - Sandro Veronesi

I wonder if Veronesi thought that he would never be able to replicate the success of Caos Calmo, so he just decided to milk its main character for an unnecessary sequel. 

Mum liked this book. I respectfully disagree, at least partially. To me it's closer to the latest book by Ammaniti than it is to Caos Calmo. Same Rome, same need to throw in one of the supposed most beautiful women in Italy, same improbable (though often rather dull) encounters with minor characters. 

So, I'd class it as a harmless quick read, but would never say I liked it. 

Actually, one thing that I can truthfully and openly say that I did NOT like is the return (resurrection?) of the main character's sister-in-law, with unfinished business and unfulfilled love and career aspirations. I'd take the Roman chav that our protagonist dumps on the road any day of the week (maybe not as a life companion, but surely as a fictional character). 

Una Relazione - Stefano Sardo & Valetina Gaia

  

Is baring your life - and the dynamics of a very significant relationship - in a book a brave move or the result of a scarcity of ideas? A sign of self-love or self-loathe? Someting therapeutic or something self-celebrating? Possibly all of the above. 

This is a book that I've read because its authors come from my hometown and I bumped into them a couple of times when I was a teenager and they were in their 30s. Without this very loose personal connection, I most likely wouldn't have picked it up. 

Obviously co-authoring a book is a titanic effort for any writer, but here the limitations are at times clear, with the two authors taking on alternate chapters with different and uneven tones, styles, and not even agreeing on whether to narrate the story in the first or second person, making it hard for the reader to really feel involved in this project.

Quer Pasticciaccio Brutto de Via Merulana – Carlo Emilio Gadda

This book was a Christmas gift from a friend – a gift that stupidly remained unread for a couple of years too many. Reading it was undeniably hard work (something best done with a good dictionary next to you), but it was also definitely worth it. Again, a book set in the Fascist era, although one that isn’t really about Fascism. Again, a book about Rome and the city’s unique people. Again, a mysteriously intricate story and a pretty cool investigator to try to make sense of it all.

I have already mentioned my love for unfinished works of art – even better if they are left intentionally unfinished (which actually raises all kinds of questions about whether they are actually finished or not, I know) – and Gadda’s book is definitely no exception. And the different registers and styles that Gadda uses show a kind of virtuosity that I have never seen in any other novel and, even if just because of that, everyone should read this book.

Ragazzi di Vita – Pier Paolo Pasolini

No need to repeat how much of a genius Pasolini was, in every possible field. The book is simultaneously heart-warming and heart-breaking in its simplicity, like many of the author’s movies.

I’m not quite sure whether the protagonist of the novel is Riccetto or Rome itself. The book is a great display of love for the city and for its borgatari, the people of the popular neighbourhoods of the Italian capital (this is similar in many ways to how I felt in many passages of Elsa Morante’s La Storia). Reading about the painful growing-up process of a boy is also rather strange in a book that is definitely not aimed at young adults.

Having watched countless Pasolini movies, I can just picture Riccetto played by Ninetto Davoli, one of Pasolini’s favourite actors, and the death of Marcello felt so similar to that of Ettore in the seminal Mamma Roma.