Thank you for the wonderful meeting last Thursday in Geoffroy L'Olive's "pizza paradise"... ;-)
This time we were six plus one, after Helen's mystery star guest entry later in the evening.
There were loads of praise for the book. And this to a point that those who did not read it expressed their intention to read it even after the book club. Amanda read it twice, and then the full trilogy; Michel wants to read it again; Cynthia herself and according to her report also Catherine are longing for the second book - so Elena Ferrente has definetly some fans in our book club. But not only: Caroline, who shortly before the meeting sent her comments by email, didn't like it that much (see her arguments in the message which will be put on the blog as
comments - maybe we can have a discussion in the blog then?).
The book was noted by Amanda as being interesting, an easy read, yet well-done, although Michel and Maren admitted to have sometimes difficulties to follow the various characters.
Different psychological aspects mentioned in the book marked the readers: the "dissolving margins" and the very detailed childhood memories which allow to go back to one's own thinking of that time. Also the knowledge and authentic description of the changes from girl to woman made us women agree that the author cannot be a man despite the ongoing speculations because of her secretiveness. But we await the final information on the author¹s real identity.
The secrecy of the author brought up also some questions about how much of her description of life in Naples is fiction or not. Our own travel impressions mingled with the imaginary
impression of an Italian city in the 50s. Naples is described as being a very poor, very violent place, even among loved ones and particularly in the 50s. Recall the gunfire after the fireworks.
We discussed the nature of the plebs, and how if you don¹t have anyone really interested in your life you cannot easily escape a life of poverty/lack of opportunity. We drew parallels to today¹s world not being much different, but also contrasted the theoretical (yet more difficult to achieve lately) American dream vs. the French notion that if you are born poor/uneducated you are not going to gain respect even after you attend a grande école. Also we noted that in this culture
women had to be protected as property, young men would become violent just to protect their honor.
Cynthia & Maren
