Lessico Famigliare - Supernormal Reads

Paperback, 261 pages

Italian language

Published Jan. 1, 1999 by Einaudi.

ISBN:: 978-88-06-15168-3

(1 review)

"Natalia Ginzburg, one of Italy's great writers, introduced A Family Lexicon, her most celebrated work, with an unusual disclaimer: "The places, events and people are all real. I have invented nothing. Every time that I have found myself inventing something in accordance with my old habits as a novelist, I have felt impelled at once to destroy everything thus invented." A Family Lexicon re-creates with extraordinary objectivity the small world of a family enduring some of the most difficult years of the twentieth century, the period from the rise of Mussolini through World War II (Ginzburg's first husband, who was a member of the resistance, was killed by the Nazis) and its immediate aftermath. Every family has its store of phrases and sayings by which it maintains its sense of what it means to be a family. Such sayings and stories lie at the heart of a great novel about …

"Natalia Ginzburg, one of Italy's great writers, introduced A Family Lexicon, her most celebrated work, with an unusual disclaimer: "The places, events and people are all real. I have invented nothing. Every time that I have found myself inventing something in accordance with my old habits as a novelist, I have felt impelled at once to destroy everything thus invented." A Family Lexicon re-creates with extraordinary objectivity the small world of a family enduring some of the most difficult years of the twentieth century, the period from the rise of Mussolini through World War II (Ginzburg's first husband, who was a member of the resistance, was killed by the Nazis) and its immediate aftermath. Every family has its store of phrases and sayings by which it maintains its sense of what it means to be a family. Such sayings and stories lie at the heart of a great novel about family and history"--

37 editions

ralentina reviewed Lessico Famigliare by Natalia Ginzburg

La lingua di casa

4 stars

Re-read after maybe 10 years and still loved it. I was inspired because Tascha read it in English and fell in love with it, and I was surprised, because my memory of it was that it's a book that depends on the familiar language of Northern Italy, infatti non so perche' sto scrivendo i miei appunti in inglese, le malagrazie, le negriture, scempio, e' un mondo intimo e pieno di nostalgia, la sua ma anche la mia. Forse dimostra che neppure io ho abbastanza fede nelle abilita' dei traduttori e delle traduttrici, che evidentemente se la sono cavata bene.

Un'osservazione evidente e' che Ginzburg si dilunga su certi aspetti, la descrizione di abitudini e modi di dire, di personalita' (i genitori sono entrambi cosi' convincenti, ebrei torinesi borghesi e di sinistra, un po' distaccati dalla realta' lui burbero, lei un po' capricciosa, pieni di amore per la propria famiglia e …

Re-read after maybe 10 years and still loved it. I was inspired because Tascha read it in English and fell in love with it, and I was surprised, because my memory of it was that it's a book that depends on the familiar language of Northern Italy, infatti non so perche' sto scrivendo i miei appunti in inglese, le malagrazie, le negriture, scempio, e' un mondo intimo e pieno di nostalgia, la sua ma anche la mia. Forse dimostra che neppure io ho abbastanza fede nelle abilita' dei traduttori e delle traduttrici, che evidentemente se la sono cavata bene.

Un'osservazione evidente e' che Ginzburg si dilunga su certi aspetti, la descrizione di abitudini e modi di dire, di personalita' (i genitori sono entrambi cosi' convincenti, ebrei torinesi borghesi e di sinistra, un po' distaccati dalla realta' lui burbero, lei un po' capricciosa, pieni di amore per la propria famiglia e sgomento per il fascismo dilagante) e cambiamenti, mentre quasi non dice niente su altri avvenimenti cruciali, sia a livello storico (per fare un esempio, la promulgazione delle leggi razziali) che a livello personale.

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