News by Julie
Going to Italy this summer?
Leo Gazzara is hovering on the brink of both turning thirty and plunging into an existential crisis. Keen to avoid respectability, his days are spent avoiding hard work, his nights indulging in the hedonistic thrills of city life. Originally published in 1970, Last Summer in the City by Gianfranco Calligarich is an Italian cult classic. Here translated into English for the first time, it captures those heady days when Rome was the capital of glamour. A boozy, smoky and intoxicating novel, it tells the story of the year Leo’s dolce vita turned sour.
It’s the tail-end of an Italian summer in 1974, and English art student, Nicholas, is sketching the churches of Venice. He has the looks of a Renaissance angel and an obvious artistic flair, irresistible to the wandering eye of Danilo Donati, celebrated costume and set designer. Donati is in need of an apprentice (and another lover is always welcome). In The Silver Book by Olivia Laing, real-life people and events meld artfully with fiction, as Nicholas is invited into the decadent world of 1970’s Italian cinema and the lives of directors Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini. Through the prism of the cinematic arts and its legendary characters he bears witness to a turbulent Italian era.
The Leopard by Guiseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa – For a proper summer feel, try this sensual and sensuous Italian classic set in the 1860s amongst the arid hills, frescoed palazzos and turquoise seas of Sicily. It’s the story of the aristocratic Salina family’s decline, of ageing and mortality, of politics and passionate love all mixed up into a fabulous Italian literary feast. It is the time of Garibaldi’s unification of Italy and political changes are sweeping the country. The novel centres on the House of Salina’s formidable family patriarch, Prince Fabrizio as he watches the family’s feudal power and finances slowly disintegrate. Lampedusa’s descriptions of landscapes, people, clothes, interiors, and smells are sublime.
Venice, An Interior by Javier Marias – A heavenly combination of one of my favourite authors writing about one of my favourite cities: Javier Marías’ little essay on Venice. For reasons unknown (a failed love affair?), Marías spent a great deal of time in Venice in the 1980s. His reflections on how history and geography have shaped Venice and Venetians are captivating. ‘Venetians see life from “the view point of eternity” ‘, not surprising perhaps when you grow up in place that’s hardly changed for 500 years. The decay, the dark back alleys, the smells, the sense of doom, the colours of the water (‘blood red, yellow, white’ by day, ‘like ink’ by night) combined with dazzling beauty, Marías perfectly evokes the city’s atmosphere and hands you a delicious sliver of Venice.
The Unfinished Palazzzo – Life, Love and Art in Venice by Judith Mackrell – A gloriously gossipy biography of three extraordinary women all of whom, at different points, called a grand palazzo in Venice their home. An eccentric, reclusive countess, a gold-digging seductress and an art-collecting heiress. The Unfinished Palazzo is a hugely entertaining biography which firmly sits in the ‘you-couldn’t-have-made-it-up’ category.
Innocence by Penelope Fitzgerald – Chiara is the daughter of the broke Count Ridolfi, owner of a decrepit palazzo in Florence and with a family history shrouded in sinister myths. Chiara is ‘a beauty, but not thought beautiful in Florence’ (she is too fair), half-American and with no sense of dress. Enter Salvatore, a handsome, bright but emotionally lobotomised (a hint of Asperger’s?) neurologist, from a poor village in the South of Italy. Not exactly what Chiara’s parents were hoping for. There’s something seductive about Fitzgerald’s writing, it’s so gentle and light that it almost seems effortless. It’s not, of course, and that’s the genius of it. Be warned, though, Innocence, like her other books, is not action packed, but rather a funny, contemplative story where a lot more goes on than meets the eye.
The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone – The Agony and the Ecstasy is a must read if you are travelling to Tuscany, Florence or Rome (your trip will be infinitely more interesting) or if you are remotely interested in art history or the Italian Renaissance. And even if you are none of the above, this is a worthwhile book. The Agony and the Ecstasy is the story of Michelangelo Buonarotti – Italian sculptor, painter, poet and architect – and a very enjoyable lesson in history.
The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante – My Brilliant Friend and The Story of a New Name – A glorious portrait of female friendship that took the world by storm, written by an anonymous author whose identity still is a well kept secret. Gossipy and packed with intrigue, too much for some, this series (there are four books) is perfect escapist literature which will take you straight to the back streets of 1950s Naples. Ferrante’s books operate on many levels: the psychology of friendship, the triple curse of poverty, misogyny and domestic abuse, the social hierarchy of Naples’ slums and the almost insurmountable task of escaping it all.
The Years 
We’re in France at the brink of the revolution. A sinister, Hannibal-Lecter-like character rumoured to be devouring everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, including forks, rats and babies, is imprisoned in a monastery. Sister Perpetue has the unenviable task of guarding him. But who is this mysterious Tarare and what is his story? 
The spirit of George Orwell hovers over the memoir 
The Lost Estate
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Partially based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s own life, this portrait of a crumbling marriage set on the French Riviera in the 1920s has all the requisite glamour, wealth and beauty that you’d want from an indulging summer read. Dick, a psychiatrist, and Nicole, a wealthy heiress, spend their summer surrounded by American friends. Not all is well, though, with Nicole who suffers from mental illness. A 17 year-old actress and a murder add to the complications. Fitzgerald regarded this as his best novel, I still prefer The Great Gatsby, but as a read to get you into a summer mood it’s perfect.
Bonjour Tristesse By Francoise Sagan. The ultimate example of summer as an aphrodisiac. 17-year-old Cecile spends her holiday on the French Riviera with her playboy father Raymond and his glamorous girlfriend Elsa. Enter Anne, Cecile’s godmother and Elsa’s polar opposite, who sets off a chain reaction of jealousy and betrayal. Judged amoral and scandalous when published in 1954, particularly since Sagan was only 18 years old at the time, this book’s power to shock is diminished today. The attraction of the hedonistic, glamorous Riviera life-style as entertainment, though, never dates.
All the Light We Cannot See
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert – Set in a French provincial town in the 1830s, Emma marries the boring, bourgeois and mediocre Charles Bovary, and spends the rest of her life trying to escape her marriage and her social class. First through books and day-dreaming, and later through various romantic affairs. Slowly Emma runs herself into the ground and you can’t help but empathise despite her stupidity. A tragic heroine in one of the most unromantic romantic books you’ll ever read. A gripping study of unfaithfulness, unhappiness and betrayal written by a perfectionist.
The Life Before Us
The End of Eddy
