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Post by spindrift on Jul 22, 2009 22:00:19 GMT
I am reading this book for the second time. My! it's so funny.
Anyone read it?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2009 23:46:49 GMT
Don't know,do tell!
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Post by spindrift on Jul 23, 2009 12:56:17 GMT
Superficially it's a comically good read but there is a deep physcological meaning to 'Confessions....' and I can do no better than to post the following brief reviews from Amazon....
'rarely has an author shown as much insight into a mans journey through life as italo svevo. what rang true allmost a century ago resonates today in us all. zeno was a somewhat less than perfect,but honest "everyman", whose thoughts,intelligent, funny, and a little pathetic,make up one of the best works of fiction you will ever come across. roll over joyce!!! '
and
'I have just reread this novel, and was floored again. Much better than the Salinger book (sorry kids) this is a more truthful look at how we view our lives and choices we make. Should be required reading for everyone'
Apparently 'Confessions....' was James Joyce's favourite book. I can see why!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2009 13:25:06 GMT
Sounds good. When was it written?
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Post by spindrift on Jul 23, 2009 13:32:34 GMT
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Post by lagatta on Jul 26, 2009 23:33:40 GMT
Yes, of course I've read it, obviously in Italian, and it is very funny though also much more. An expression of the late Austro-Hungarian Empire's "tail in the sea" to quote Leonard Cohen's "Take this Waltz" (itself a reworking of a Lorca poem).
The tobacco addiction theme is interesting in retrospect, as tobacco is seen as a far more serious addiction now than it was in Svevo's day - after all Freud was always with his "only a cigar" - and died of tobacco, not Nazism.
Culturally, Svevo's life and work, and the novel, are on the cusp of Italian and Mitteleuropäisch culture - particularly secular-Jewish Mitteleuropäisch culture.
Joyce of course was close to Svevo, and was the latter's English teacher.
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Post by lola on Jul 27, 2009 1:46:01 GMT
I'm always on the lookout for a book that might interest both men and women in our book club. Maybe this one?
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Post by lagatta on Jul 27, 2009 10:45:49 GMT
Oh yes, I do think so.
spindrift, of course I read it in the original. The English version is well crafted?
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Post by spindrift on Jul 27, 2009 18:29:32 GMT
Well I thought so but I'm no expert. Lola - I'm sure this book will be of interest to your book club. The author writes with 'tongue in cheek' and irony...I love this! so amusing. lagatta - it seems that Joyce was well pleased with his student  |
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Post by lagatta on Jul 27, 2009 19:19:13 GMT
spindrift - you'll know this. What famous Joyce character was in part based on Svevo?
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Post by spindrift on Jul 27, 2009 22:07:13 GMT
* she fishes deep into her memory of things Irish*
Might it be Leopold Bloom of Ulysses?
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Post by lagatta on Jul 27, 2009 22:36:03 GMT
Yep! You take Gaelic word-football Mitteleuropa prize!
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Post by spindrift on Jul 28, 2009 9:29:14 GMT
Gosh! I'm lucky to have remembered that  Lagatta - have you read The Dubliners? I could't get on with it although I forced myself to read it. |
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Post by lagatta on Jul 28, 2009 13:06:42 GMT
No, I had the same problem you did with it, but I'll try again.
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