Wednesday 22 April 2015

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Has a book ever changed your life? People think I am crazy when I say this!
Well, I had  read this book the first time 15 years ago and I felt like I was not the same afterwards.
And this is exactly why I couldn't read it again for so long: I was scared to change the "memories", to overcome the feelings...how wrong I was!

Macondo, the imaginary place where the book is set, is a magic place, where feelings and emotions do not have boundaries, where everything is exaggerated in one sense or in the other. A place where love, guilt and passion are faces of the same coins.
No, I am not gonna tell you what is the book about, this you could easily find everywhere, I will just tell you to go to Macondo and try to stay there the longest you can, its loneliness will fill your days, the smell of banana trees will be with you for long, you will look at chestnut trees with sorrow and joy.
Macondo is the place where your emotions will sit under the shadow of a tree, while waiting for the next train, or the next plane to catch, but will you really dare and want to get it?



Remembering Márquez 
(Aracataca, 6 marzo 1927 – Città del Messico, 17 aprile 2014)


Tuesday 7 April 2015

The Voice of the Violin: The Inspector Montalbano Mysteries by Andrea Camilleri

Have you have watched the (TV series): The Inspector Montalbano? It is a thriller series inspired by Camilleri's book. It is very nice, sharp and addicting. Said that, I had never read the book that inspired it, maybe 'cause I read so many thriller book when I was a teenager that I got saturated by them, but seriously, why had I not?

This book is so intense, addicting, full of suspense and, yes, also funny. Montalbano is not a normal inspector, he is "incazzuso" as we would say in slang, which cannot be really translated but means something like "prone to get pissed and annoyed". Every character in the book has his own distinct personality, that create growing interest in the book.

I recommend both the TV series and the book series!!!

Wednesday 1 April 2015

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José Saramago

It is a bit difficult to review this book, my last intention is to talk about faith, religion and beliefs, but I think I cannot avoid it.

This is the "biography" of Jesus Christ, so forget the apostles, the priests and so on, and just concentrate on the version that probably Jesus would have liked to give of his life.
Think about that: one day the Holy Mary discover to be pregnant of a boy that is suppose to be the Son of God. As much faith as she can have, I think every person would have question the situation and be a bit scared. The boy, called Jesus, has an apparent normal life, till he discover he has some form of "powers", that people call miracles, but why? Why is he so special? And why has God chosen him to be his son?
In a book that face religion and beliefs you will find yourself wondering if the Good and the Bad aren't just two faces of the same coins, if faith can justify million of wrong things in this world and most of all if Jesus was happy of the life he was chosen for.
All of this with the distinct sarcastic style of Saramago, never disappointing.


I don't deny that having grown up in a catholic contest at times the book was a bit too pushy, describing intercourse between Mary and Joseph and also Jesus, and guess who?
 Nevertheless, I think such a book could bring more followers than the Gospel itself, 'cause it makes everyone more human and less divine.

Saramago, as usual, THANKS!