Thursday, December 13, 2007

Hot Chocolate at Hanselmann's - Rosetta Loy

Even with the luxury of carved out time for reading each day on the bus, I couldn't justify reading past page 100 in this book. I don't know if it is the writer or the translator who make this book less than enjoyable. There are far too many sentence fragments and poor grammar which don't lend themselves to a coherent style. The book cover touts the literary awards of the author and reviewers praise the translator. Yes, I know I shouldn't trust in the veracity of book covers.
The book covers anti-semitism in Italy during and following WWII. It may be "a work of understated elegance and cumulative power", but I failed to finish reading it after passages like these which start two paragraphs:
A morning that ends in glory among the candy favors opened one after another, smooth outside and hard inside, the squeal of a jeep taking a curve.
But while Marta was still grouping around for her bowl of milk, Lorenza wanted the streets and the trees, the others.

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