Teaser Tuesday - Oct 5

Teaser tuesday's now hosted here.

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) • Share the title \& author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.

...by a former Pope in his place; or John XII who was consecrated at the age of seventeen and during whose reign, according to Gibbon, 'we learn with some surprise that the Lateran Palace was turned into a school for prostitution; and that his rapes of virgins and widows had deterred the female pilgrims from visiting the tomb of St Peter, lest, in the devout act, they should be violated by his successor.' Phew - that's only one sentence from John Julius Norwich The History of Venice - one of the racier, more unpleasant bits of Italian history!

Teaser Tuesday - July 20

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

"Then where has she gone?"
He began to cry and I let him act out his desperation, sobs that began fake and became real.

The beginning of Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend - having read the second in this series within our book group I thought I'd try the first novel. Here's my teaser of the second novel.

Teaser Tuesday - Apr 19

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

"Those who are on the bottom always want to be on top, those who are on top want to stay on top, and one way or another they always reach the point where they're kicking and spitting at each other."
"That's exactly why problems should be resolved before violence breaks out."

From The Story of a New Name Elena Ferrante. Our book group book for the month I'm currently enjoying this - I've not read the first book in the series but I didn't find that an obstacle. We've gone from one pseudonymous novel (The Cuckoo's Calling) to another. It's not a short novel but easy to read and carries you with it, the way she (the writer) inhabits each moment makes the growing up that the characters undergo fascinating. Here'a Guardian article about her.

Teaser Tuesday - Feb 2

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Better late...

The face is blank and stiff, almost expressionless. One realises with a start how unchanging and conventionalized is the face of the living man and woman of these parts, handsome, but motionless as pure form.

From D H Lawrence's Twilight in Italy, I loved this book when I first found it at school and have returned to it regularly though not for quite a few years. This section is about crucifixes in the alpine meadows.

Teaser Tuesday - 4th Sept

Try not to laugh (too much) it's been a busy week!


Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

In the plushy cafés of St. Mark's (Regency stripes and spindly chairs) spruce listen with deference to the interminable reminiscences of immaculate uncles: and in the cafés on Christmas eve 20,000 families giggle before the television sets, drinking Cinzano and eating sticky cakes, while the favourite melody of the day is passed from shop to shop, from square to square, down one dark alley to another, like a cheerful watchword in the night. The Christmas services are warm, bright and glistening; the cribs are crude but touching; the choirs sing lustily; and Venice feels less like a grand duchess than a buxom landlady, enjoying a glass of stout when the customers have gone (except for the mysterious permutations of clergy, gold and crimson and misty with incense, that you may glimpse passing and repassing the open doors of the Basilica).

A wonderful extract from Jan Morris's Venice - in the off season (if it now has one) - irrestible and draws one back! Soak in the atmosphere - this is a re-read for me - but probably a little old as a guide book.

Politics and the Family - ii

Last week I saw Mio Fratello è Figlio Unico (My Brother is an Only Child) at Macc College, like the week before's film a study of the effect of politics on childhood - though in this case the children are rather older though the period is identical (the early 1970's) but in this case the background is Italy where things became a lot more unpleasant. In this case most of the political pressure comes from outside the family but the fraternal struggle is involving.

The shadow of Mussolini still had a powerful effect on Italy as the brothers go their separate ways. A very moving film but earthed in what felt to be real family situations

Teaser Tuesday - 12 April

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

My turn to choose our book group's monthly book has come around again and rather than make a guess, possibly getting something no-one (including me!) likes I've gone for safety and a re-read - though I think it is a far from unchallenging book. Here's the teaser:

At one end of the promenade the notes of the brassband bounce like audible midges. At the far end, from the Kursaal's thé dansant salon, comes the subdued whine of a string quartet. Young women, slightly tipsy, and therefore, Bella assumes, probably American, come out of Damilano's wearing beach pyjamas and hats shaped like cones.

I thought I'd better include an extra sentence with something happening in it rather than just mood setting (but what similes!). 1930's Italy, the stillness before the storm - you just know unpleasant things and casual cruelties are about to be recalled. I last read it, shortly after publication back in October 2009.

Teaser Tuesday - 15 February

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Having just finished Manzoni's The Betrothed, I can't resist a far from random quote from the last few pages, not really a spoiler I think:

That's not the sort of Latin I'm afraid of. That's an honest, holy sort of Latin like you get at Mass; and besides, you clerical gentlemen have to read what's written in the book in those cases. No, no; I was talking about that blackguardly out-of-church Latin which creeps up behind a man in the middle of a conversation.

Three sentences too!

Teaser Tuesday - 8 February

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Yes, I'm still working my way through Alessandro Manzoni's The Betrothed, only 200 pages to go!

And while in certain parts those who were totally abandoned and reduced to extremity were raised up from the ground, brought back to life and given food and lodging for a time, there were a hundred other places where their brothers fell, languished and died without any help or comfort.
All day long a confused murmur of imploring voices could be heard in the streets.

The Thirty Years war and then, the plague, hits Milan!

Teaser Tuesday - 18 January

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Farewell, you mountains which rise straight out of the water and up to the sky; you jagged, uneven peaks, which we who have grown up with you know so well, and carry impressed in our minds, like the faces of our own family. Farewell you streams, the murmur of whose voices we can tell apart like the voices of our oldest friends. White houses spread glimmering across the slope, like flocks of grazing sheep, farewell!

Cheating slightly with 3 sentences but that last one is so beautiful! Another extract from Manzoni's The Betrothed(I Promessi Sposi) - the sad end of an otherwise very funny chapter! It's a powerful illustration of the change in the Romantic attitude to nature and mountains - earlier writers would have had a fit of the vapours at a mere mention of jagged peaks! The heroine flees from her home into the unknown city to escape a fate worse than death at the hands of the novel's deep-dyed villain.

Teaser Tuesday - 14 December

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Renzo bowed deeply, the doctor greeted him affably, with the words 'Come in, my lad' and took him into his study. It was a huge room; three of its walls were occupied by portraits of the first twelve Roman emperors, and the fourth was taken up by a vast bookcase full of dusty old volumes.

Renzo's visit to a lawyer (Dr Azzeccagarbugli is his name in the original, thank goodness for copy and paste!) from Manzoni's classic The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi).I first read this many years ago and it is about time for a reread. Manzoni is the first true classic novel written in the Italian language amist the turmoil which led to the founding of the modern Italian state - his death provoked the writing of Verdi's Requiem (which coincidentally I'm listening to at the moment).

And for something completely different!

Also on that obituary page last week (for Anneliese Rothenberger I referenced in my last post) in the Guardian was that for Edoardo Sanguineti. My knowledge of Italian avant garde poets and playwrights is a bit limited but his name rang a bell and I read on. I got to the mention of Laborintus and light dawned! He had a long working relationship with Luciano Berio providing various libretti for him. Here's a video of part of one of those works Laborintus 2 completed in 1965, a wonderfully wild piece - do stay for the really unhinged bit from around 5' to the end!

Unfortunately no subtitles and some Italian might help! There's a recording of this on a short Harmonia Mundi release (at least there was when I bought it!)

Magda Olivero

The Italian soprano Magda Olivero is 100 years old today, here's a clip of her being interviewed a few days ago - from a 3 hour session!

And here she is discussing and singing at her 99th birthday

She initially retired before I was born...

The fruit of his own labour?

From an article by Anna Masera in today's Guardian:

In an interview with La Stampa, the president of the Democratic party – known for her deep personal animosity for Berlusconi, especially since he said on public television that she was "more good-looking than intelligent" – couldn't withhold a thought that crosses the minds of many Italians who dislike Berlusconi: violence should be condemned, but the premier is not a victim, he is responsible for the creation of a violent climate.

Berlusconi has fostered a culture of aggression, confrontation and fear and alas for him, he has fallen victim to it.

Teaser Tuesday - 3 Nov

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Which part of the house had I come to? I searched for the top of the chestnut under which we had sat that morning, but couldn't see it

From Elizabeth Lowry's The Bellini Madonna - 'convergence of high art and the low skulduggery' when I picked this book up in the library I wasn't aware it was going to be a conjunction of Ireland and Italy again - as with the Last Train from Liguria which I read a few weeks ago.

Diddums!

According to the BBC

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has described himself as the most persecuted person "in the entire history of the world".

I think that's probably beyond parody, maybe he should compare notes with those Italians which he appears to regard as untermensch and who he as been persecuting - and who can't afford expensive lawyers. He should proably have a word with Miriana then this pampered buffoon might understand the meaning of the word persecution.
Nice to see his legal immunity being removed though.

Teaser Tuesday - 6 Oct

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

I lie listening to the rain needling the windows, or soft shuffling on the rooftops and flat-roofed extensions that deform the rear of these houses, until I can't put it off any longer. Turning slightly to look over my shoulder, I find the wrong hair on the wrong-shaped head lying behind me; one gold-stud earring, a gold chain around the neck, a signet ring on the hand hanging over the quilt. I slide out of bed and wish I could die.

Christine Dwyer Hickey's `Last Train from Liguria' a book about connections between modern Ireland and 1930/40's Italy. A book I've been wanting to read and spotted it in the local library at the weekend, so far it's definitely been worth lugging the heavy volume on the train each day. From the above linked review:

In 1933, Bella Stuart, the introspective daughter of a London surgeon, sets out for the country where Mr Mussolini is busy making the trains run on time. The plan is for her to be tutor to the son of the aristocratic Lami family - "there's a villa in Sicily and a summer house on the Italian riviera", and there is "some German connection, so you'll probably be popping off to Berlin". Fateful words for the whole of Europe, perhaps.

Small attack dogs

From the Guardian today:

Jacques Chirac's miniature white maltese, Sumo, has been banished by the former president after becoming so depressed about leaving the presidential palace that he began routinely savaging his master.

It's not nice losing one's presidential palace - you don't suppose it is Sarkozy in a reincarnation?
Meanwhile another small [minded] premier if having a few home truths presented courtesy of an Italian TV station prepared to report news rather than toady:

Patrizia D'Addario, 42, said: "Certainly he knew that I was an escort."She added she was not the only escort present at two parties she attended at Berlusconi's Rome residence. "When I arrived it seemed like a harem," she told the current affairs programme Annozero last night.

Today is a national day of protest in Italy about the lack of press freedom.

Dies Irae

As seen in the Observer

The city elders of Milan wanted Mike Bongiorno interred alongside one of Italy's greatest writers, Alessandro Manzoni.... Only perhaps in Berlusconi's Videocracy could a state funeral be accorded to a TV quizmaster.

Manzoni is the writer whose death inspired Verdi's Requiem, one guesses that Bongiorno's death will be a little less culturally elevated.
Only in Berlusconi's Italy (one hopes).

Berlusconi complains that the foreign press isn't under his command

Don't think I've linked to this yet - while Mr B contines to try to crack the whip over his muzzled press.
Let's see whether the video works - doesn't appear to cooperate in blogger preview..

no still can't see it - can anyone using (spit!) Internet Explorer see anything?
(I can see it now - I don't know why it wasn't appearing before!)
Let me add the questions (to Berlusconi) here:

1. Mr. Prime Minister, when did you first have the chance to meet Noemi Letizia? How many times did you meet her and where? Have you frequented other minors and do you still do so?
   
2. What is the reason that forced you to not tell the truth for two months, instead giving four different versions of your acquaintance with Noemi before making two belated admissions?
   
3. Don’t you find it a serious matter, for Italian democracy and for your leadership, that you repaid the girls that call you “papi” (daddy) with candidatures and promises of political responsibilities?
4. You stayed with a prostitute the night of November 4, 2008 and, according to judicial investigations dozens of “call girls” have been taken to your residences. Were you aware that they were prostitutes? If not, are you able to guarantee that those encounters haven’t made you vulnerable, which is to say subject to blackmail, as demonstrated by the recordings of Patrizia D'Addario and the photos of Barbara Montereale?
   
5. Has it ever happened that "official government flights" without you aboard were used to take female party guests to your residences?
   
6. Can you say without fear of contradiction that the people you keep company with haven’t caused prejudice to affairs of State? Can you reassure the country and our allies that no female guest of yours possess arms of blackmail that diminish your political independence, domestic and international?
   
7. Your conduct contradicts your policies: would you still be able today to attend a Family Day demonstration or sign a law punishing the customer of a prostitute?
   
8. Do you still consider yourself eligible for the office of President of the Republic? If not, do you think that a person that common opinion considers unfit for the Quirinale presidential palace can fulfil his duties as Prime Minister?
9. You have spoken of a "subversive plan" that threatens you. Can you guarantee not having used and not wanting to use intelligence and the police force against witnesses, magistrates and journalists?
10. In light of what has emerged in the last two months, what, Mr. Prime Minister, is your state of health?