OK, you want the truth? The truth is that I have read quite a few books since I last wrote a post about it... As you can easily imagine, holidays and a gloriously lazy beach life helped me devour a few pages, starting with a nice Harry Potter, followed by Gli Arancini di Montalbano and then Un Mese con Montalbano... And do the coffee table and cookbooks count too? Because if that is the case, I would then have another few to suggest... Ok, one thing at the time: you will hear about the coffee table books (that I read like novels, mind you) later on, in a dedicated post.
Let's stop beating around the bush and get back to the current state of things: the book you see in the picture above was enthusiastically promoted by dear friend ZZZZzzzzzz and so, you bet, it was patiently waiting on my (longer than ever) waiting list. It so happens that all the Italians to whom I mentioned the book did not seem too happy about it, or rather, about its author and his choices: a mediocre writer, a book for teenagers, just a love story and so on... Obviously not a very promising start. To top things off, Roman friends of ours overtly expressed their dislike of the book and their sadness at seing how teenagers in love had devastated the oldest bridge in Rome (cannot tell you more about this: 1) I have not reached that point in the story; 2) You are going to have to read the book) in in an attempt at imitating their fictional idols.
Well, the horizon certainly was not looking any brighter and I was starting to doubt dear Zzzzzz's advice. There is one thing though: whether it is for books or for movies, I tend to listen to all the comments, to read all the critiques and then I just find out by myself. And this is just what I did.
You know what? The book is certainly not particularly well written, but I am having a good time reading it and plunging into the 1980s teenage world for better or for worse! I have never read anything like this before so I am just taking it all in and enjoying the adventures and first love emotions of the characters, while fully understanding why it became such a cult book for an entire generation. I do believe that this type of book is also part of literature and should be acknowledged as such. I probably won't push it by going to see the movies (there are more than one) but I would certainly recomment reading the book, especially to those who - based on their principles - have dismissed it. Maybe a little too soon? Maybe because it is not "bon ton" to read this type of story when you are an adult? Maybe simply out of literary snobbery? You tell me.
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