Marcovaldo, by Italo Calvino
As it’s Plastic-Free July, our book review blog will be the title ‘Marcovaldo’ by Italo Calvino.
This week, Richard from Brompton Library will be reviewing Marcovaldo, by Italo Calvino. Marcovaldo is a collection of Italian stories talking about the beauty and the ugliness of both the countryside and the city.
Over to Richard to tell us more!
“If you’ve ever seen the film, Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot, you might recognise a similar lyrical style that is both poetic and comical in Marcovaldo. The character of the title is an Italian redneck labourer from the provinces with a love of nature, who moves to a large northern industrial city with his family.
The book comprises a collection of stories/chapters that follow this family through the seasons of the year. In the Forest on the superhighway for example, the family go in search of firewood, only to find billboards on the edge of the city; in the night, the short-sighted highway police officer confuses snatches of the family sawing through the panels with the billboard images and assumes they are part of the advertisements. Another story captures Marcovaldo’s reaction to the city transformed by winter snow.2
If you want to try out this unique and compelling read, pick up Marcovaldo today from one of our branches or via ebook –
https://trib.ent.sirsidynix.net.uk/client/en_GB/rbkc/search/results?qu=Marcovaldo&te=
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