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The Water Door: A Novel
A contemporary Italian classic reminiscent of The Garden of the Finzi-Continis .
A Garcia Lorca poem gives this book its title, "not even the smallest hand can open the water door," and this epigraph begins a story of unrequited love. A five-year-old girl, the daughter of a bourgeois Roman family in the late 1930s, finds the object of her desire in her German-speaking blond, blue-eyed, milky-white Anne Marie.
The story of their relationship spans a single season, as the family moves through its obligatory social rituals. Their customs and manners are all absorbed through the wide-eyed gaze of their little girl making her first contact with the outside world. She encounters kindergarten, the nuns and their baroque Catholicism, and most importantly, a fascinating Jewish girl who lives across the street. Their friendship will change her relationship with her governess forever, especially once the Jewish girl disappears.
Loy's rhythmic, sensual prose animates a kaleidoscopic narrative, combining the intimacy of childhood emotions with nightmare glimpses of Fascist Italy during World War II.
A Garcia Lorca poem gives this book its title, "not even the smallest hand can open the water door," and this epigraph begins a story of unrequited love. A five-year-old girl, the daughter of a bourgeois Roman family in the late 1930s, finds the object of her desire in her German-speaking blond, blue-eyed, milky-white Anne Marie.
The story of their relationship spans a single season, as the family moves through its obligatory social rituals. Their customs and manners are all absorbed through the wide-eyed gaze of their little girl making her first contact with the outside world. She encounters kindergarten, the nuns and their baroque Catholicism, and most importantly, a fascinating Jewish girl who lives across the street. Their friendship will change her relationship with her governess forever, especially once the Jewish girl disappears.
Loy's rhythmic, sensual prose animates a kaleidoscopic narrative, combining the intimacy of childhood emotions with nightmare glimpses of Fascist Italy during World War II.
120 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
About the author
Rosetta Loy
38 books9 followersRosetta Loy was an Italian writer.
Born in Rome as Rosetta Provera, she was the youngest of four children of a Piedmontese father and a mother from Rome. She wrote her first story at the age of nine, but her real literary vocation manifested itself towards the age of twenty-five. However, she had to wait until 1974 for her first publication, La Bicicletta.
She was married for thirty years to Beppe Loy, with whom she had four children.[
Born in Rome as Rosetta Provera, she was the youngest of four children of a Piedmontese father and a mother from Rome. She wrote her first story at the age of nine, but her real literary vocation manifested itself towards the age of twenty-five. However, she had to wait until 1974 for her first publication, La Bicicletta.
She was married for thirty years to Beppe Loy, with whom she had four children.[
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 25, 2022
"China la sera a darmi la buonanotte il suo viso avvicinava i sogni e li pacificava nella trama rossastra dei capillari. Mi sfiorava con un bacio e i suoi capelli mi solleticavano per un istante la fronte".
L'amore di una bambina per una donna assume le forme di una prosa densa e vischiosa: le complessità sintattiche e linguistiche sembrano quasi voler nascondere sotto il manto di un ricercato lirismo la verità di una passione contraria alle convenzioni del perbenismo cattolico e borghese dell'Italia degli anni '30 - "forse" non così distante da quello attuale.
L'amore di una bambina per una donna assume le forme di una prosa densa e vischiosa: le complessità sintattiche e linguistiche sembrano quasi voler nascondere sotto il manto di un ricercato lirismo la verità di una passione contraria alle convenzioni del perbenismo cattolico e borghese dell'Italia degli anni '30 - "forse" non così distante da quello attuale.
March 23, 2020
Questo romanzo, che mi è stranamente capitato di avere in francese, è stato una vera sorpresa.
Racconta con una lingua delicata e poetica quel periodo della prima infanzia, dove il mondo ha una dimensione domestica e tutto ciò che è esterno rimane attutito, avvolto tra finestre, persiane, tende, stoffe che proteggono, anche se non a lungo.
Un romanzo breve ma molto bello
Racconta con una lingua delicata e poetica quel periodo della prima infanzia, dove il mondo ha una dimensione domestica e tutto ciò che è esterno rimane attutito, avvolto tra finestre, persiane, tende, stoffe che proteggono, anche se non a lungo.
Un romanzo breve ma molto bello
January 7, 2015
Non il genere di libri che leggo normalmente, mi è risultato un po' troppo confuso (ma forse è proprio per rendere l'idea di ricordi d'infanzia che si mescolano e si sovrappongono?). Troppi aggettivi nelledescrizioni le rendono complesse in contrasto con le immagini semplici dell'infanzia. Tanti flash, come fotografie di un album.
December 20, 2009
each chapter is like its own story, almost like a series of prose poems.
with great detail, all from the point of view of a five year old girl.
with great detail, all from the point of view of a five year old girl.
August 13, 2013
Lost interest... Couldn't get through it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews