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Amore In Paradiso
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Published January 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 18, 2025
L'ho letto in più meno une hore. E una lettura molto semplice e buona per imparare. La fine del libro mi ha lasciato come wtf.
July 27, 2024
As I have stated in some of my other posts, I am studying sign languages at my local university in Hamburg. But because that is considered too little stuff to get a full bachelor’s degree, I had to also take a minor subject, which is Italian. I struggle with learning the language a bit, which is why I am taking part in the language class again for the 3rd time. Every time I took part in it, we had to read small Italian books, specifically made for learning the language. This time we had to read “Amore in Paradiso” by Giovanni Ducci and it was very awful. Not because of my problems with the language, I did get through the book eventually, but because the story itself is written in a very sexist way. It was actually so bad, that we had to talk about it in my class and the teacher will now remove it from her future classes. And because I think it’s important to talk about a topic like that, I want to tell you about some of the most problematic things in this book. Enjoy…? xD
It all begins with our male protagonist, who is described as a great person looking for love but sadly never finding it. His wish to finally find “the one” is so big that it somehow makes its way up to heaven, where some angels get to see it. They pity him and decide to send one of their own down to earth to find him his best match and get the two together. The best match is actually found by a computer seemingly calculating which person suits his interests best AND how many children they will have together(this will become important later on, I just wanted to mention it already). The angel finds a woman named Perla, steals her purse, and makes it look like the male protagonist Michele did it, so that when giving the purse back, they both meet each other for the first time. And thus, the events begin to spiral into chaos.
Perla is described in a very objectifying way. It is talked about what she like about men, such as pronouncing some letters in a certain way and how she likes to be called “merendina”, which is a sort of nickname couples like to use, which could be translated to “snack”. That was the first thing which was really irritating to me, because the male protagonist is described as a “good husband and father” (which is also calculated by the computer) and calm but not as “a hot guy who likes it when women call him sweetheart”. Never in the book is he ever objectified in that way, but he goes on and on talking about how beautiful Perla is from the moment they met. He never talks about her wit or something like that, it’s always about the body.
Perla also does not really seem to think like a normal human would in real life, which seems to be because she falls in love with Michele almost instantly and forgets how to function properly after that. They first met at an ice café, so that Michele can give the purse back, but instead of asking for the purse Perla sees him (who she thinks stole her purse) and askes him to eat an ice with her (with no money to pay for it, since she still has not seen her purse anywhere). It’s a very awkward scene, Michele is described as staring at her and thinking about if she might be married, even though he knew her for like 10min at this point. And she seems to be okay with all of that.
The purse does not get back into Perlas hands, because of some mingling by the angel, since starting a relationship based of a crime does not feel very angelic. That leads to Michele getting arrested for stealing the purse, because Perla has stated that to an officer. But for some reason she accompanies him to the police station and actually tries to help him, not get convicted for the crime she accused him of. That does even confuse Michele himself and when he asks why Perla helped him, she says that she kind of likes him, because of the way he pronounces the letters S and Z and that’s why. So, Perla is described as being overwhelmed by her feelings and not able to think straight. That sexism 101, woman not being able to control themselves because of their feelings. But it does not stop there.
The whole situation got so complicated that the only solution the angel sees for resolving it is switching places with Michele. Because Michele is described to be “too good for the world” which also is stated as the reason for him never finding a woman. His life gets put on trial because not everyone can become an angel, but he passes with flying colours. The only condition for the angel to become human is fulfilling a mission. And the mission is: Getting Perla to marry him and make her pregnant at least as often as she would have gotten, with Michele considering the calculations of the computer. And here is where that bit from the beginning is important again because the only reason why the angels are intervening with human lives in the first place is that they seem to be obsessed with them having children. Even though nowhere in the book is stated why, what would the angels get out of human children?
The problem with that message and it being repeated multiple times in the book is that it invalids not only same-sex relationships since they cannot have children of their own but also women who are infertile or women who just don’t want to get children. Those people are deemed not worthy of love and happiness by the angels, even though it is not their fault. And spreading a message like that is simply wrong.
In the end, the problematic situation is resolved by the angel confessing to Perla that he in fact did steal her purse, but only for them to arrange a meeting, because he likes her so much. He also uses some of the knowledge he gained as an angel, having access to that supercomputer and actually calls her “merendina”, which is something COUPLES use not random strangers. In a normal real-life situation, as a normal human that would be considered as stalking. Because Perla cannot know that Michele is now an angel in disguise and got this information’s from heaven, she can only assume he followed and stalked her for quite some time now. And it does not really help, that he committed a crime so the two of them can finally get together. Of course, Perla is not a normal human being and loves being called by that name (which should be at least considered as cat calling). She makes a comment about how Michele must be a secret agent, and everything works out fine. I guess the angle will also start his mission right away, but we do not get any information about that. And yes, Perlas opinion on anything happening in this book, is not important, she never gets asked anything and is written in such a strange way, that she just seems to go along with it.
I get it, the book is from 1999 and our values and morals might have changed since then. But this book is still getting republished over and over again, the newest version is from 2021. So, someone must update and review this book and be like: This is great, let us give it to more people to read! But it is not great, it is sexist, it is homophobic, and downright creepy. When we talked about it in my class, all the women had a strange feeling reading it, some described even being stressed out by it. There are a lot of other books out there, which are way less problematic, and I do not think this has any special learning qualities that justify the story. Actually, I don’t think a story like that can be justified at all.
It all begins with our male protagonist, who is described as a great person looking for love but sadly never finding it. His wish to finally find “the one” is so big that it somehow makes its way up to heaven, where some angels get to see it. They pity him and decide to send one of their own down to earth to find him his best match and get the two together. The best match is actually found by a computer seemingly calculating which person suits his interests best AND how many children they will have together(this will become important later on, I just wanted to mention it already). The angel finds a woman named Perla, steals her purse, and makes it look like the male protagonist Michele did it, so that when giving the purse back, they both meet each other for the first time. And thus, the events begin to spiral into chaos.
Perla is described in a very objectifying way. It is talked about what she like about men, such as pronouncing some letters in a certain way and how she likes to be called “merendina”, which is a sort of nickname couples like to use, which could be translated to “snack”. That was the first thing which was really irritating to me, because the male protagonist is described as a “good husband and father” (which is also calculated by the computer) and calm but not as “a hot guy who likes it when women call him sweetheart”. Never in the book is he ever objectified in that way, but he goes on and on talking about how beautiful Perla is from the moment they met. He never talks about her wit or something like that, it’s always about the body.
Perla also does not really seem to think like a normal human would in real life, which seems to be because she falls in love with Michele almost instantly and forgets how to function properly after that. They first met at an ice café, so that Michele can give the purse back, but instead of asking for the purse Perla sees him (who she thinks stole her purse) and askes him to eat an ice with her (with no money to pay for it, since she still has not seen her purse anywhere). It’s a very awkward scene, Michele is described as staring at her and thinking about if she might be married, even though he knew her for like 10min at this point. And she seems to be okay with all of that.
The purse does not get back into Perlas hands, because of some mingling by the angel, since starting a relationship based of a crime does not feel very angelic. That leads to Michele getting arrested for stealing the purse, because Perla has stated that to an officer. But for some reason she accompanies him to the police station and actually tries to help him, not get convicted for the crime she accused him of. That does even confuse Michele himself and when he asks why Perla helped him, she says that she kind of likes him, because of the way he pronounces the letters S and Z and that’s why. So, Perla is described as being overwhelmed by her feelings and not able to think straight. That sexism 101, woman not being able to control themselves because of their feelings. But it does not stop there.
The whole situation got so complicated that the only solution the angel sees for resolving it is switching places with Michele. Because Michele is described to be “too good for the world” which also is stated as the reason for him never finding a woman. His life gets put on trial because not everyone can become an angel, but he passes with flying colours. The only condition for the angel to become human is fulfilling a mission. And the mission is: Getting Perla to marry him and make her pregnant at least as often as she would have gotten, with Michele considering the calculations of the computer. And here is where that bit from the beginning is important again because the only reason why the angels are intervening with human lives in the first place is that they seem to be obsessed with them having children. Even though nowhere in the book is stated why, what would the angels get out of human children?
The problem with that message and it being repeated multiple times in the book is that it invalids not only same-sex relationships since they cannot have children of their own but also women who are infertile or women who just don’t want to get children. Those people are deemed not worthy of love and happiness by the angels, even though it is not their fault. And spreading a message like that is simply wrong.
In the end, the problematic situation is resolved by the angel confessing to Perla that he in fact did steal her purse, but only for them to arrange a meeting, because he likes her so much. He also uses some of the knowledge he gained as an angel, having access to that supercomputer and actually calls her “merendina”, which is something COUPLES use not random strangers. In a normal real-life situation, as a normal human that would be considered as stalking. Because Perla cannot know that Michele is now an angel in disguise and got this information’s from heaven, she can only assume he followed and stalked her for quite some time now. And it does not really help, that he committed a crime so the two of them can finally get together. Of course, Perla is not a normal human being and loves being called by that name (which should be at least considered as cat calling). She makes a comment about how Michele must be a secret agent, and everything works out fine. I guess the angle will also start his mission right away, but we do not get any information about that. And yes, Perlas opinion on anything happening in this book, is not important, she never gets asked anything and is written in such a strange way, that she just seems to go along with it.
I get it, the book is from 1999 and our values and morals might have changed since then. But this book is still getting republished over and over again, the newest version is from 2021. So, someone must update and review this book and be like: This is great, let us give it to more people to read! But it is not great, it is sexist, it is homophobic, and downright creepy. When we talked about it in my class, all the women had a strange feeling reading it, some described even being stressed out by it. There are a lot of other books out there, which are way less problematic, and I do not think this has any special learning qualities that justify the story. Actually, I don’t think a story like that can be justified at all.
December 31, 2016
Adaptētā literatūra nav gluži daiļliteratūra, tāpēc tā jāvērtē pavisam citādāk. Stāstiņš diezgan dīvains un murgains, bet, ja vēlies mācīties itāļu valodu, tad ir pavisam ok.
May 16, 2022
E' una storia un po' strana ma e' buona per pratticare i pronomi diretti e indiretti
July 25, 2023
Non mi è piacuto come l'altro libro che ho letto, ma é stato un buon esercizio per continuare a praticare il mio italiano.
March 9, 2026
Ho letto questo libro che è stato più facile da leggere di molti anni fa. Ho ascoltato l'audio per il libro.
Questa storia è di angeli che lavorano in un ufficio dei desideri e di due bravi ragazzi Michele e Perla. Michele è un bravo ragazzo, ma non riesce a trovare una ragazza della sua vita. Perla è italiana. Lei accompagna i gruppi di turisti in giro per il mondo. Gli angeli decidono di chiedere aiuto del'angelo Pippo che ha fatto incontrare milioni di uomini e donne che si sentono sole e fa questo lavoro da secoli e secoli. Sulla Terra nella metropolitana l'angelo Pippo ha preso il portafoglio di Perla e ha messo per terra. Quando Michele è entrato nel vagone della metropolitana, Pippo è alzato un piede e l'uomo è caduto a terra e ha visto il portafoglio. Così iniziò la conoscenza di Michele e Perla.
Mi è piaciuto il libro e la storia. Ma l'unica cosa che non mi è piaciuta è l'angelo Pippo. Ha rubato un portafoglio, ha preso la vita di Michele e ha preso la donna. Capisco che vuole essere sempre originale ma non così tanto!
Questa storia è di angeli che lavorano in un ufficio dei desideri e di due bravi ragazzi Michele e Perla. Michele è un bravo ragazzo, ma non riesce a trovare una ragazza della sua vita. Perla è italiana. Lei accompagna i gruppi di turisti in giro per il mondo. Gli angeli decidono di chiedere aiuto del'angelo Pippo che ha fatto incontrare milioni di uomini e donne che si sentono sole e fa questo lavoro da secoli e secoli. Sulla Terra nella metropolitana l'angelo Pippo ha preso il portafoglio di Perla e ha messo per terra. Quando Michele è entrato nel vagone della metropolitana, Pippo è alzato un piede e l'uomo è caduto a terra e ha visto il portafoglio. Così iniziò la conoscenza di Michele e Perla.
Mi è piaciuto il libro e la storia. Ma l'unica cosa che non mi è piaciuta è l'angelo Pippo. Ha rubato un portafoglio, ha preso la vita di Michele e ha preso la donna. Capisco che vuole essere sempre originale ma non così tanto!
December 4, 2024
No m'agrada fer ressenyes d'aquests llibres perquè són el que són però aquest és especialment dolent.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews