Richard Ingram > Recent Status Updates

Extraordinary. Highly recommended.

I find this book difficult to read. The style of writing is off-putting.

An outstanding translation of an essential text.

The most entertaining novel I have read since childhood. It is inventive, hilarious, and a brilliant work of satire.

Enjoying it so far!

Condensed wisdom.

She is an excellent teacher, which comes as no surprise. The weaving of anecdotes and illustrations of her chess style is wonderfully accomplished. The reader learns how she learned the game, beginning with the surprises that she sprung on unsuspecting adult male players who were made to pay for under-estimating a brilliant young girl.

Loving it.

Ignazio Silone, The Abruzzo Trilogy. The novels Fontamara (1933), Bread and Wine (1937), and The Seed Beneath the Snow (1940) deserve the highest recommendation. My immediate reaction on reaching the end was to want to read them again!

First of the trilogy, Fontamara, is a novel I am so glad to have found. Silone is a spellbinding storyteller, and Fontamara relates the full fury of fascism in Italy. Silone's insight into the lives of peasant women and men is incredible.