Miss Jools’s Reviews > An Italian Christmas: Festive Tales for La Dolce Vita > Status Update

Winter in the Abruzzi, Natalia Ginzburg - another one I’ve heard of and this was probably one of the best in here. A bit more progressive!! But still miserable, filled with melancholy and death.

To the Tenth Muse, Matilde Serao - a bit more interesting stylistically: lots of lists and saying the same thing with different words. A description of a street of food sellers in Naples.

The Fifth Story, Day the Seventh, Giovanni Boccaccio - Where did they dredge up this archaic translation of the Decameron?!

Black Bread, Giovanni Verga - only the second author I’ve heard of so far. Another disappointing read. Man marries red headed woman with no dowry. Poverty. “She was again with child, she being worse than a cat for filling the house with little ones.” Domestic violence. Baby girls are disappointing. And on and on. Lovely /s

The Golden Cross, Grazia Deledda - God, Mass, marriage, subservient girls with eyes downcast...a man with a golden cross who was...Jesus...? 😅

Family Interior, Anna Maria Ortese - About a, gasp, single woman - wonderful, the ‘old’ spinster trope. Oh and she’s unattractive and like a man because she’s independent. More mass. An old, gasp, single aunt. Who is UGLY and likes GOSSIP. More misogyny. There’s so much meanness and unkindness in these stories. Ughhhh.

Oh forgot also the wonderful evil red headed fallen woman!! Got to get that dose of misogyny in!!

Canituccia, Matilde Serao - Child abuse. Wonderfully festive /s. She gets beaten. Religion. Prayer. They kill her pig, chop its head off. She starves.

No wonder I keep putting off reading these stories.

Christmas Eve, Camillo Boito - Not what I was expecting at all...the cover of this book seems to promise some festive, cosy tales - not necrophilia...? I mean, in another collection - a HORROR collection perhaps - this would have been quite intriguing...

A Dream of Christmas, Luigi Pirandello - Er, a dream about Jesus.

Not a great start... :P