| Author |
Comment
|
Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(7/1/01 10:12:14 am)
|
Sometimes the Soul : Two Novellas of Sicily
Has anyone read this book by Gioia Timpanelli? I haven't yet, but it has been recommended to me by a visitor since the second novella is based on "Beauty and the Beast."
I am going to interlibrary loan a copy to read, but I wanted to get some reactions from other possible readers on the board, especially those who love Italy so well.
Heidi
|
Midori
Unregistered User
(7/3/01 3:20:12 am)
|
running late
Heidi,
I've been waiting for this book to come back to the library where I am next in line to read it. I'll post as soon as I've had a chance to read it!
|
Heidi
Unregistered User
(8/3/01 1:43:17 pm)
|
Finally got a copy
Midori and other interested parties,
Have you read this yet? I just received it through interlibrary loan and have started it. So far, I am pleased. Would you like to discuss it?
Heidi
|
Midori
Unregistered User
(8/3/01 3:30:42 pm)
|
half way
Heidi,
Yes, I'm about half way through it. But I wonder if we could wait unti lsay, after the 12th of this month? I am a guest author at the Virginia Arts Festival...I have to write a speech, and prepare four hours worth of writing workshops....so I am working on that at the moment. But I would love to talk about it when I get back (and maybe that will give a few others the chance to read as well?)
|
Heidi
Unregistered User
(8/3/01 4:33:33 pm)
|
Wonderful idea...
...to wait until the 14th even. I am attending SCBWI next weekend and am catching up at work just in time to fall behind again for a long conference. I imagine the book will be in my purse for the next week, being read in snatches. It doesn't deserve that type of reading, but otherwise I may never get it read.
Where has the summer gone?
Heidi
|
Terri
Unregistered User
(8/4/01 12:53:29 am)
|
quick note...
...to put in my two cents here, which is that I liked the book very much. I look forward to a discussion.
|
DonnaQ
Registered User
(8/14/01 9:49:03 pm)
|
A few thoughts...
Before I even finished the intro to "A Knot of Tears," it was clear that this author is a master storyteller. I was totally enchanted by the first tale - it has a rich mix of timeless truths, small daily magics and universal emotions combined with many layers of the meaning of story and how it plays a part in our lives. Thoroughly enjoyable!
"Rusina, Not Quite in Love" is a different kind of story altogether. (ACK - the BadPun Fairy has taken up residence in my computer.) I like the way certain elements shape this tale, particularly the idea of learning to "see" with an artist's eye and the necessity of the muse as well as the medieval tinges that cumulated in the classic notion of love beginning with "sight." I like tales that make me think and and it was the consideration of these elements in unity that brought the story together for me.
But the tale didn't make me feel. Think movies here - you know how some big-screen couples simply radiate love and make it believable while others just don't pull it off? (In the tale), I understood how Rusina came to feel for the Beast but I just didn't "feel the love." This is a subjective opinion, certainly, but one that brings the title into question.
(And prompts the tangential Hmmmmnnn? Perfect Prince or Enduring Muse? Can one have both? But that is a topic for a different thread.)
The thing I like best about the book as a whole was the way Timpanelli bounces between the way stories shape our lives and the way our lives can be different from them.
That should be enough rambling for a start, I imagine...
|
