Italy in September

I did say that I hadn't quite finished talking about books by women in translation in August; today I have some all in one reviews for a quartet of Italian books that, as it turned out, I didn't fall in love with. It's strange but I didn't notice that most of these feature daughters, mothers and dead fathers, until I put them together like this. 

Farewell, Ghosts / Nadia Terranova; translated by Ann Goldstein (2018)

This one was my favourite of this quartet, but even so I found it quite slow. Ida is in her 30s but she's just returned to her childhood home in Messina, as her mother wants to get it ready to sell. Being back brings up all sorts of thoughts and emotions about her childhood trauma, when her father walked out of the house and disappeared. The book draws out these feelings and the relationship between Ida and her mother, and I appreciated parts of it but felt like it needed a stronger resolution. And maybe a bit more movement in the narrative.

Whereabouts / Jhumpa Lahiri; translated by Jhumpa Lahiri (2018)

I don't know if I was just distracted while reading this one but I couldn't get into it at all. I was confused by who was speaking when I started it and never really clicked with it. It's about a professor in an Italian city who is dealing with a feeling of unbelonging even as she moves around her city and interacts with colleagues and thinks of her mother who is isolated after her father's untimely death. 

The Lost Daughter / Elena Ferrante; translated by Ann Goldstein (2006)

I read this quickly so that I could watch the Netflix adaptation. But I didn't like the book and ended up fast forwarding through much of the movie, too. Lena is a mother whose daughters have moved to Toronto; she's taking a vacation to the coast by herself. She means to relax but gets caught up with the family dramas of a nearby Neapolitan family on vacation. I can see what Ferrante is getting at but I just wasn't interested and didn't like Lena or the direction of the story at all. 

70% Acrylic, 30% Wool / Viola di Grado; translated by Michael Reynolds (2011)

This was the biggest disappointment of the bunch. I would rate it barely 2 stars. In this one, Camelia is a young Italian woman living in Leeds with her mother, in a very dysfunctional state after her father has died in a car accident along with the woman he was having an affair with. She finds strange clothes in a dumpster, which lead her to Wen, a young man in a clothing shop from whom she begins to learn Chinese ideograms. The story is convoluted, twisted, depressing and the ending is ridiculous. There's no payoff and I was frustrated by the narrative. I had been looking forward to this one so it was particularly disappointing!

Anyhow, I'm hoping for some better Italian reads in the upcoming year!