Libro

Olive Kitteridge is a pretext. This old bothersome lady is only in part the protagonist of this novel which is actually a collection of tales, as she appears basically everywhere in the book, but only in five (out of thirteen) the tale is centred on her. And some of these tales are truly masterpieces: "The Piano Player", "Pharmacy", "Starving", "Criminal" are formally perfect and, above all, a treasure such as "Incoming TIde" is possibly one of the best tales I've ever read, structured upon a long dialogue (which tells or make us understand exactly what we need to know) occurring in a place, a car, in which people outside and the landscape are always visible but at the same time always distant, in the background. A sort of failed interpenetration between two worlds. Unfortunately, precisely the tales in which Olive is protagonist are those that didn't manage to convince me. They are mainly awkwardly constructed and bear a message of intolerable rhetoric, especially in the last page of the book, a good example of spoiler which jeopardized to discredit the whole work. Besides, the character of Olive Kitteridge is really a fuckin' turd, of course as it should be, but finally unbearable, soaked with that pedantry and, worse, that typical American irony that is simply too innocent to move a person who just finished to read a Morselli's novel (and this is why I can't stand so many American contemporary writers). I don't know, perhaps I recommend this book anyway, because some of the tales are really enjoyable and at least two or three are masterpieces, but it is impossible for me not to think of it as a wasted occasion. Soundtrack for the best tale: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys3rt_6rRgc