Review: La luna e i falò

La luna e i falò by Cesare Pavese
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I should preface this by saying I know it's a classic. My father wrote his thesis on this book back in college.

Also, having left my hometown in Lugano and returned later to see the changes, and the same things under new eyes, I can relate to many parts of this book.

Having said all that, I must admit the book gets boring, with great parts in between. Excellent ending.



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Review: Against Interpretation and Other Essays

Against Interpretation and Other Essays by Susan Sontag
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I admit that many of these essays were on people and/or works I had never heard of. Having said that, I found the ones on Cesare Pavese and Ionesco quite interesting (the one on Ionesco was scathing), as well as those dealing with Sartre and Camus.

Interesting to learn about Happenings, and Assemblages, since I had never heard of them before. Also interesting were the notes on Camp Style (especially considered how the term is used these days in the UK). The essay on Science fiction was extremely thorough, but I can't say I found it all that interesting, except possibly that Sci-fi movies were pretty much all disaster movies.

Still, Sontag was obviously extremely observant and intelligent. I doubt we have anyone quite like her around today. 

All essays date from the 1960s.

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