Pasquale's Nose: Idle Days in an Italian Town

by Michael Rips | Biographies & Memoirs |
ISBN: 0316748641 Global Overview for this book
Registered by EMA375 on 3/9/2004
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8 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by EMA375 on Tuesday, March 9, 2004
Book Description:
Everywhere hailed for its quirkiness, its hilarity, its charm, Pasquale's Nose tells the story of a New York City lawyer who runs away to a small Etruscan village with his wife and new baby, and discovers a community of true eccentrics-warring bean growers, vanishing philosophers, a blind bootmaker, a porcupine hunter-among whom he feels unexpectedly at home.

Journal Entry 2 by EMA375 on Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Shipping Order:
fizzfred CA (SHIP INTL)
goygirrl CA (US/CAN)
a1856 CO (SHIP US)
Lpree MD (SHIP INTL)
> added kristamd MD (SHIP INTL)
juliebarreto HI (SHIP INTL)
Brujula FRANCE (SHIP INTL)
EMA375 CA

Journal Entry 3 by EMA375 on Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Started the bookring! Sent to fizzfred.

Journal Entry 4 by fizzfred from Sacramento, California USA on Tuesday, April 27, 2004
I received this today. I can't wait to start reading, it really looks like my kind of a book!

Journal Entry 5 by fizzfred from Sacramento, California USA on Sunday, May 2, 2004
This book is a very sweet love story for the Italian town of Sutri and the people who live there. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you so much EMA375 for sharing this with us. I will mail it to goygirrl tomorrow.

Journal Entry 6 by goygirrl from Venice, California USA on Sunday, May 9, 2004
Received in the mail yesterday. Thanks!

Journal Entry 7 by goygirrl from Venice, California USA on Wednesday, May 26, 2004
This book was a really pleasant surprise. The author dispenses with navel gazing and focuses on the stories of the town and its residents. While it would have been nice to know a little more about him, especially how long he was there and why he left, that wasn't the book he set out to write. Truly a love song to Sutri and a powerful and entertaining evocation of place. Myself having a grandfather from the Lazio region, it made me want to go there and discover my own stories. Sending along to a1856. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 8 by a1856 from Castle Rock, Colorado USA on Thursday, June 10, 2004
I received it yesterday and I'm starting on it right away!

Journal Entry 9 by Lpree from Omaha, Nebraska USA on Monday, June 28, 2004
This arrived in today's mail. I have a few other bookrings ahead of it, but will read as soon as I can. I will keep an eye on how long I have it and will pass it along if I don't get to it in time.

Journal Entry 10 by a1856 from Castle Rock, Colorado USA on Monday, June 28, 2004
Ooops, better get this in, since I already sent it out and the next bokring reader has received it! This was a fun book to read! I loved the characters! I only wish that they were developed in more detail - give me more!!

Journal Entry 11 by Lpree from Omaha, Nebraska USA on Wednesday, June 30, 2004
still TBR, just updating the status since it won't let me do so without a journal entry.

Journal Entry 12 by Lpree from Omaha, Nebraska USA on Tuesday, July 6, 2004
I really enjoyed this book -- I loved all the stories and characters from the town. This really make me want to go visit to see these places themselves. I wish the author had included a few photos of areas in the town, though. I agree that I wondered about the author himself, but will definitely check out other books by this author.

I've contacted kristamd and will meet up with her sometime this week to pass this book along.

Journal Entry 13 by Mountainwren from Bethesda, Maryland USA on Friday, July 9, 2004
Lpree and I met up today and she passed the book along. It looks lovely and is the perfect portable size! Thanks EMA375 for allowing me to squeeze in on this bookring. I will start reading as soon as I finish my current book.

Journal Entry 14 by Mountainwren from Bethesda, Maryland USA on Sunday, July 11, 2004
I'm keeping a record of daily quotations as I read the book (thanks tania-in-nc for the idea!) I look at the page where I stop reading each day, searching for imagery, humor, insight, or just a catchy turn of phrase.

July 11, 2004
"He was right: no matter how good or bad they are, no matter how thick or thin, how few or how many you eat, no one feels good after eating pancakes. The man was a philosopher of the mundane, blessed with deep insight into subjects of no significance."
page 60

July 12, 2004
"The men of Sutri appreciate these women. But it is not the beautiful women who draw the most attention. Beautiful women require little imagination. The real challenge is to find the extraordinary in the woman whom others don't notice."
page 174

Journal Entry 15 by Mountainwren from Bethesda, Maryland USA on Tuesday, July 13, 2004
The most striking aspect of a church in Sutri, the small Italian town where American Michael Rips lives, is the mosiac on its floor. Like that mosiac, Rips' book is a colorful patchwork adding up to a satsifying whole. The pieces consist of stories about the town's memorable residents, who are characterized by eccentricity, distrust of outsiders, and a lovable lack of logic that both frustrates and fascinates Rips.

Rips seems like the kind of person who'd make a good dinner guest: he tells hilarious stories, but he knows when to stop and leaves us wanting more. He intensifies my wish to visit Italy again!

I will be passing the book along to juliebarreto during my next post office visit.

Journal Entry 16 by juliebarreto from Puako, Hawaii USA on Thursday, August 19, 2004
It arrived today!

August 26, 2004 - This book did nothing for me, and I usually love this vicarious travel/settle into a little European town type of thing. It seemed precious and false. If he can't speak Italian, how does he learn all this insider info and make local friends? Why is he such an idler and why does his wife put up with it? The oddball characters seem to have no unifying theme whatsoever, other than that they all lived in Sutri. That was the point? The town is full of characters?

On the plus side, I enjoyed poring over the map of the town and examining the little drawings at the beginning of each chapter. They reminded of the tiny margin drawings in "Mad" magazine.

Thanks for sharing a book I might otherwise have never seen!

September 1, 2004 - I sent this off to Brujula in France a few days ago.

Journal Entry 17 by Brujula from Valenciennes, Nord-Pas-de-Calais France on Wednesday, September 8, 2004
Received today. The flight from Hawai was really fast!

thank you Julie and EMA375!

Journal Entry 18 by Brujula from Valenciennes, Nord-Pas-de-Calais France on Sunday, October 10, 2004
I really enjoyed reading the story and the anecdotes about this peculiar italian (or should I say etruscan?) village and its no less peculiar inhabitants!

thank you for letting me discover this book, EMA375!
I'll mail the book back to its home tomorrow!

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