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Natalia Ginzburg’s novel is a mainly epistolatory piece that surrounds the life of Michael, a quiet revolutionary who traipses around Italy and England and makes the women in his life relatively concerned on a daily basis. His various mundane adventures see him on the brink of making some sort of committal life decision, or perhaps just appeasing his exes, his girlfriend, his mother, to remain just as aloof as he needs to achieve his goals. Regardless of his true motivations, there are various moments in the novel where the curtain is pulled back based on various artifacts, he leaves behind for the other characters to discuss, along with the modifications to their own lives they need to make in taking the time in solitude to pick up the broken pieces of his life he constantly leaves behind. Might he become a husband? A father? Achieve anything, and finally be the man he presents to be for the long-haul?

I read the new translation by Minna Zallman Proctor, and she achieves a beautiful breeziness from Ginzburg’s original Italian prose from 1973’s ‘Caro Michele’. It was a lot of fun to read because of the depth and complexity of the various character’s angles, especially when they are complaining about and examining a character as complex as Michael and his enigmatic friend Oswold. The epistolatory format doesn’t always feel as fresh as it does here, and I enjoyed the execution of the piece along with its fresh take on a tired genre as the thematic and philosophical undercurrent of each letter and character interaction as time passes is communicated through the simplest of means, bringing a sincere and beautiful depth with each character’s word.

“We’re just beautiful people with beautiful problems...”

Released with one other book and two graphic novel ARCs...