For those who have read Elena Ferrante’s novels–I’m almost done with My Brilliant Friend–I am fascinated by the fact that character speak both in Italian and in dialect. I’m wondering whether in the original the author actually writes the dialect in dialect? Or in Italian that is somehow coarser?
That was my first question on reading it too!
“… There are occasional weird idiomatic expressions that are Neapolitan words. She talks so much about people’s use of language. She tells us when someone’s speaking in dialect. She talks about how when Lila wants to, she can speak in a beautiful, educated type of Italian. We don’t really get examples of this, but Ferrante says, “She spoke like this,” or every once in awhile Elena will also fall into dialect. … The obvious reason Ferrante doesn’t use dialect is because many Italians wouldn’t understand it. But a second reason may be that, as an Italian professor at CUNY was saying, Neapolitan dialect is very much a spoken language, and if she were writing it, there would be no point, in a way. It would lose the character that it has as a spoken language.”
I was wondering the same thing, and I don’t know the answer. However, I was discussing this with a native speaker of the Neapolitan dialect and he said that the language is different enough from Italian that it would not be intelligible to a typical Italian speaker. He said that Italian and Spanish are closer to each other than Italian and Neapolitan. He didn’t think the book would have used the actual dialect, but he didn’t know. (He grew up very poor in Naples in the time frame of the books and didn’t think they accurately portrayed life there in that time at all, interestingly enough).
Just finished The Nix by Nathan Hill. It is not the type of book I would usually read but it had such great reviews that I wanted to try it. I bounced between reading and Audible. The Audible narrator was excellent. I loved this book.
@ignatius I borrowed Rage Against the Dying from the library today. Thanks for the recommendation. 
^^^ p.m. when you finish and let me know if you liked it or not.
A Gentleman in Moscow is charming. Halfway through, I realize it reminds me one of my daughter’s favorite children’s book and a particular reference gave it away!
[Seeing Like a State](http://yalebooks.com/book/9780300078152/seeing-state) by James Scott
A remarkably erudite and wide-ranging examination of the state apparatus, very well-written.
A Piece of Cake, by Cupcake Brown
She went through abuse, the foster system, gangs etc. and is a lawyer now
I just finished reading Jo Walton’s latest trilogy. “The Just City”, “The Philosopher Kings”, and “Necessity”. I am still mulling them over – they are books rich with ideas and perspectives that are new to me.
I will preface this by saying that I don’t have a liberal arts education. I have never read Plato or Socrates. I know a fair amount about the Greek gods, but rarely enjoy encountering them in literature. But none of that lessened my pleasure in these books.
The basic premise is that Athene and Apollo decide to try out Plato’s idea of building a Just City. They bring in 10 year olds from all times and places to raise per Plato’s ideas to make them into the Philosopher Kings. The two Greek gods take their places as human 10 year olds as well in the city. There is a dash of sci fi thrown in, but mostly it feels more like Ancient Greece than anyplace else.
I liked these books from beginning to end. Human nature, striving for excellence, relationships to machines, the role of art & literature in society are some of the things woven through them. I thought the last book ended on a pretty strong note, too (I’ve read a lot of books lately with wimpy endings – this felt right to me). I’m glad I read these, even though I wasn’t at all sure beforehand that they would be my cup of tea. Turns out that they were.
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Did he say in what way he found them inaccurate?
@intparent, sounds fascinating. Thanks for the recommendation. (BTW, Plato wrote the Socratic dialogues, so there is no separate Socrates to read. It’s all Plato. )
You will be better prepared for these than I was. The character of Socrates appears in the books (debating with everyone).
“Truly Madly Guilty” by Liane Moriarty. It might be my favorite of her books.
@intparent I read The Just City when it was relatively new. I thought it was fascinating - very different from anything I’d read before. I hadn’t realized the sequels have now come out, so glad to know. I’d read The Republic long ago, but generally speaking philosophy makes me fall asleep. The character of Socrates is great. Very much a gadfly.
Funnily enough I discovered Jo Walton because I’d been reading the reread she did at the Tor website of Patrick Rothfuss’s Name of the Wind and The Wise Men’s Fear. Her willingness to do such a close reading of someone else’s work made me curious about what her own books might be like. I also read her Hugo award winning Among Others, which while, not a great book exactly, really spoke to me about adolescence.
I have a Gentlemen in Moscow on my christmas list.
We have talked about Jo Walton out here in the past. I have read most of her books. I did enjoy Among Others. Tooth & Claw won the World Fantasy Award when it was published – it is sort of Jane Austen with dragons. We talked about Farthing, Ha’penny, and Half a Crown a while ago – alternate histories where Facism comes to England instead of fighting WWII – quite chilling in light of recent world events. I also recently read her fantasy series of The King’s Peace, The King’s Name, and The Prize in the Game. Sort of parallel to King Arthur, but Scottish (maybe)? Liked those, too. She is so creative, I am always willing to give her stuff a try.
@mathmom At the risk of sounding silly, what is a close reading? I loved The Name of the Wind and Wise Man’s Fear.
^^^ @mathmom’s referring to this:
http://www.tor.com/series/patrick-rothfuss-reread/
I haven’t read Walton’s reread, so leave any specifics to @mathmom.
I’d forgotten she wrote *Farthing *and the rest. That was a series that just kept getting better. The close reading is a summary of the Rothfuss books with lots of speculation about all the possible hints to what’s really going on in that world. The comments are also worth reading, though they do eventually get a bit repetitive. It’s a bit like a bookclub on steroids.
I’ve reread those books three times already…I swore not to read them again until he (in a time far far away) finishes #3.