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Activation Project 12 – Task 1
– Talk about the last booh you have read
Yesterday I have finished ‘The garden of Earthly Delights’ by Joyce Carol Oates. The book starts as a realistic portrait of life of American laborers in early Nintheen century, and then proceeds talking about the two following generations, that fight to reach a better social position, but at the same time seem to be cursed with the faults of their fathers. The book is divided into three parts, each one dedicated to a different generation, and in my opinion the first two parts are more captivating than the last one. Reading the afterward has given me the idea that these two parts are more heartfelt by the author due to her own experience and her family history, and maybe this is the reason why the last generation events were less touching to me. The thought that in a sense a lot of people still lives in the conditions depicted in the initial part is really tragic and the way how the people who had suffered similar conditions justify the exploitation of their previous comrades and support it to a personal gain is as realistic as disconcerting.
– What’s the worst book you have ever read? Explain why?
Even if I don’t really like to express absolute opinions about books, I think the worst book I have ever read is ‘L’isola dei morti’ (literally ‘The isle of deads’) by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. Manfredi is a famous Italian author of historical fiction and even if this is not his masterpiece and it is a very short novel I had high expectation, at least for the historical care and the plot. Well, I was wrong. The story should be a mysterious archelogical reasearch, with some unexpected twist, performed in Venice by a group of workers in an archelogical site. The final result is a meaningless reasearch about the original copy of Dante’s Comedy with the investigation that proceeds with no logical sense but just through clumsy guessings and confusing hints. This unsatisfactory plot is sourranded by parts that I have found at least offensive. At example the part when the main character, which first person point of view we follow, makes an observation about the fact that probably the nurse he talked to at the hospital has no slip on. Was it necessary for the plot? Absolutely no, but he at that moment had fought with his girlfriend, that insults and treats orribly for all the story, and so it is apparently justified.
Really terrible.
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1 Reply
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Thanks Lucia! Nice to read. I’ve shared a google doc with you for corrections
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