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Garden of the FinziContinis Giorgio Bassani I Quigly 9780140027389 Books

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Garden of the FinziContinis Giorgio Bassani I Quigly 9780140027389 Books

Like so many past recollections, there is a tendency to view things through rose colored glasses - to filter pain, confusion, love, loss. This autobiographical novel by Giorgio Bassani is about his childhood and young manhood growing up as a Jew in Ferrara, Italy, and how Hitler's racial laws, restrictions and persecution crept up on his life, and the lives of his family and friends. The focus of this story is his relationship with the aristocratic Finzi-Contini family, who were on a higher social plane than his middle class family, yet accepted and welcomed his friendship as a fellow Jew in the uneasy minority in Italy of the 1930s-1940s. The Finzi-Continis had a walled estate complete with stately mansion and tennis court, the latter bringing various young friends of Bassani together to socialize, play tennis and forget the dangerous world outside. This complacency led to the downfall of many innocent lives in these brutal times, and the Finzi-Contini family as well as members of his own family suffered tragedy as part of the Nazi war machine. Those who have seen and loved the movie may be disappointed at this introspective book, Bassani after all is a writer and is entitled to reticence about such a personal story, but to me the most touching recall is his visit to the large crypt holding generations of the proud Finzi-Contini family remains, and the painful knowledge that his young friends and their parents would never be buried there, and what became of them is a terrible certainty yet vague in specifics. A beautifully written memoir that is a must read for anyone who enjoyed the film "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis," which was my favorite movie of my youth.


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Garden of the FinziContinis Giorgio Bassani I Quigly 9780140027389 Books Reviews

Bassani's polished prose does not evoke the Holocaust as it affected Italian Jews. The events of the Holocaust lie in the background. What is Bassani's subject is how little we know about our own emotions and relationships. This, he succeeds brilliantly in presenting through the relations of the Finzi-Continis, and especially the beautiful but elusive Micol, with the narrator.
This book, set before World War II as Mussolini began enacting racial laws targeting Jews, give a good sense of what it that time was like. Set in Ferrara, rather than one of the larger cities, it is presented as the memories of a man who was friends with the Finzi-Continis, a wealthy Jewish family. He recalls how they, he and other Jews in their 20s, lived during that time.
It really brought to life the lost pre-WWII world. It made me think of Italy, Italian classmates and colleagues. It is a remarkable novel and a very worthy read, Highly recommended.
Bassani's Garden is a book worth reading. I enjoyed it because it seemed to capture a world about which I knew little before aristocratic and middle class Italian Jewish society before the second world war. It is a melancholy world to be sure, but not unpleasant. Tim Parks' introduction to the always well-produced Everyman edition was well done, and shed light on aspects of the novel of which I was not aware. Readers of Lampedusa's The Leopard will likely enjoy The Garden, as both take a literarily mature and nostalgic look at a society which no longer exists. For myself, I enjoyed The Leopard better, but this is to take nothing away from The Garden, which is fine in its own right.
This is simply one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, one of a group of Italian novels that stand at the pinnacle of literary achievement. This is a meditation on a place, a time, a family and the events that surround all that is neither still nor solipsistic. Bassani manages the extraordinary tasks of writing a novel that is also, seamlessly, a memoir, a 'true life novel' beyond any of the experiments of Norman Mailer. The style is quiet, ruminative and clear. The novel looks at tremendous, personal, social, historical, and tries to understand how it all happened. It's extraordinary - and if you've only seen the movie, the book is far more ambiguous and far more powerful.
Giorgio Bassani's autobiographical novel, "The Garden of the Finzi Continis" is a remarkable novel for its insight into the lives of an Italian Jewish family and their friends in Ferrara,a city in north Italy and the tragedy that befalls the family during WW II.

Not to give too much away, the story is told by the narrator, Giorgio, who had a close relationship with the Finzi-Continis since childhood, especially with the two Finzi-Contini children, Alberto and his sister Micol. As they grow up, Giorgio falls for Micol but the relationship is brief and fades soon after which leaves him devastated. Amidst this personal crisis, Fascism is on the rise in Italy, and when Italy enters the war, it spells doom for the Jewish populace in Italy. Even the seemingly impenetrable Finzi-Continis, who live behind a huge wall barricading themselves against the rest of the world are not spared.

This is a poignant historical novel that delves into the relationships between the main characters and also, more importantly, shows the reader how Fascism and Nazism slowly alienate the Jews from others in society and eventually persecute them on a larger scale that led to deportations and death. Highly recommended!
Wonderful book. Highly recommend, especially in our populist, demagogue times. Only drawback is that there is quite a bit of name dropping. Otherwise wonderful. Transports to another world.
Like so many past recollections, there is a tendency to view things through rose colored glasses - to filter pain, confusion, love, loss. This autobiographical novel by Giorgio Bassani is about his childhood and young manhood growing up as a Jew in Ferrara, Italy, and how Hitler's racial laws, restrictions and persecution crept up on his life, and the lives of his family and friends. The focus of this story is his relationship with the aristocratic Finzi-Contini family, who were on a higher social plane than his middle class family, yet accepted and welcomed his friendship as a fellow Jew in the uneasy minority in Italy of the 1930s-1940s. The Finzi-Continis had a walled estate complete with stately mansion and tennis court, the latter bringing various young friends of Bassani together to socialize, play tennis and forget the dangerous world outside. This complacency led to the downfall of many innocent lives in these brutal times, and the Finzi-Contini family as well as members of his own family suffered tragedy as part of the Nazi war machine. Those who have seen and loved the movie may be disappointed at this introspective book, Bassani after all is a writer and is entitled to reticence about such a personal story, but to me the most touching recall is his visit to the large crypt holding generations of the proud Finzi-Contini family remains, and the painful knowledge that his young friends and their parents would never be buried there, and what became of them is a terrible certainty yet vague in specifics. A beautifully written memoir that is a must read for anyone who enjoyed the film "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis," which was my favorite movie of my youth.