«Reading» goes #600- Corriere.it

«Reading» goes #600- Corriere.it


Of Culture editorial team

Extra digital, the novels of the South American country. On newsstands and on the App, «la Lettura» #600 with the cover by Pedro Almodóvar and Giorgio Vasta's review of the book by Argentinean writer Alan Pauls «Life with bare feet» (Sur)

Argentina seen and told through novels. The Theme of the Day, the digital-only daily extra of the «la Lettura» App, Thursday 1 June is a journey, curated by Ida Bozzi, which starts with the first examples of literature of the «children of the May Revolution» and which gradually becomes more surprising with the spatio-temporal acrobatics of Julio Cortázar and with the texts bordering on magic realism by Adolfo Bioy Casares, to arrive to the extraordinary that borders on the real of Kiss of the spider woman by Manuel Puig. While in supplement #600, on newsstands and in the App itself, George Vast reviews the book by the Argentinian writer Alan Pauls Barefoot life (Sur, pp. 109, euro 15) in the translation of Maria Nicola.

In addition to the Theme of the Day and the most recent number of the preview insert already on Saturdays, the «La Lettura» App for smartphones and tablets also offers the archive of all the issues released since 2011. Subscribing costs 3.99 euros per month or 39.99 per year, with one week free. The subscription can also be subscribed from the desktop starting from this page. For subscribers, the contents are also visible from PCs and Macs starting from their Profile page. Furthermore, a one-year subscription to the App can be given as a gift via the web from here or by purchasing a Gift Card in Librerie.coop.

The "Themes" section of the App also collects other extra insights, such as the one edited by Cecilia Bressanelli: a 5-film journey through the cinema of the master of thrill Alfred Hitchcock The Woman Who Lived Twice (Vertigo), Psycho, Notorious - The lost lover, The window to the courtyard, Birds... And in supplement #600, on newsstands and in the App itself, Maurizio Porro's article dedicated to Vertigo starting from the book by Enrico Giacovelli (Gremese Editore). Or again the text by Giovanni Caprara on explorations of the solar system. While in issue #600, the data visualization by Giulia De Amicis is dedicated to the classification of planets in the solar system (and to the dwarf planet Pluto), accompanied by a text by Caprara himself. In the App also the incipit of the story by BJ Hollars, where the protagonist is the legendary monster Hodag. Hollars is one of the texts collected in the volume Stories from Wisconsin edited by Nickolas Butler and Giulio D'Antona (translation by Federica Principi, Black Coffee, from June 1st), reviewed by Alessio Torino in the supplement. In the App also the text by Aldo Colonetti on the famous bookshop "606" by Dieter Rams. To the 91-year-old German designer, to whom an exhibition at the Adi Design Museum in Milan is dedicated, about which Colonetti himself writes in supplement #600 on newsstands and digitally.

And we come to the important goal of «La Lettura». Born November 13, 2011, has now reached a round figure: it reached number #600 (now available on newsstands in the App). Celebrate with many writers and a "special" cover: the author's cover has been a fixed appointment since, six hundred issues ago, the first cover of "La Lettura" was signed by the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who proposed his own self-portrait in handcuffs.


In the new issue, the cover image is signed by a master of cinema, the Spaniard Pedro Almodóvar (Calzada de Calatrava, 1949): an opportunity to appreciate the gaze of Almodóvar (also) a photographer, who in the image he pays homage to Giorgio Morandi's "bottles". And also to peek into his life, since the image represents a glimpse of his home.


Inside the number, the opening is dedicated to a quartet, indeed a quintet, of giants of international literature. It starts with the incipit of the rediscovered and hitherto unpublished novel by Louis-Ferdinand Céline,
War (in the bookstore these days for Adelphi, translation by Ottavio Fatica). They are powerful pages, in which Céline shows the physical and moral destruction of soldiers on the battlefield. His is an anatomy of the human in times of war, as he writes Emmanuel Trevi in the text that accompanies the piece: and the scenes of the puppet-soldiers scattered in the fields are even stronger in this time when war has returned to the heart of Europe.



A different panorama, but which again describes the present, we read in the story of a leader of American fiction, Joyce Carol Oates (Lockport, New York, 1938): some friends in a restaurant complain about an uncomfortable table and meanwhile pretend not to see (but see) the drama that takes place in front of the window. A writing capable of dissecting American and Western society, as Cristina Taglietti writes in the accompanying text. The incipit of Oates' new novel,
Babysitter (in bookstores on June 6 for La nave di Teseo, translated by Chiara Spaziani) can be read in the Themes section of the App of «la Lettura». It will be dedicated to Oates' work an evening of readings at the Milanesiana, on 19 June with Michael Cunningham, while the writer will be awarded on the gala evening of 17 June in Taormina (Messina) with the Taobuk Award for literature.


In number 600 of the supplement there is also another master: the Chinese writer Mo Yan (Gaomi, 1955), Nobel Prize 2012 and author of masterpieces such as Sorghum red
(Theoria, 1994; Einaudi, 1997), offers a story set in China in 1982: the return home of a Chinese army officer amid fields, woods and birdsong, until an event (perhaps supernatural) puts doubt all its concrete materialism. And (perhaps) it represents, as Marco Del Corona writes in the speech that accompanies the story, the permanence in the present of an eternal and mysterious China.


TO Martin Amis (1949-2023) and to his The story from within
(translation by Gaspare Bona, Einaudi) released in Italy a few days after the death of the writer, which took place on 19 May, the review of Alexander Piperno, who reflects on the themes of the new book, the relationship with the women he loves, the pressure of age, the circle of literary friends, their closeness but also their death. To greet the deceased writer there is also Ian McEwan, brotherly friend of Amis: McEwan recalls him, in a moving text, the free spirit, the strength even during illness.

Many other authors in the issue: Teresa Ciabatti he meets two elderly femminielli in Naples and tells of their wounds and hopes; Sandro Veronesi read the new book of Michelle Murgia
Three bowls
(Mondadori) who in twelve short stories writes of illness, wounds but above all of care; and a great American guitarist, Pat Metheny, tell Helmut Failoni about the new album Dream Box
(Bmg) and nostalgia for the inventiveness of the Beatles.

May 26, 2023 (change May 31, 2023 | 21:51)



Source link