What little I read made me cringe, my spine tingling with revulsion, the protagonist is Mr Bean like, Homer Simpson in his idiocy, I couldn't cope. Marcovaldo's Charlie Chaplinesque antics ruined what I thought was going to be a poignant story of "an Italian peasant's struggle to reconcile country habits with urban life" as it says on the back.... It put me in mind of that dreadful film Life is Beautiful (yes the Italian one see Kangaroo's entry).... the buffoonery of which I could not abide.

It's off to a fellow bookcrosser Kangaroo as an RABCK, well she had it on her wish list!

Thank you!

I must say that I thought Life is Beautiful was wonderful - I presume it's the Italian Vita e Bella rather than the strange American film that showed up when searching on the IMDB.....! Far from buffoonery, the humour in it came across to me as the father's attempt to shield his son from the harsh reality of the concentration camp.

I've only read the first story in Marcovaldo so far, so we shall see how it turns out. I love getting annotated books, though I rarely get the urge to annotate myself! It's interesting seeing what other people made of the words before you.

I am a big fan of Italo Calvino's work, and this was no exception. I found the eponymous protagonist's view of his city eye-opening, chuckled at his mismanaged escapades and sympathised when things went wrong. He doesn't have a cynic's mindset and I enjoyed that. He's more of an innocent child, bewildered by a world that seems out to get him. He is able to see the strange and wonderful things that happen in the city, if you pay attention, but it never seems to quite go right for him. The tree that won't stop growing and then dies suddenly, the garden of cats, the river filled with soap bubbles.

Also enjoyed the frustrated notes in the margins! It's always interesting to see what you are reading from somebody else's perspective.

Thank you very much!

At the May meet