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abbie_ 's review for:
A Girl Returned
by Donatella Di Pietrantonio
Thank you @europaeditionsuk for sending me a free copy of A Girl Returned by Donatella di Pietrantonio! I had never heard of this author before except for a review on @juliareadingdiary’s page, but I’m always up for reading more contemporary Italian women authors - and I’m happy to say di Pietrantonio did not disappoint!
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The story is narrated by an unnamed, 13/14-year-old girl who suddenly finds her world turned upside down when she’s ‘given back’ to her real mother, who lives in a run down town with her husband and five or six other children, after her ‘other mother’ becomes sick. She’s forced to adjust to this new way of life, forge a relationship with this hard new mother, all the while struggling with her sense of self.
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I studied Italian language & culture for three years at uni, and one of the main things I came away with is that mothers are HUGE in Italy. Like most of us love our mothers. But in Italy mothers are an institution. There are ‘mammone’, mummy’s boys, and while many of the Italians still living at home in their 30s are not there by choice, there is still the undeniable ‘mamma’ stereotype, where the mother stays at home to cook and look after the family, as the traditional mother role still remains the cultural ideal. A lot of literature reflects on this - look at Ferrante’s quartet and the anxieties present over motherhood and you’ll get a glimpse.
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Di Pietrantonio explores a similarly fraught relationship towards mothers, and for me that’s one of my favourite topics to read about! I may not be interested in being a mother myself but I’m certainly interested in reading about it in all its forms! I also loved the relationship the narrator formed with her newfound sister, although I raised my eyebrows a bit at the one with one of her brothers.
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As usual, Ann Goldstein’s translation is smooth as butter; Italian is such a melodic language that it can be hard to replicate in English, but I actually think di Pietrantonio’s style is similar to Ferrante’s (blunt and direct) so Goldstein clearly excels in this area.
.
The story is narrated by an unnamed, 13/14-year-old girl who suddenly finds her world turned upside down when she’s ‘given back’ to her real mother, who lives in a run down town with her husband and five or six other children, after her ‘other mother’ becomes sick. She’s forced to adjust to this new way of life, forge a relationship with this hard new mother, all the while struggling with her sense of self.
.
I studied Italian language & culture for three years at uni, and one of the main things I came away with is that mothers are HUGE in Italy. Like most of us love our mothers. But in Italy mothers are an institution. There are ‘mammone’, mummy’s boys, and while many of the Italians still living at home in their 30s are not there by choice, there is still the undeniable ‘mamma’ stereotype, where the mother stays at home to cook and look after the family, as the traditional mother role still remains the cultural ideal. A lot of literature reflects on this - look at Ferrante’s quartet and the anxieties present over motherhood and you’ll get a glimpse.
.
Di Pietrantonio explores a similarly fraught relationship towards mothers, and for me that’s one of my favourite topics to read about! I may not be interested in being a mother myself but I’m certainly interested in reading about it in all its forms! I also loved the relationship the narrator formed with her newfound sister, although I raised my eyebrows a bit at the one with one of her brothers.
.
As usual, Ann Goldstein’s translation is smooth as butter; Italian is such a melodic language that it can be hard to replicate in English, but I actually think di Pietrantonio’s style is similar to Ferrante’s (blunt and direct) so Goldstein clearly excels in this area.