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fulgheri's review against another edition
3.0
Finale inesistente, prosa convoluta e contorta, passa da un personaggio all'altro, da un punto di vista ad un altro senza nemmeno una virgola, figuriamoci un a capo...
Forse voleva imitare lo Stream of Consciousness à la Joyce?
Questo romanzo è l'ennesima dimostrazione che se un libro vince lo Strega al 97% fa pietà.
Forse voleva imitare lo Stream of Consciousness à la Joyce?
Questo romanzo è l'ennesima dimostrazione che se un libro vince lo Strega al 97% fa pietà.
jaro96's review against another edition
3.0
QUANTO COSTA RESTARE FEDELI
Buon pomeriggio amici e amiche! Ieri sera ho portato a termine la lettura de “Fedeltà” di Marco Missiroli. Lo aspettavo da quando l’autore l’aveva annunciato su “La Lettura”.
Dopo aver letto “Atti osceni in luogo privato”, avevo aspettative alte. Alcune sono state disattese, altre no, ma andiamo con ordine.
Il centro di tutto il romanzo è il concetto di fedeltà in tutte le sue più svariate manifestazioni. È un romanzo, oserei dire, corale. Sembra un controsenso perché, anche se riguarda la storia prettamente personale di Margherita e Carlo, non si rinuncia a dare un respiro più ampio alla vicenda.
La città di Milano è una delle protagoniste di quest’opera. Le strade, le fermate della metropolitana, le stazioni dei treni hanno un potere particolare sui personaggi, infatti, ne modificano i comportamenti in relazione ai diversi quartieri in cui vengono a trovarsi.
Con “Fedeltà”, Missiroli ha deciso di sperimentare la tecnica del “passaggio d’anima”. Questo artificio letterario consiste nel passare fluidamente da un personaggio all’altro per mezzo degli incontri, sguardi, dialoghi e legami che intercorrono tra di essi. È un romanzo ben architettato, anche se non privo di difetti. È ambientato su due piani temporali: il 2009 e il 2018.
All’inizio sembra mettere troppa carne al fuoco e non stavo capendo dove volesse andare a parare, ma con la seconda parte si risolvono quasi tutte le questioni aperte nella prima.
Si percepisce la crescita dei personaggi che devono fare i conti con i propri fardelli.
Missiroli non si smentisce e semina riferimenti manifesti e non ad altri libri. A me fa sempre piacere cogliere i vari riferimenti intertestuali e non trovo sia solo un istrionismo dell’autore.
Il pregio maggiore di questo romanzo è che, chiusa l’ultima pagina, ti scava dentro e ti instilla molti dubbi e domande a cui serve tempo per rispondere. Non è un libro che cambia vita, ma ritengo sia un’opera valida e un’ottima prova per la letteratura italiana contemporanea.
Buon pomeriggio amici e amiche! Ieri sera ho portato a termine la lettura de “Fedeltà” di Marco Missiroli. Lo aspettavo da quando l’autore l’aveva annunciato su “La Lettura”.
Dopo aver letto “Atti osceni in luogo privato”, avevo aspettative alte. Alcune sono state disattese, altre no, ma andiamo con ordine.
Il centro di tutto il romanzo è il concetto di fedeltà in tutte le sue più svariate manifestazioni. È un romanzo, oserei dire, corale. Sembra un controsenso perché, anche se riguarda la storia prettamente personale di Margherita e Carlo, non si rinuncia a dare un respiro più ampio alla vicenda.
La città di Milano è una delle protagoniste di quest’opera. Le strade, le fermate della metropolitana, le stazioni dei treni hanno un potere particolare sui personaggi, infatti, ne modificano i comportamenti in relazione ai diversi quartieri in cui vengono a trovarsi.
Con “Fedeltà”, Missiroli ha deciso di sperimentare la tecnica del “passaggio d’anima”. Questo artificio letterario consiste nel passare fluidamente da un personaggio all’altro per mezzo degli incontri, sguardi, dialoghi e legami che intercorrono tra di essi. È un romanzo ben architettato, anche se non privo di difetti. È ambientato su due piani temporali: il 2009 e il 2018.
All’inizio sembra mettere troppa carne al fuoco e non stavo capendo dove volesse andare a parare, ma con la seconda parte si risolvono quasi tutte le questioni aperte nella prima.
Si percepisce la crescita dei personaggi che devono fare i conti con i propri fardelli.
Missiroli non si smentisce e semina riferimenti manifesti e non ad altri libri. A me fa sempre piacere cogliere i vari riferimenti intertestuali e non trovo sia solo un istrionismo dell’autore.
Il pregio maggiore di questo romanzo è che, chiusa l’ultima pagina, ti scava dentro e ti instilla molti dubbi e domande a cui serve tempo per rispondere. Non è un libro che cambia vita, ma ritengo sia un’opera valida e un’ottima prova per la letteratura italiana contemporanea.
amadacla's review against another edition
4.0
Difficile esprimere un pensiero unico su questo libro. Certamente è scritto molto bene perché Missiroli è uno scrittore di eccellenza. La lettura è accattivante e coinvolgente. Tuttavia i personaggi, principalmente Carlo e Margherita, non suscitano grande simpatia. Raccontano a se stessi e si raccontano reciprocamente le loro vite ed i loro sentimenti nel modo più indulgente e assolutorio. Sembra quasi che l’adulterio reciproco sia un toccasana per la coppia e che la fedeltà sia un concetto interpretabile, relativo, utopistico. Come in atti osceni in luogo privato, il sesso è a volte morboso ed ossessivo.
lucyatoz's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Devotion by Marco Missiroli, and translated from Italian by Alex Valente, is the story of Carlo and Margherita, living in Milan, Italy, married, without children, and having sexual desires for a university student in their class and their physiotherapist respectively.
It is set in a beautiful city with a couple who seem to be happily married, and it explores the tensions in theirs and how the lives of Sofia and Carlo are impacted by their extramarital affairs. There are two sub-plots in the story. one which deals with animal cruelty, which took away from the narrative and did cause me to put the book to one side and debate about continuing it. The other was Margherita's relationship with her mother and how, following a fall, it changes.
Overall, although there were elements of the story I appreciated, it just did not flow for me. I am not sure if this was due to the story being "lost in translation" from Italian to English or that certain aspects of the animal cruelty story overwhelmed me so much more than what the story was about.
I borrowed a copy of this book from Taunton Library and listened to it on Spotify. I read this for prompt 49, set in a city starting with the letter "M", for the 52 Book Club Reading Challenge 2024.
It is set in a beautiful city with a couple who seem to be happily married, and it explores the tensions in theirs and how the lives of Sofia and Carlo are impacted by their extramarital affairs. There are two sub-plots in the story. one which deals with animal cruelty, which took away from the narrative and did cause me to put the book to one side and debate about continuing it. The other was Margherita's relationship with her mother and how, following a fall, it changes.
Overall, although there were elements of the story I appreciated, it just did not flow for me. I am not sure if this was due to the story being "lost in translation" from Italian to English or that certain aspects of the animal cruelty story overwhelmed me so much more than what the story was about.
I borrowed a copy of this book from Taunton Library and listened to it on Spotify. I read this for prompt 49, set in a city starting with the letter "M", for the 52 Book Club Reading Challenge 2024.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Blood, Excrement, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content
elymomo's review against another edition
1.0
Ho sentito Missiroli intervistare J. Safran Foer e Ammaniti. L’ho detestato la prima volta ed adorato la seconda. Non l’avevo mai letto. Non credo lo leggerò ancora. Personaggi inconcludenti ed insipidi con paturnie ben poco interessanti e una scrittura a mio avviso imprecisa e noiosetta. Per me bocciato.
giduso's review against another edition
2.0
La sensazione é che l'autore voglia dimostrare di sapere molte cose, dalla geografia dei luoghi alle procedure tecniche di certe mansioni. Abbondanza di descrizioni dettagliate e citazioni letterarie. C'é qualche momento di verità, ma rimane un romanzo insipido, non mi ha colpito.
kellyvandamme's review against another edition
3.0
Hi and welcome to my review of Fidelity!
To be perfectly honest, I wanted to read this book first and foremost because of its setting. I love Italy and I don’t read nearly enough books set there. I also really wanted to try a book by an Italian author as most of the translated literature I read is by Scandinavian authors, so I guess you could say I was looking to expand my horizons by reading Fidelity.
In that aspect, Fidelity did its jobs nicely. Set in beautiful Milan, Fidelity breathes Italy and I gobbled it up like a quattro stagioni pizza. I felt my own memories of the city come flooding back and that definitely made me appreciate the setting even more. I also loved the author’s writing style, and what the translator did with it: creating a story for an English-speaking audience to enjoy while still conveying the authentic Italian vibe. Not an easy feat.
However, I had some issues with Fidelity as well. I don’t know why but I was expecting more thriller elements thrown in there, and there weren’t. That’s all on me of course, that’s not the book’s fault, I should have read the synopsis more attentively. I was still happy to read it as contemporary fiction, never my go-to genre but I do like to mix genres, shake things up a bit.
Unfortunately, I soon came across an element that really bothered me, notably dog fights. It’s not a huge part of the story, but even the smallest mention of such things makes my skin crawl, and it was more than a mere side note. That didn’t quite gel with me and I considered DNF’ing right there and then. I didn’t, I hoped that particular topic would be dead and buried before long, and fortunately it was, but it did somewhat sour both my mood and the way I felt about this book.
Let’s talk about (in)fidelity for a moment. I’m usually not that bothered about infidelity in fiction, if I were I probably would not have picked up Fidelity. I was especially okay with it in this story, because both partners have the hots for other people. I was extremely grateful though that it never turned into any kind of Fifty Shades of Grey shenanigans. No offense, but erotica and stories bordering on erotica are just not my thing. The cover had me thinking that it might get sexy, but that if it did, it would be in a rather tasteful way, and in a way that furthered the plot instead of distracting from it, and I was very happy I was not deceived on that account. If anything it’s the psychological rather than physical relationship between the spouses that takes precedence over all else, and their relationships with their child and their parents. Rather than being overly explicit Fidelity speaks of temptation, of desire, of being seduced without actual seduction.
I ended up with mixed feeling about Fidelity. Turning the final page, I was glad that I’d stuck with it, as the story and its characters did grown on me and I ended up having a good time with it and them, but for me to love contemporary fiction means to love the characters and I never really got there. Fidelity sure has its strong points, but for me it missed a certain je-ne-sais-quoi, call it a spark, a bit of pizzazz.
Thanks to W&N and Alex Layt for the review copy. All opinions are still my own.
To be perfectly honest, I wanted to read this book first and foremost because of its setting. I love Italy and I don’t read nearly enough books set there. I also really wanted to try a book by an Italian author as most of the translated literature I read is by Scandinavian authors, so I guess you could say I was looking to expand my horizons by reading Fidelity.
In that aspect, Fidelity did its jobs nicely. Set in beautiful Milan, Fidelity breathes Italy and I gobbled it up like a quattro stagioni pizza. I felt my own memories of the city come flooding back and that definitely made me appreciate the setting even more. I also loved the author’s writing style, and what the translator did with it: creating a story for an English-speaking audience to enjoy while still conveying the authentic Italian vibe. Not an easy feat.
However, I had some issues with Fidelity as well. I don’t know why but I was expecting more thriller elements thrown in there, and there weren’t. That’s all on me of course, that’s not the book’s fault, I should have read the synopsis more attentively. I was still happy to read it as contemporary fiction, never my go-to genre but I do like to mix genres, shake things up a bit.
Unfortunately, I soon came across an element that really bothered me, notably dog fights. It’s not a huge part of the story, but even the smallest mention of such things makes my skin crawl, and it was more than a mere side note. That didn’t quite gel with me and I considered DNF’ing right there and then. I didn’t, I hoped that particular topic would be dead and buried before long, and fortunately it was, but it did somewhat sour both my mood and the way I felt about this book.
Let’s talk about (in)fidelity for a moment. I’m usually not that bothered about infidelity in fiction, if I were I probably would not have picked up Fidelity. I was especially okay with it in this story, because both partners have the hots for other people. I was extremely grateful though that it never turned into any kind of Fifty Shades of Grey shenanigans. No offense, but erotica and stories bordering on erotica are just not my thing. The cover had me thinking that it might get sexy, but that if it did, it would be in a rather tasteful way, and in a way that furthered the plot instead of distracting from it, and I was very happy I was not deceived on that account. If anything it’s the psychological rather than physical relationship between the spouses that takes precedence over all else, and their relationships with their child and their parents. Rather than being overly explicit Fidelity speaks of temptation, of desire, of being seduced without actual seduction.
I ended up with mixed feeling about Fidelity. Turning the final page, I was glad that I’d stuck with it, as the story and its characters did grown on me and I ended up having a good time with it and them, but for me to love contemporary fiction means to love the characters and I never really got there. Fidelity sure has its strong points, but for me it missed a certain je-ne-sais-quoi, call it a spark, a bit of pizzazz.
Thanks to W&N and Alex Layt for the review copy. All opinions are still my own.
yonkers86's review against another edition
2.0
Che noia questi bianchi borghesi eterosessuali annoiati
josettep's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
bassbleu's review against another edition
3.0
Un libro di uomini scritto per uomini in cui involontariamente l’autore riesce a descrivere come lavora il victim blaiming nella mente dell’effettiva vittima nonostante il suo sia stato un ruolo secondario. Ci sono degli spunti interessanti ma sono rimasta solo coinvolta da Sofia e da come il suo flusso di coscienza fosse evidentemente una risposta al trauma subito e il cui l’artefice è un fallito di nome Carlo.