I finished reading 70%
Acrylic 30% Wool by Viola Di Grado on 14 February; it is powerful and
darkly disturbing. Although I have
continued to read from A Voice From the
Attic, finished listening to Sissy Spacek reading To Kill a Mockingbird, and started listening to Team of Rivals, I have not been able to
begin reading another novel. I do not
like to begin reading a novel until I have written about the one just
finished. Writing about Di Grado’s novel
is difficult…challenging…painful.
Many of my friends do not like reading dark or disturbing
books; they explain the need to read for escape, for enjoyment…they want to get
away from the real world. I value any
reason for reading, and there are as many reasons for reading as there are
readers; however, I read to experience the lives of other minds, other worlds,
other times. I know what my world is
like; it is not a world of whirlwind romances, passionate sex, or happily ever
after marriages. From my friends I’ve
learned that marriages work because the partners work together. I want realism in my reading – not dream
worlds.
The world of Camelia in
70% Acrylic 30% Wool is the world of an Italian woman living in Leeds,
England. The weather seems to be a
never-ending winter. Her father died in
a car accident, and her mother no longer speaks; Camelia and her mother “speak”
through facial expressions. They are
suffering from verbal anorexia. There
are many strands to analyze in this novel:
hatred towards the father/husband, violation of women, multi-lingual
communication – Italian, English, Chinese, verbal and nonverbal plus the
language of clothing, and sex as a form of communication.
Despite the hope that breaks through at moments, the ending
of the novel is dark. Camelia says, “…if
you wanted a story where everything sounds right…You can fuck a story like that
all night and have yourself another one…Use it to mop the bathroom, that story
of yours, or I don’t know, to line the hamster’s cage” (199). In his NY Times review, Stephen Heyman
writes, “Your comfort does not interest her” and quotes Viola Di Grado as
saying, “If someone reads the book before bed and then can fall asleep, I think
I failed; literature has to make you stop sleeping.”
I did not finish reading this book before bed, and it left
me feeling respect for the author but needing to keep my thoughts focused on Camelia’s
world for some time. That is the mark of
excellent writing in my world. Viola Di
Grado was awarded the Campiello Prize (First Novel) in 2011 and short-listed
for Italy’s most important literary award, the Strega. This book drew me to the publisher’s webpage http://www.europaeditions.com/ searching
for more works by Di Grado, and led me to explore books by other authors. I have learned that some publishers never
disappoint me. House of Anansi, a
Canadian publisher, http://www.houseofanansi.com/
was the first I began to respect as I read more and more of their books. I believe Europa will also become a publisher
to rely on for new authors.
Di Grado, Viola. 70% Acrylic 30% Wool. translated by Michael Reynolds. New York: Europa Editions, 2012. Print
Heyman, Stephen. "Pale Fire." NYTimes.com. NY Times, 21 Oct. 2012. Web. 7 Feb. 2013.
You were correct in suggesting this book. I have read the first pages over and over delighted in the expression of language. I DO like disturbing books that keep me up past my bedtime. That is when I know that I have found a new author friend.
ReplyDeleteGlad to read this! Just writing my next review wondering if I would have liked this one more had I not read Di Grado's novel first.
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