zaireeka

I'm sorry, but I can't access external content such as the link you've provided. However, if you can share the text directly here, I'll be happy to help translate it.

As was once said around here, Chapeau.

Here, this is another one of the "somewhat valuable" users that Deb has culpably let slip away (due to "laziness" or more serious issues)... What a shame.

The grades

I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from reading it, but in this book (somewhat "esoteric," perhaps unbeknownst to Baricco ;-)...) there is, in my opinion, much more than what is recounted in this review, especially from a philosophical perspective (as suggested by the allusions to Chesterton, the protective deity of Borges, in the early pages of the novel). Drawing on themes already addressed in Oceano Mare, I believe it can be read as a treatise on philosophical Idealism. After all, Mr. Gwyn's relationship with Rebecca and the others (the subjects of his "portraits") is not much different from what men usually have with God. We long to know the true "final" meaning of our lives as conceived by Him ("our true face before the world was made," as Yeats would say) through a "surrogate awakening" in life (including a yearning for "physical" contact with God, similar to what Rebecca and others would like to have with Mr. Gwyn), before arriving at the definitive "awakening" brought about by our death (when all the light bulbs have truly gone out...). And what does this awakening consist of? It consists in discovering that the universe is all in our minds (the mind of God). That we are not just characters, but we are the entire story (the story of God), which, at best, the world truly cannot exist without us and is "created" (through a slow "remembering" of the final meaning of our lives) and "takes meaning" thanks to us (see the discussion on reconstructing time made in Denmark over the last 64 years in the final pages of the book). Let's say that in all of this there is also a fair bit of Buddhism (like that in Malick's Tree of Life, of which Baricco seems to be a certain admirer) and Gnosticism. Not to mention daring metaphorical flights à la Buzzati. I hope I haven't dissuaded too many people from reading it, and, at best, intrigued them further.

Sure, go ahead and do it YOURSELF, harm. After all, it's Christmas...

Go ahead, hurt yourself!!!

I especially like the cover, very cheerful and Christmas-like, above all.

Apart from the true progressive, I like music that is simple, cheerful, uplifting, and especially Christmas-themed, so this album is just perfect for me!!!

All the albums by Bluvertigo are noteworthy, including this one. Acidi e Basi really impressed me when I listened to it for the first time (after all, Morgan and his mates were just kids back then...)