Lorenza PieriBesprekingen
Auteur van The Garden of Monsters
Besprekingen
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The book blurb describes this as a "war between families," but I'd say it was more a novel about two families who were frenemies, with the lower class famiglia Biagini usually getting the short end from the upper class famiglia Sanfilippi. If there is a main character, it's Sauro's teenage daughter Annamaria--intelligent, observant, anxious and so naïve. Filippo has a daughter the same age--thin, blonde ballerina Lisa. There is a cast of other family members, some with sizeable story tangents. But of the other characters, none is more important than Niki de Saint Phalle, a French-American artist who is creating a garden of massive sculptures nearby. This is the "Garden of Monsters" in the title, named thusly because the locals saw this as a folly and didn't recognize as having value. Annamaria visits this garden while it's under construction, and gets to know the artist, and these encounters spur her self-confidence and growth.
The Garden of Monsters has been described as a bildungsroman, and I agree it would be if only the novel were tighter and focused on Annamaria. However, it wandered off on tangents about several other characters, so maybe I'd call it a bildungsroman with tangents about adultery, discovering sexuality, disappointing sons, bribing politicians, anxious parents, historical background, and so on.