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Loading... After Hannibal (SIGNED) (original 1996; edition 1996)by Barry Unsworth
Work InformationAfter Hannibal by Barry Unsworth (1996)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. The novel centers around a country road which serves several homes in the Umbrian countryside. We get to know something about the people in each of the five households on the road, along with a few outsiders they come in contact with. Several of the houses are owned by people who are from other countries (a German, an English couple, a pair of American retirees), and the final two are occupied by Italians. Drama kicks off in the beginning with the collapse of part of the wall along the road, which the farmers on the corner insist was caused by trucks going to the English couple's house. Meanwhile, the Americans are dealing with some unsavory business practices in the repair and remodeling of their dream home, and various domestic intrigues play out in different households. The "male gaze" as a filter for the observance of women is a well-known concept; I think that similarly there is a "foreign gaze" through which Italy is often observed. (I have no doubt it happens to other countries as well, but Italy seems to be so idealized, particularly by Americans.) Unsworth does a great job of presenting that here. An example from early in the book, from the point of view of the British wife: "She felt guilty at feeling like this about them [the farmers expecting them to repair the wall], as they were contadini, peasants, and therefore very authentic people and by definition admirable." For a while I felt like Unsworth might have swung too far the other way in making the Italians overall not very nice or trustworthy people, but in the end I think it ended up, if not balanced, at least with some positives. Bottom line: There is more of a culture gap than you might think from vacationing in the large cities and going to museums. Also, Italy is not the answer to your dreams. (Note: apparently this was partially based on Unsworth's own experiences settling in the area of Perugia. He did stay in the country until he died, though, so apparently it worked out for him.) no reviews | add a review
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HTML:Golden Umbria is home to breathtaking scenery and great art; it is also where Hannibal and his invading band of Carthaginians ambushed and slaughtered a Roman legion, and where the local place-names still speak of that bloodshed. Unsworth's contemporary invaders include the Greens, a retired American couple seeking serenity among the Umbrian hills, who are bilked out of their savings by the corrupt English "building expert" Stan Blemish; the Chapmans, a British property speculator and his wife, whose dispute with their neighbors over a wall escalates into a feud of nearly medieval proportions; Anders Ritter, a German haunted by the part his father played in a mass killing of Italian hostages in Rome during the Second World War; and Fabio and Arturo, a gay couple who, searching for peace and self-sufficiency, find treachery instead. And at the center of all these webs of deceit and greed is the cunning lawyer Mancini, happy to aid the disputantsâ??and to exploit to the fullest the faith that these "innocents abroad" have placed in h No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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I eventually browsed the last fifty pages, it was just too cynical for me. Unsworth was British and lived in Umbria late in his life causing some reviewers to claim that this was based on his Tuscan experiences. Maybe so, on the last page he writes "But the real thief of dreams was generally not the one you feared but the one you trusted. ( )