Tuesday, March 27, 2018

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Trick; Domenico Starnone


Every Tuesday Vicki @ I'd Rather Be at the Beach now hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where readers share the first paragraph, maybe two, of a book that they are reading or plan to read soon. 

Just take a look at this awesome cover art, doesn't that make you curious for more?

Trick; Domenico Starnone
Europa Editions - 2018

(Description)Trick is a stylish drama about ambition, family, and old-age that goes beyond the ordinary and predictable. Imagine a duel between two men. One, Daniele Mallarico, is a successful illustrator who, in the twilight of his years, feels that his reputation and his artistic prowess are fading. The other, Mario, is Daniele's four-year-old grandson. Daniele has been living in a cold northern city for years, in virtual solitude, focusing obsessively on his work, when his daughter asks if he would come to Naples for a few days and babysit Mario while she and her husband attend a conference. Shut inside his childhood home―an apartment in the center of Naples that is filled with the ghosts of Mallarico's past―grandfather and grandson match wits as Daniele heads toward a reckoning with his own ambitions and life choices.
Outside the apartment, pulses Naples, a wily, violent, and passionate city whose influence can never be shaken.
Trick is a gripping, brilliantly devised drama, "an extremely playful literary composition," as Jhumpa Lahiri describes it in her introduction, by the Strega Prize-winning novelist whom many consider to be one of Italy's greatest living writers.

(Intro)
"One evening Betta called, crankier than usual, wanting to know if I felt up to minding her son while she and her husband took part in a mathematics conference in Cagliari.  I'd been living in Milan for a couple of decades, and the thought of decamping to Naples, to the old house I'd inherited from my parents, and where my daughter had been living prior to getting married, didn't thrill me.  I was over seventy and, having been a widower for some time, had lost the habit of living with others.  I only felt comfortable in my own bed and in my own bathroom.  Furthermore, I's undergone, a few weeks earlier, a small surgical procedure which, even in the clinic, seemed to have done more harm than good  Though the doctors poked their faces day and night into my room, to tell me that everything had gone fine, my hemoglobin was low, my ferritin was poor, and one afternoon, I saw small black heads, plaster-white, stretching toward me from the opposite wall..............................................
(stopping here as this is an extremely long intro)

What do you think? Would you read more?

21 comments:

  1. I like the writing and love the premise of grandfather/grandson relationship is intriguing. Love the pics of you and your grands!

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    1. Thanks Nise, those little girls are such fun! I do like reading books with older characters - hard to find though.

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  2. Wow, I am now very curious! Love the cover, and that intro pulled me into the narrator's thoughts and feelings. Thanks for sharing...and for visiting my blog.

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    1. Glad you liked the intro, I was pulled in right away as well.

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  3. I'm in! I haven't been to Naples since I finished the Neapolitan Quartet.

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    1. I do like stories set in Italy. I think you will enjoy this one (even though I just started it).

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  4. Thank you for bringing this book to my attention. Europa publishes really good novels in translation, of which I have enjoyed many. That cover is absolutely gorgeous and puts me in mind of the cover of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.

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    1. The cover really drew me in but the translation is very good as well.

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  5. The intro was good but dang it was long!

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    1. It was twice as long as what I posted Brian thats why I only gave part of it LOL

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  6. This sounds like a delightful story. I recently babysat my granddaughter for nine hours and was worn out by the end of the day. I'd read this just to see how the grandpa handled the challenge!

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    1. Sandra, I know what you mean, those little ones have way too much energy LOL

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  7. This sounds interesting. See what we are featuring at Girl Who Reads

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  8. Interesting, detailed beginning! I am curious now about this book.

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  9. I love that cover and, yes, I often judge a book - before I read it - by the cover. I am curious now.

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    1. I just finished this and liked it, but, TIES, by the same author was even better IMO.

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  10. I like the detailed beginning myself.

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Thanks for taking the time to visit and double thanks for any comments. If you ask a question in your comments, I will try to reply to it here, or by email if your settings allow me to do so. Thanks again for visiting.