Comments on: Valeria Parrella: For Grace Received http://mookseandgripes.com/reviews/2009/10/29/valeria-parrella-for-grace-received/ Book reviews of contemporary literary fiction and modern classics. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 04:33:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Max Cairnduff http://mookseandgripes.com/reviews/2009/10/29/valeria-parrella-for-grace-received/comment-page-1/#comment-4562 Max Cairnduff Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:57:36 +0000 http://mookseandgripes.com/reviews/?p=2586#comment-4562 Trevor, I took a look at this recently, but unfortunately wasn't taken by the translation, which seemed to use a lot of Americanisms from the passage I read which sat oddly for me in a text set in Europe. A doctor was called Doc, a woman was addressed as Ma'am, both of which I found very jarring as those terms just aren't used in Europe and there isn't really much of an equivalent in Italian for either. Am I being unfair? May I ask how you found the translation? Trevor,

I took a look at this recently, but unfortunately wasn’t taken by the translation, which seemed to use a lot of Americanisms from the passage I read which sat oddly for me in a text set in Europe. A doctor was called Doc, a woman was addressed as Ma’am, both of which I found very jarring as those terms just aren’t used in Europe and there isn’t really much of an equivalent in Italian for either.

Am I being unfair? May I ask how you found the translation?

]]> By: Trevor http://mookseandgripes.com/reviews/2009/10/29/valeria-parrella-for-grace-received/comment-page-1/#comment-4316 Trevor Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:12:49 +0000 http://mookseandgripes.com/reviews/?p=2586#comment-4316 Max, I definitely think you should read this book, then. I'd love to hear your reaction to "Run" in particular. Max, I definitely think you should read this book, then. I’d love to hear your reaction to “Run” in particular.

]]> By: Max Cairnduff http://mookseandgripes.com/reviews/2009/10/29/valeria-parrella-for-grace-received/comment-page-1/#comment-4313 Max Cairnduff Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:20:51 +0000 http://mookseandgripes.com/reviews/?p=2586#comment-4313 I studied Italian in Naples as it happens, it's a city I'm very fond of though it has huge problems. When I was there tourists were untouchable, the Camorra lost too much money if a tourist was mugged and then called in the police so they were left alone, even though I was staying in the heart of the Spaccanapoli where my Italian friends wouldn't go. I recall the night I arrived I was so tired I asked directions from a street gang, they were so dumbfounded that I'd approached them that they gave them. There were darker sides though, apart from the appalling organised crime which is horrific and among the worst in Western Europe, the gang violence and before I was there (and now again I think) bag-snatchers who operated in pairs on mopeds snatching handbags from tourists (that was what led to the ban on bothering tourists - a Japanese woman had her bag grabbed but didn't manage to let go, she was dragged behind the moped and had her brains dashed out on the cobbles, killing her). Anyway, Europa Editions are excellent aren't they? From what I've seen they do a mix of European literary fiction and European noir, I'm very fond of them for both. And a lovely review, like you I'm not sure about that last quote, but given my love of Naples I do have to check this one out. I studied Italian in Naples as it happens, it’s a city I’m very fond of though it has huge problems. When I was there tourists were untouchable, the Camorra lost too much money if a tourist was mugged and then called in the police so they were left alone, even though I was staying in the heart of the Spaccanapoli where my Italian friends wouldn’t go. I recall the night I arrived I was so tired I asked directions from a street gang, they were so dumbfounded that I’d approached them that they gave them.

There were darker sides though, apart from the appalling organised crime which is horrific and among the worst in Western Europe, the gang violence and before I was there (and now again I think) bag-snatchers who operated in pairs on mopeds snatching handbags from tourists (that was what led to the ban on bothering tourists – a Japanese woman had her bag grabbed but didn’t manage to let go, she was dragged behind the moped and had her brains dashed out on the cobbles, killing her).

Anyway, Europa Editions are excellent aren’t they? From what I’ve seen they do a mix of European literary fiction and European noir, I’m very fond of them for both.

And a lovely review, like you I’m not sure about that last quote, but given my love of Naples I do have to check this one out.

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