Tuesday, September 27, 2022

June by Emmanuelle De Boysson

 When, less than a year ago I asked to Emmanuelle


which was the book she was writing, she said me: the biography of June wife of Henry Miller.

De Boysson post-poned the release of this book because of a massive health problem experienced months before: the author shared with her friends and readers everything of her health issues: back to her normality, she completed it and the launch of the book was just few days ago.


JUNE:


a biography, this one that will leave the reader sad and happy, at the end, because its'a a mixture of sadness, love, joy, but also controvertial feelings, and sacrifices.


The book opens when a jeep that arrives to the house of the brother of June, Peter, Arizona. June is not anymore in great health: she is a drug addicted, she suffers of bones problems because of multiple fractures. Although still in her 60s, she is a sick lady.

But...Memories flies in a distant past, when life appeared exciting and we discover a beautiful smiling girl,June, just 21 years: 1923 the year of her meeting with the man of his life: Henry Miller in a local where she worked in, called Amarillo. 

Henry is bewitched by this girl. An intelligent girl: she read Dostoïevski told him. Miller is surprised. Someone who read Fedor after all can't be poor. 

Realistically June was born in a South European country,  Roumanie, in Czernowitz precisely, but later her parents moved in Austria, Wien and in 1907 they left for the USA. She is a jew, but she tries to hide it for not being discriminate. 


Love between June and Henry is extremely sensual. It starts with some letters sent by him, direct, precious in the local where she works. It will be an extremely passionate love-story the one lived by them. Talking, June discovers that Henry works for the Western Union but that he is in love for writing. He would want to become a writer.

June loves his man and she strongly encourages him to continue his writings, leaving behind the work at the Western Union. 

Henry, anyway, is not alone. He is still married. His wife is Barbara and his daughter Beatrice, still little. He wants to divorce but dramas will accellerate this process, when the wife of Henry will find them to bed. 

Undecided, confused, strained for what happened, jealous of the first wife of the beloved writer, June will try to kill herself. 


Recovered, she will try to work for a theatrical company with the purpose of earning some money. She loves theater and she would want to become a star. At the same time Henry proceeds with the divorce. Their marriage will be modest but felt although a doubt will pass on her mind that first june 1924: Will, Val, as she called Henry, marry me for love? 

Why having doubts? Henry is a man of culture. curious, poetic. Her life with him plenty of joy, celebration and sensuality. 


They buy a new house, in a best corner of NYC, although it is pretty expensive. 

In the while, Henry reads Melville, Conrad and Whitman the poet of optimism. 


Considering that she doesn't earn a lot working as actress with that company, she tries again another local. 

Sacrifices in fact are many: from food to clothing, they couldn't buy anything. The Remo sounds the only alternative to starvation. Henry tries to collaborate with a newsmagazine, but he is rejected. Again and again. 


It's the Blue Parrot where she works that opens a world populated by gangsters, drug trafficking, politicians, corrupted people of every genre. In this multiform universe, there is also a strong population and community of gays and lesbians. 

She starts, for money to betray Henry. Henry accepts the state of thing, accepting prostitution as a necessity. And to him, the possibility to continue to writing. Emmanuelle describes it in this way: "Un accord tacite que Miller appellera d’ailleurs « prostitution efficace et légitimée » 


With that money she had the possibility to buy winter clothes, maintaining the husband. 


In this world she meets Jean. Jean is a female of strong character who will capture the attention of June. She will invite her to stay to their home. Henry accepts without any kind of enthusiasm the arrival of this guest. A guest who will become fundamental in this phase of June's existence and a person with which June she will start a sapphic love story. Henry will be devastated by this news, and he won't never accept these state of things. The two will spend a vacation in Paris together, but something will go wrong and June will return alone to NYC.


She will receive later a letter where someone explains her that Jean killed herself. 


June will be so sorry for this news.


At the same time the fertile imagination of Henry would want to write something on this love-story.


Oh: June is scandalized. She couldn't tolerate it.



At the same time, La Ville Lumieres fascinates her so badly and so she insists with Henry: you should go there she tells him.

And Henry accepts. At the same time June has a new and important lover in NYC. This lover promises her the release of a book signed by her. Henry wouldn't never want it...


Once in Paris, Henry Miller of course falls in love for Paris, and for the beautiful parisiennes. In particular for Anais Nin at that time married with a certain banker called Hugo. Anais is rich, generous and a lady tempted by men and women. The first time in Paris, June discovers the persisting courting of Anais. She becomes more insisting when she discovers that previously she had had a sapphic love with Jean.

Henry is worried. He wouldn't want a repetition of what seen in NYC with another lady.

But June loves and only loves Henry. The second time she will be to Paris, she will guess that something weird is going on between her husband and Anais. After all she had left him all alone in Paris...Anais would suggest a menage at trois, but June rejects it. It's the end of the love-story between June and Henry. 


Wonderfully written, as always Emmanuelle put all her french pathos in the description of all the possible shades of love.


Highly recommended.


Anna Maria Polidori 









Mumin S'innamora by Tove Jannson


 Mumin S'Innamora by Tove Jansson is the 21st latest adventure lived by Mumin. 

These books are relased by Iperborea. 


Who are the Mumin? They are a special family of trolls: but no, children, they are not scaring, are we joking? They are as cute as a hippo, and this tender family is special. Curious, opened to the world, eccentric, every adventure they live is singualr, entertaining and absolutley funny! Being tender, your children will be for sure captured by their adventures and I highly recommend their adventures and books to everyone, kid or adult. They are relaxing, they speak of good feelings: an important moment of escapism that will present us a good smile..


The creator of the Mumin, Tove, was finnish. His father was a sculpture, her mother an illustrator spending her time in Helsinki and a little island of his beautiful country. The world of childhood will fascinate her for the entire life.


Mumin is an avid reader, and this period is in love with the idea of romantic potential love-stories, neglecting because of his beloved books and fantasies the partner, their house.


A big flood will see Mumin as an indiscuss protagonist in saving the existences of several creatures who works in a Circus. Oh, will he meet the star of the Circus, called La Guna? Yes!!! What a joy. What a beautiful, stunning troll, what a class, oh, he is in love for her. The wife of Mumin becomes upset and will escape away. She can't tolerate that her husband is so ridiculous with that disgusting and capricious troll that La Guna is. 


La Guna and the wife of Mimun will start to make good friendship, deciding to live alone, separate from their males companions: same will do the males, the companion of La Guna and Mumin happy and cheerful to stay alone from their companions although at the end they will all make peace!


So sunny and funny.


Beautiful.


Anna Maria Polidori 










Saturday, September 17, 2022

Memorie del Sottosuolo di Fedor Dostoevskij

At the end of this book take a long breath. 

It will be necessary.


It's a strong, strong book this one by Fedor Dostoevskij Memorie del Sottosuolo translated by Paolo Nori.



Published by Garzanti, this book tells the story of a man of circa 40 years: a man bullied when little, deformed by the experiences and people met along his life, someone unable to love. 


Many the considerations of the author: in this case Fedor's character starts a personal dialogue with his readers. Readers that he wants to keep informed: readers that he wants to be real participants of his existence. An existence not beauty, not completely realized; a vicious existence sometimes. A life lived in the envy and jealousy for the Other. The character portrayed by Fedor has been bullied. Traumatized, lived his feelings in a dangerous distortion researching in the scholastic phase of his existence a friendship with someone just for having that person in his own power and control: the purpose, to move the friend against the rest of the classroom his main temptation.


Fedor writes that it is impossible to forgive, and that maybe we reach a point of our existence where we understand that we can't change our faith; we can't change who we are, and we can't expect anything else. 


There are heavy considerations of great actuality on the state of the world during the XIX century.

Blood is everywhere. Napoleon, the biggest and the littlest one defeated in Russia, the North-America.. But...Man became a best creature? No. Civilization maybe will help this new man to feel more pleasure in spreading always more blood. 


Fedor understands that, after all, the most sanguinary statesmen have been also the finest men existing in the world. Civiliziation means having a man much more disgustingly sanguinary than before.

There will be a moment in which questions wil disappear leaving the place to the answers. People will build a crystal palace: it will be the Bengodi Palace.


A long digression involves personal profit. Starting from the consideration that after all man is stupid and ungrateful: he will be influenced often by other men with original ideas. 


Man sometimes wants something stupid, but also something that it is not naturally in his own path. A different destiny: a different choice: the risk. The risk of an existence unplanned, keeping aside the planned options.


Man is a strange creature because would want to reach a goal but when it reaches this goal he isn't satisfied anymore and must search for something else because, simply he wouldn't want to reach that goal after all. I would want to add that reaching a goal means a stabilization that man maybe can't prove at long.


Is it realistically true, asks Fedor that wellbeing, but also what it is normal and positive is great for man? Maybe man wants also to suffer: maybe sufferance is more important than wellbeing. 


There are things that we can tell to everyone: others that we can tell to real friends: other ones to ourselves but in secret and other ones that we wouldn't want to confess to ourselves.  


Every man of this time is a slave and a coward and can't be the opposite. It's a nature-law this one. If someone tries to be corageous, the next time will be a coward. This one writes Fedor is an aeternal conclusion. 


But who is the Romantic man in Russia? Oh, certainly someone distant from the german perception. Russian romantic understands everything, and, mainly he is a practical man.


One day this character will invite himself to spend a dinner with some old friends: he will end-up drunker, will meet Liza, a tender 20 years old girl: Liza will search again for him but he was disgusting with her, leaving in the reader the idea that, after all, this man doesn't deserve anything beauty in his life.  


I liked this book, but at the same time this character devastated me because there are not excuses. A person can have experienced a sad past, being bullied at school, having met wrong people, but no one should become an ugly (inside) person as this character is. It should be the opposite: a person of light, an example to everyone l


Highly recommended book.


Anna Maria Polidori 







 

Sunday, September 04, 2022

La Sposa della Seta by Oswald Wynd

 La Sposa della Seta


by Oswald Wynd published by Garzanti is an interesting book. When I started to reading it I found similarities with a non-fiction book published by Columbia Press and written by Vishakha N.Desai World as Family. In fact, both these protagonists, one of them Japanese, the fictional one Omi, and Vihakha, a real Indian lady, left the comfort zone of their countries for studying in the USA, and once returned home they were changed forever. 


Omi, a Japanese girl studying in the USA appreciateds a lot the Western philosophy of living and once returned in her country, she understands that very differently from the moment in which she left the country for the USA, there is a big closure and diffidence regarding the USA. 


The winds of war are mounting: her parents, opened-minded, returned to be pretty traditional Japanese folk, asks her to marry someone that they would have picked up. Omi is insofferent: she wants to live a different and more free existence and she doesn't recognize her country. So, she makes friendships with a woman who, later will be arrested. Being sunspected, because friend of this lady, but because she had an important father, Omi won't be arrested but will live a sort of exhile in the countryside, where the family has a house. There, she will study, she will live isolated, she will write a lot, she will have a brief relationship. Once returend she marries Ishii, a man in the silk business, and although her relationships with the husband are good, and they have a baby the husband is hiding something crucial. At the same time World War Second starts, and Japan enters in war. A war that will see the biggest destruction with the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: that's why Japan decided that it was better to end that war. These bombs apart, also some relatives of Omi died because of the horror of war. In that moment the husband of Ishii will take an important decision, like also Omi that will kill someone close to her from a life, for protecting the memory of her husband and doing what asked to her.


Intense, beauty.


Highly recommended. 


I thank Garzanti for the physical copy of the book.


Anna Maria Polidori