Patrizia Poli
Bio
Patrizia Poli was born in Livorno in 1961. Writer of fiction and blogger, she published five novels.
Stories (194/0)
The Bardi Caffè
There was not only the Michelangelo café in Florence, headquarters of the Macchiaioli, in which Renato Fucini recited his sonnets amid general hilarity, together with his friend Edmondo de Amicis, there were also the Livorno cafés, meeting places for artists and writers, where cultural ferment and avant-gardes were boiling.
By Patrizia Poliabout 17 hours ago in Humans
Evelyn and I
I never talk to people who look at me like that, this afternoon I struck up a conversation only because things are about to change. — Ok- I said — Evelyn and I are Siamese, joined by the pelvis. See? Here — I pointed out — where you people have your navel.
By Patrizia Poli4 days ago in Fiction
Ilaria Vitali, "La casa ai confini del tempo"
All those who have approached Ilaria Vitali’s “The house on the edge of time” have spoken of a bildungsroman, of the end of childhood and, above all, of the perfect mimesis of childish language, as can be found, for example, in in the books of Niccolò Ammaniti or the Neapolitan writer Ida Verrei. In my opinion, however, it is a much more literary operation. The style of the text, in its artificial simplicity, is absolutely, exquisitely, refined, there is no realism or adherence to childish speech or thought, but rather a surrealism rich in symbols, allegories: a thought-out form, which does not leave nothing to chance, and is poetic and not at all childish.
By Patrizia Poli5 days ago in Humans
Riccardo Marchi
Riccardo Marchi (1897–1992) is truly a forgotten character in the Italian literary scene, in internet you find very little about him. Yet Riccardo Marchi has been compared by critics to Tozzi, Verga and Capuana, for the realism of the description and for his being a student of the folklore and traditions of Livorno.
By Patrizia Poli7 days ago in Humans
Byron in Livorno
“In 1822 for six weeks Lord George Byron lived in Montenero, the most famous of the poets of modern England. He lived in the Dupouy villa now De Paoli, and according to what is said, in the room in the corner between the main front and the western side of the villa itself. At the bottom of this room is a small alcove where the bed occupied by Byron was located. (…) Together with Byron Count Ruggero Gamba had come to Montenero with his son Pietro and his daughter Teresa, married to Count Guiccioli, with a retinue of servants from parts of Romagna. On them, because belonging to the secret society of the Carbonari, the Tuscan police was very vigilant. Lord Byron was also an unwelcome guest, of whom not only the ardently liberal ideas were known, but also the disordered and incorrect life and nature intolerant of every restraint and submission “Pietro Vigo.
By Patrizia Poli8 days ago in Humans
Angelica Palli
Anghelikì Pallis (1798–1875), daughter of the consul, as well as director of the Greek school, in Livorno, was born to both Hellenic parents. She studied with Maestro de Coureil (who was of French origin but died in Livorno). She inherited her love for literature and the classics from her father and began to versify from adolescence. She wrote poems, short stories, tragedies, novels. Her Tieste, dated 1814, deserved the praise of Monti. In 1919 she became a member of the Labronica Academy, with the name of Zelmira.
By Patrizia Poli9 days ago in Humans
Amedeo Modigliani: Art in Human Hands
Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) was born in Livorno, from Sephardic Jews. His father is an impoverished money changer, there are cases of depression in the family, a brother is imprisoned. Mined by the tbc since he was a child, he is stubborn, independent, very good at drawing, he becomes a pupil of Guglielmo Micheli and knows Giovanni Fattori and Silvestro Lega.
By Patrizia Poli10 days ago in Humans
Mario Grasso, "Latte di cammella"
The mistake of Mario Grasso’s “Latte di Cammella” is to give in to the temptation of narrative, wanting to give a captivating look to what should only be reportage, a brutal denunciation. The beginning of the novel, with the journalist Vanni Ossarg who has a premonitory dream and then meets disturbing characters in a ruined, misty and timeless village, seems to plunge the reader into a paranormal thriller, to then immediately catch him by the hair and throw him into matter of investigative journalism. Vanni Ossarg will go to Somalia and then to Sierra Leone, narrating what he sees in his own way. Beyond the completely different content, the way of exposing is that of “The Celestine prophecy”, in a mix between essay and narrative, in an accumulation of dialogues, meetings, illuminations and indoctrination of the reader.
By Patrizia Poli11 days ago in Humans
Ignazio Silone, "Pane e vino"
“Wine and Bread” by Ignazio Silone, aka Secondo Tranquilli (1900- 1978), published in the final Mondadori edition in 1955, is part of the southern narrative of the 1930s, very different from the realist one of the end of the 19th century, that is, that of Verga, Capuana and de Roberto.
By Patrizia Poli11 days ago in Humans
Giuseppe Benassi, "Omicidio a Calafuria e altri putiferi"
He deliberately risks the intolerance of the reader, Giuseppe Benassi, in this “Murder in Calafuria and other rucksus”, a destructured crime story, without investigations and without logical deductions, set in a Livorno where only streets and monuments are real, populated by an undergrowth of erotomaniac characters who practice orgies and couple swapping.
By Patrizia Poli13 days ago in Humans
Mark Haddon, "Lo strano caso del cane ucciso a mezzanotte"
Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is one of those unputdownble narratives that keep both the inveterate and the occasional reader glued to the book, in spite of those who curl their lips and raise their eyebrows in front of a novel which is read all in one breath. What catches and affects the stomach is the point of view. The story is told by Christopher, a boy suffering from Asperger’s syndrome, a form of savant autism. Christopher has the intelligence of a computer, he can do very complicated calculations in his mind but he is completely unprepared, naive and defenseless, in front of life. With his few means, highly developed intellect and extremely fragile emotion, he will have to solve a mystery, the incomprehensible killing of Wellington, the neighbour’s dog. He will dive into the investigation with the same rational and analytical spirit of his beloved Sherlock Holmes, but the investigation will take an unexpected turn, it will force him to dig even in his own life, in the relations between his father and his mother, to come to terms with the absence of the maternal figure, to face risks and descend into the metropolitan underworld and then go back to the light of the stars.
By Patrizia Poli15 days ago in Humans
Vikings
Very well constructed series, signed by Michael Hirst, Vikings, even if too modern in the visual system, in the hairstyles and make-up. The protagonists look more like rock stars, for their movements and expressions, rather than ancient Norse. But the reconstructions of the environment are meticulous and effective, the characters many and well designed: the blind soothsayer, Ragnar’s five children, the crazy visionary Floki, the strong-willed Lagertha, the wicked Aslaug, the just and strong Ragnar Lothbrok and a myriad of others.
By Patrizia Poli16 days ago in Geeks
