ThoughtGallery.org > 112th: Discussion of “A Family Lexicon” by Natalia Ginzburg

112th: Discussion of “A Family Lexicon” by Natalia Ginzburg

Natalia Ginzburg begins A Family Lexicon with an unusual disclaimer: “The places, events and people are all real. I have invented nothing. Every time that I have found myself inventing something in accordance with my old habits as a novelist, I have felt impelled at once to destroy everything thus invented.” In A Family Lexicon fiction is under the control of fact, and the result is a novel that re-creates the small world of a family enduring some of the most difficult years of the twentieth century—spanning the period from the rise of Mussolini through World War II, in which Ginzburg’s husband fought for the resistance and was killed by the Nazis—with passionate objectivity. Every family has its store of phrases and sayings by which it maintains its sense both of what it means to be a family and of what sets it apart as one particular family. This lexicon, these shared understandings, these stories, not by any means always to be relied on and sometimes not a little ridiculous, lie at the heart of a great novel about family and history.











When: Tue., May. 9, 2017 at 7:00 pm
Where: Book Culture
536 W. 112th St.
212-865-1588
Price: Free
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Natalia Ginzburg begins A Family Lexicon with an unusual disclaimer: “The places, events and people are all real. I have invented nothing. Every time that I have found myself inventing something in accordance with my old habits as a novelist, I have felt impelled at once to destroy everything thus invented.” In A Family Lexicon fiction is under the control of fact, and the result is a novel that re-creates the small world of a family enduring some of the most difficult years of the twentieth century—spanning the period from the rise of Mussolini through World War II, in which Ginzburg’s husband fought for the resistance and was killed by the Nazis—with passionate objectivity. Every family has its store of phrases and sayings by which it maintains its sense both of what it means to be a family and of what sets it apart as one particular family. This lexicon, these shared understandings, these stories, not by any means always to be relied on and sometimes not a little ridiculous, lie at the heart of a great novel about family and history.

Buy tickets/get more info now