Italian Sketches by Deirdre Pirro
Deirdre Pirro’s Italian Sketches: The Faces of Modern Italy is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to understand today’s Italy.
Pirro has hand-picked and highlighted 40 of the most influential personaggi from the following categories:
- Ideas and industry
- Show and business
- Politics and power
- Morality and corruption
- Words and music
- Fashion and style
She dedicates two to three pages to each person from the better known Federico Fellini and Enrico Caruso to the lesser-knowns such as Alfonso Bialetti, Aldo Moro, Bettino Craxi, and Giangiacomo Feltrinelli; Pirro expertly provides their personal stories and places them in the context of how they have influenced the Bel Paese. Leo Cardini’s striking illustrations complement the clean prose nicely.
Although there are countless books about the old days of Italy, Roman rulers and the like, this book is perfect for a relative newcomer to Italian history like myself. Italian Sketches gives the reader who hasn’t grown up in Italy some of that cultural knowledge that Italians just seem to know having been around it their whole lives.
Italian Sketches is a slim volume but it is packed with information about some of the most prominent icons of Italian contemporary culture. I absolutely love it — yes, present tense because I’ve been going back for small doses of this book for weeks, and I look forward to the next installment.
Indeed, this just might be the most valuable book I’ve read in my quest to become further entrenched in modern Italian culture, so I couldn’t give it any less than:
Five espresso cups out of five.
Italian Sketches: The Faces of Modern Italy by Deirdre Pirro is available from The Florentine Press and Amazon. If you’re interested in ordering directly from The Florentine Press, see first comment below for discount code!
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8 Beans of Wisdom to “Italian Sketches by Deirdre Pirro”
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thanks so much for enjoying and writing about our book!!
Tell ya what… if you’re reading this and want to order a copy for yourself, you can get 10% off this and our other books with this code at checkout: LAUNCHTFP
michelle Reply:
August 18th, 2011 at 8:22 am
Thank *you* Alexandra 🙂
Sounds interesting. For newcomers to Italy, a book about how the country works, or does not, can be a great help.
This book will also help newcomers become more familiar with the names which make the papers etc too.
Best,
Alex
michelle Reply:
August 18th, 2011 at 8:22 am
Lots of news-makers, indeed, and also quite a few names you’ve heard a million times but weren’t sure who they were or what they did. Really useful info!
Ciao Michelle – Thank you for posting. I receive the Florentine and don’t know how I missed learning about this book! I’ve ordered my copy from Amazon (since I already had account credit). Looks like a great book to share with our Italian Study Group! Can’t wait to receive it… 🙂 Grazie di nuovo!
michelle Reply:
August 19th, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Ciao Gina, hope you enjoy as much as I did (and continue to) 🙂
Thank you, Michelle, for your review of my book, I am so glad you are enjoying it as much as I enjoyed putting it together. Volume 2 on the way soon,
I also found your blog very interesting (which thanks to your review I have just discovered) and I will certainly continue to read it.
Best,
Deirdre
michelle Reply:
August 27th, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Thanks so much for coming by, Deirdre, and for filling me in on so much great info about Italian icons 🙂