Italian Literature Book Group for March

The focus of the book group is fiction and non-fiction; books written by Italian authors (in translation); books written by any author, set in Italy, and books about Italy. It’s a large set, but one book generally leads in the direction of the next, so we won’t feel discombobulated. The moderator of the book club is Connie Bertuca, former high school English teacher, lover of books and Italian travel, and perpetual Italian 2 student.

 📚 The March 2023 Book Selection  -- Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (1883). Any translation, as long as it’s from the original story. There is an annotated, bilingual translation by Nicolas Perella that is supposed to be the best. It’s available on Amazon.

Pinocchio. A children’s story? A morality story? A fable, meant to teach honesty and staying on the correct path? All those things? We all probably were traumatized by the Disney cartoon of 1940 — and with lots of cartoon/movie versions since then, it seems to be a story that’s gotten stuck in our collective consciousness. I’d like to also discuss the newest version, the movie by Guillermo del Toro, out on Netflix now and soon to be in theaters, so if you can, please try to see it! I’ll also be sending a long essay from The New Yorker that got me thinking about reading it for Book Group.

Here’s a fun website with all the different versions of the story, rated.

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*the size of the group is limited to 10 members.  If you are not yet a paid member of Dante, sign-up here.  Now that we are beginning to meet in-person at someone's home (outside), everyone participating must be fully-vaccinated.