★Italian bestseller, "The New York Times' Best Book of the Year", "The Sunday Times" Book of the Year, and "Kirkes Reviews" Best Novel of the Year. It has been translated into thirty-three languages and sold around the world.
★The Italian version of "Marriage Story" directly hits the pain points of people's lives and exposes the depression and pain of married life.
★The latest translation of "The Naples Quartet" by translator Chen Ying. Domenico Starnone is an Italian author, screenwriter and journalist. Born in Naples in 1943, he was a high school teacher before working for several Italian newspapers. In 2001, he won the Strega Prize, Italy's highest literary award, for his novel "Gemito Street". Several of his novels have been adapted into screenplays. In 2016, Italian media alleged that Domenico Starnone and his wife, literary translator Anita Laia, were the mysterious writer Elena Ferrante who became popular around the world with her Neapolitan tetralogy, but this was denied.
One hot summer day, Aldo and Wanda, who were in their twilight years, returned home from vacation at the beach and found that their home had been turned upside down, and even their beloved cat was missing. Who did it? Every family hides some secrets from the past. Aldo's secret is that he abandoned his wife and children when he was young and lived with a woman named Lidia. Through the tension, friction, and weight of ordinary life, the marriage survived, but the cracks were already there. If you look carefully, you will find that the cracks are obvious, just like a vase that has already cracked and will break when touched, but no one wants to admit it.
The famous Italian writer Domenico Starnone is not only a master of showing old age life, but also reveals the intricacies of marriage and family life with sharp and profound writing. This story of betrayal restores the whole story from three perspectives through the perspective of the husband, the perspective of the wife, and the memories of the two children, and also reveals the completely different and incommunicable situations experienced by everyone within the family.
Reader comments
What surprised me was: the cat jumped up and lay down next to me.
It's love.
After pushing away the messy hurt, torture, betrayal, hysterical parental relationship, and the impact of a family that is constantly cutting and reorganizing, there is a bit of pure and flawless love.
The kind that everyone longs for.
This book shocked me because the author is a male. I was shocked by the details of the dialogues, complex emotions, and the influence of the original family on the children in the pages he described. It's too delicate and too real to the point of being disgusting, and the flowing emotions are so real that I feel really uncomfortable. A father who avoids responsibility and a mother who suffocates, the suffering children are similar to their parents. It is the parents who destroy the house, and it is the children who ultimately destroy the house (in the physical sense).
Marriage is the overflow of love, and that overflowing love will begin to deteriorate in ordinary days, and then spread to the heart, and finally cause all love to collapse and become a pile of dregs, and everyone will feel pain when they step on it.
A very special book. He talked about the impact of one person's cheating on the entire marriage and even the family.
🍊🍊🍊What about the story? It is divided into three perspectives to write this story, from the mother's perspective, from the husband's perspective, and from the child's perspective. 🍋🍋🍋Looking at it from a mother's perspective, I think it's a feeling of collapse when watching it. It's just that he doesn't understand why her husband would suddenly abandon them to live with someone else. She has been trying to keep her husband. But the results were minimal, and he later became even more hysterical. He became more and more haggard and less and less like his old self. Later, her husband returned to the family because he wanted to have a relationship with the two children, but in fact he still liked his lover. In the process of getting along with these children, he would think about what his lover would do. It could be that he was born here and played with his children, but the new knight was always thinking about people outside. 🍀My perspective on my mother is that I feel that she is very dependent on her husband. As a housewife, he took care of everything at home and saved money for her husband to organize the family. Later, his husband cheated and he did not have a large financial foundation to raise his children.
🍋🍋🍋Her husband's perspective, when I watched it, I felt it was very hypocritical. He was with his wife because his wife had a very special charm at the time, but this charm actually remained after they got married. He just got used to it (I personally think) and he saw a woman who was more charming, more elegant, and more knowledgeable about etiquette. So he abandoned his wife and family. It can't be said that he abandoned it. On the one hand, he was dating that woman and on the other hand, he wanted to fulfill the so-called responsibilities of a father (he just wanted to fulfill the responsibilities of a father. I think because he didn't care much about his wife's thoughts. Although he would defend some of his wife's actions, he really didn't think he cared that much.) He was the kind of person who wants and wants at the same time. When he returned to the family later, his lover immediately pulled away, very calmly. However, at this time, he began to miss that person again, and even kept the person's photo in his home. Even though his wife is over 80 years old, she doesn't know that there are still such photos in his family. His children found out about them and didn't tell his mother.
🍒🍒🍒From a child's perspective, it is because of this that they become very fragile and sensitive. My brother has become very sentimental and can be said to be very similar to his father. I think it has become difficult for my sister to accept the feeling of marriage.
After reading this, you may have another feeling about marriage, which is that you may have to accept all these things and then enter into marriage with this person, otherwise your life after marriage will be like a piece of cake. You have to accept it all and be determined to completely pull away even if he cheats on you. And there must be an economic foundation. If you have no financial foundation to support you, it will be difficult for you to separate from him. And if you have a child, if you want to protect your child's normal needs, you will need to provide a lot financially.
I found some of the things the husband said in the book very disgusting because he did a lot of things and lied to his wife on the pretext that it was for his wife's benefit.
Every era has its own sadness. Is it a crime to follow your own destiny? Is it a crime to refuse to live a life that lowers your own value? Is it also a crime to fight against existing mechanisms and customs that suppress human nature? ~The original intention of the discussion
The story is told from four perspectives, and various contradictions are intertwined. The confusion makes people unable to stop imagining, guessing and thinking hard.
The broken vase has a flawless surface after careful repair, but the cracks are still there, but they are perfectly covered up. When a marriage no longer has love and passion, no longer has a common goal, and there is a gap between each other, with depression, guilt, flattery, resignation... And even reaching the other extreme of love, this hatred will last forever.
"I have been habitually filtering my emotions since I was a child. Since I was a child, I have learned to ignore my mother's pain because my father often tortured her." Reflecting the influence of the original ecological family, it is not unchangeable. An independent life comes from the improvement of self-awareness.
It's a very good book. Although it talks about marriage, it has very avant-garde ideas and is very suitable for young people like me to read. The book uses the perspectives of different characters to narrate the story, and the form of story expression is also unusual. A book with surprises.
The tone of the work is depressing, but I feel it attracts me to listen to it. A very detailed psychological description, written from the perspective of almost everyone affected by the incident, to write about the incident. The fatigue, length and boringness of marriage are written very vividly. You can feel the impact it has on everyone's life. People who are not married may be frightened and fear marriage after reading it. Those who are married can review their living conditions.
At the end, I finally understood why this book was named "Shoelaces".
In the native family, each shoelace is a shoelace tied to a pair of shoes, and the shoelaces of two shoes are tied to each other. Every family member is bound to each other to move forward, cherishing each other and tormenting each other. How lucky I am to be able to grow up with family members who are emotionally stable and optimistic. If you are unlucky, you have to heal yourself after a certain period of time.
This book truly shows the contradictions and secrets in married life. Like Aldo and Wanda in the book, their marriage cracked under the test of time. This reminds me of my parents, who also had quarrels and conflicts, but ultimately chose to persevere. This book made me understand that marriage requires management, understanding and tolerance. At the same time, it also makes me cherish the people around me more.
A man who can't control his lower body and is full of sophistry, a woman whose mental state is severely shaken after being injured and can never recover, a child who is broken in an unhealthy family relationship.
If you can't be responsible and you don't have to be faithful, then what's the point of getting married? Love, desire, or just a blinding impulse?
The father in the shoelace always talks about the tragedy of his childhood, so is he also used to such tragedy to cover up his mistakes? He doesn't want to be affected, so he abandons the marriage. He feels that this is all a family problem. Because he has suffered harm, he has a reasonable reason for the harm he has caused to others, and he enjoys these tragedies.
The same kind of hypocrisy and truth
Both the victim and the perpetrator
Many people say that they should not divorce for the sake of their children, so why not read this book.
Two people in a marriage deceive each other, and the two children are also subtly harmed in such a family. Perhaps this is the cold reality that many families have to face.
A relatively detailed analysis of the generational influence of the original family, the process and inheritance of personal emotions. Angle and structure speak louder than story.
A very good book is like looking in the mirror (with copper as a mirror, you can straighten your clothes)
A terrible man ruined an otherwise happy family. A middle-aged man cheated on a student who was many years younger than him and abandoned his wife and children. He wanted to follow the so-called trend of the times and pursue the so-called sexual freedom. He settled down in his new life of extramarital affairs and threw away all his past life. He didn't care about the life or death of his wife and children. What a selfish man. A few years later, he thought again He lost his children and returned to the family, but he can never go back. The harm he caused to everyone, his wife, and his children will exist forever. Even if this family is separated from each other, it still exists for a long time. I know that they are seventy years old, but what is the point of torturing yourself.
What surprised me was: the cat jumped up and lay down next to me. It's love. After pushing away the messy hurt, torture, betrayal, hysterical parental relationship, and the impact of a family that is constantly cutting and reorganizing, there is a bit of pure and flawless love. The kind that everyone longs for.
This book shocked me because the author is a male. I was shocked by the details of the dialogues, complex emotions, and the influence of the original family on the children in the pages he described. It's too delicate and too real to the point of being disgusting, and the flowing emotions are so real that I feel really uncomfortable. A father who avoids responsibility and a mother who suffocates, the suffering children are similar to their parents. It is the parents who destroy the house, and it is the children who ultimately destroy the house (in the physical sense).
Marriage is the overflow of love, and that overflowing love will begin to deteriorate in ordinary days, and then spread to the heart, and finally cause all love to collapse and become a pile of dregs, and everyone will feel pain when they step on it.
A very special book. He talked about the impact of one person's cheating on the entire marriage and even the family. 🍊🍊🍊What about the story? It is divided into three perspectives to write this story, from the mother's perspective, from the husband's perspective, and from the child's perspective. 🍋🍋🍋Looking at it from a mother's perspective, I think it's a feeling of collapse when watching it. It's just that he doesn't understand why her husband would suddenly abandon them to live with someone else. She has been trying to keep her husband. But the results were minimal, and he later became even more hysterical. He became more and more haggard and less and less like his old self. Later, her husband returned to the family because he wanted to have a relationship with the two children, but in fact he still liked his lover. In the process of getting along with these children, he would think about what his lover would do. It could be that he was born here and played with his children, but the new knight was always thinking about people outside. 🍀My perspective on my mother is that I feel that she is very dependent on her husband. As a housewife, he took care of everything at home and saved money for her husband to organize the family. Later, his husband cheated and he did not have a large financial foundation to raise his children. 🍋🍋🍋Her husband's perspective, when I watched it, I felt it was very hypocritical. He was with his wife because his wife had a very special charm at the time, but this charm actually remained after they got married. He just got used to it (I personally think) and he saw a woman who was more charming, more elegant, and more knowledgeable about etiquette. So he abandoned his wife and family. It can't be said that he abandoned it. On the one hand, he was dating that woman and on the other hand, he wanted to fulfill the so-called responsibilities of a father (he just wanted to fulfill the responsibilities of a father. I think because he didn't care much about his wife's thoughts. Although he would defend some of his wife's actions, he really didn't think he cared that much.) He was the kind of person who wants and wants at the same time. When he returned to the family later, his lover immediately pulled away, very calmly. However, at this time, he began to miss that person again, and even kept the person's photo in his home. Even though his wife is over 80 years old, she doesn't know that there are still such photos in his family. His children found out about them and didn't tell his mother. 🍒🍒🍒From a child's perspective, it is because of this that they become very fragile and sensitive. My brother has become very sentimental and can be said to be very similar to his father. I think it has become difficult for my sister to accept the feeling of marriage. After reading this, you may have another feeling about marriage, which is that you may have to accept all these things and then enter into marriage with this person, otherwise your life after marriage will be like a piece of cake. You have to accept it all and be determined to completely pull away even if he cheats on you. And there must be an economic foundation. If you have no financial foundation to support you, it will be difficult for you to separate from him. And if you have a child, if you want to protect your child's normal needs, you will need to provide a lot financially. I found some of the things the husband said in the book very disgusting because he did a lot of things and lied to his wife on the pretext that it was for his wife's benefit.
Every era has its own sadness. Is it a crime to follow your own destiny? Is it a crime to refuse to live a life that lowers your own value? Is it also a crime to fight against existing mechanisms and customs that suppress human nature? ~The original intention of the discussion The story is told from four perspectives, and various contradictions are intertwined. The confusion makes people unable to stop imagining, guessing and thinking hard. The broken vase has a flawless surface after careful repair, but the cracks are still there, but they are perfectly covered up. When a marriage no longer has love and passion, no longer has a common goal, and there is a gap between each other, with depression, guilt, flattery, resignation... And even reaching the other extreme of love, this hatred will last forever. "I have been habitually filtering my emotions since I was a child. Since I was a child, I have learned to ignore my mother's pain because my father often tortured her." Reflecting the influence of the original ecological family, it is not unchangeable. An independent life comes from the improvement of self-awareness.
It's a very good book. Although it talks about marriage, it has very avant-garde ideas and is very suitable for young people like me to read. The book uses the perspectives of different characters to narrate the story, and the form of story expression is also unusual. A book with surprises.
The tone of the work is depressing, but I feel it attracts me to listen to it. A very detailed psychological description, written from the perspective of almost everyone affected by the incident, to write about the incident. The fatigue, length and boringness of marriage are written very vividly. You can feel the impact it has on everyone's life. People who are not married may be frightened and fear marriage after reading it. Those who are married can review their living conditions.
At the end, I finally understood why this book was named "Shoelaces". In the native family, each shoelace is a shoelace tied to a pair of shoes, and the shoelaces of two shoes are tied to each other. Every family member is bound to each other to move forward, cherishing each other and tormenting each other. How lucky I am to be able to grow up with family members who are emotionally stable and optimistic. If you are unlucky, you have to heal yourself after a certain period of time.
This book truly shows the contradictions and secrets in married life. Like Aldo and Wanda in the book, their marriage cracked under the test of time. This reminds me of my parents, who also had quarrels and conflicts, but ultimately chose to persevere. This book made me understand that marriage requires management, understanding and tolerance. At the same time, it also makes me cherish the people around me more.
A man who can't control his lower body and is full of sophistry, a woman whose mental state is severely shaken after being injured and can never recover, a child who is broken in an unhealthy family relationship. If you can't be responsible and you don't have to be faithful, then what's the point of getting married? Love, desire, or just a blinding impulse?
The father in the shoelace always talks about the tragedy of his childhood, so is he also used to such tragedy to cover up his mistakes? He doesn't want to be affected, so he abandons the marriage. He feels that this is all a family problem. Because he has suffered harm, he has a reasonable reason for the harm he has caused to others, and he enjoys these tragedies.
The same kind of hypocrisy and truth
Both the victim and the perpetrator
Many people say that they should not divorce for the sake of their children, so why not read this book.
Two people in a marriage deceive each other, and the two children are also subtly harmed in such a family. Perhaps this is the cold reality that many families have to face.
A relatively detailed analysis of the generational influence of the original family, the process and inheritance of personal emotions. Angle and structure speak louder than story.
A very good book is like looking in the mirror (with copper as a mirror, you can straighten your clothes)
A terrible man ruined an otherwise happy family. A middle-aged man cheated on a student who was many years younger than him and abandoned his wife and children. He wanted to follow the so-called trend of the times and pursue the so-called sexual freedom. He settled down in his new life of extramarital affairs and threw away all his past life. He didn't care about the life or death of his wife and children. What a selfish man. A few years later, he thought again He lost his children and returned to the family, but he can never go back. The harm he caused to everyone, his wife, and his children will exist forever. Even if this family is separated from each other, it still exists for a long time. I know that they are seventy years old, but what is the point of torturing yourself.