Dragna reviewed Fever by Jonathan Bazzi
Oh so human
5 stars
I loved everything about this book. The tale Jonathan had to tell, the way he told it, the sheer humanity of it. The pace of each chapter, and the narrative technique of a life's tale catching up to a moment. Absolutely magical.
I'm also a first generation American, my father having emmigrated from the Veneto region during WWII to Boston. Even just in the cadence and tempo you can feel the 'italianess' dripping from every sentence. There's just an attitude that jumps out from the pages that reminds me so much of my household when my grandparents lived with us when I was younger. Mine were nono and noni, not nonno and nonna, but the conversations, the casual sexism, the family structure requirements, they were all the same.
This book made me cry in pain, and feel all warm and fuzzy with its familiarity, all wrapped in the most beautiful …
I loved everything about this book. The tale Jonathan had to tell, the way he told it, the sheer humanity of it. The pace of each chapter, and the narrative technique of a life's tale catching up to a moment. Absolutely magical.
I'm also a first generation American, my father having emmigrated from the Veneto region during WWII to Boston. Even just in the cadence and tempo you can feel the 'italianess' dripping from every sentence. There's just an attitude that jumps out from the pages that reminds me so much of my household when my grandparents lived with us when I was younger. Mine were nono and noni, not nonno and nonna, but the conversations, the casual sexism, the family structure requirements, they were all the same.
This book made me cry in pain, and feel all warm and fuzzy with its familiarity, all wrapped in the most beautiful translation imaginable (shoutout to Alice Whitmore who absolutely deserves credit on this page).