APS TOGETHER
The City and the House by Natalia Ginzburg Day 12
January 16, 2021 | pp. 212-228 (through “I buy black underpants so that I won’t have to wash them so often.”)
“Long, beautiful silences, full of secret words. Sudden, silly bursts of laughter. Short, inconclusive phrases. Thoughts that got tangled up and went round in circles. Hair in my eyes. That constant sense of triumphant complicity.”
“That constant sense of triumphant complicity”–strangely refreshing words capturing the essence of an extramarital affair. Perhaps only someone like Lucrezia, with illusion about love, can articulate the illusory nature of a love affair.
“What a strange phrase stepdaughter is, I really cannot connect it with Chantel or with my relationship with her.”
Neither can Giuseppe make connection between “son” & Alberico, or “wife” & Anne Marie, or “love” & Lucrezia. For some, nouns must be closed doors.
Alberico writing about his film: “I enjoyed myself making it, but I don’t like it. However, if other people like it, so much the better.”
Like his father, Alberico is not susceptible to self-deception--a good reason to respect him as an artist.
