Post-40 Bloomer: Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
...
30 December 2011
My piece on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa‘s The Leopard is up today at The Millions.
I found it surprisingly difficult to write. I suppose that when a book strikes you dumb, when it’s doing so many beautiful wonderful things, it is very difficult to write about.
(Love this Italian book jacket)
What I didn’t include in the piece, because I couldn’t figure out how to do so without it seeming a non sequitur, is the fantastic dog character (Bendicò) who, it turns out, Lampedusa himself felt was “a vitally important character and practically the key to the novel.” The novel in fact closes with an image of Bendicò.
Speaking of which, stay tuned for my “Dogs of Buenos Aires” photo-post, coming up soon.
