Camere separate by Pier Vittorio Tondelli

While being absolutely a “gay novel” inasmuch as it concerns itself with gay life (Leo and one Really, I cannot say enough good about this book. What more would you say about it? What makes it worth reading? You indicated that the book is wise, and you seem to like it. This is raw, but I know it’s a feeling that many gay men have had at some point, if it’s not their default-a sensation that we are never living out the dream thatĮverything in society tells us is “paradise.” That’s reserved for straights.

At one point, he says: “Ancora una volta il paradiso è sempre per gli altri” (Once again, paradise isĪlways for other people). See his sexuality as inextricably linked with his vocation as a writer, as one who looks on. Not the “norm.” As Tondelli explains beautifully, this psychology leads to the creation of the consummate artist, one who lives largely in the imagination-for better and for worse. I do believe that this reflects a type of gay sensibility that is not uncommon, even if it’s But even in Italy in 1989, the narrator sees that he is something of an oddball in the gay world, and that he has in fact alwaysīeen the consummate outsider, one who stands on the sidelines and observes more than he participates. Leo is not a gay man who dreams of marriage and This all resonated with me, but I’m not sure it’s a view of gay life that would be widely seen as desirable in 2021. “separate rooms,” who ultimately decides that emotional intimacy is more important to him than sex, and that he wants to have a family of gay men around him without necessarily being in a It is a remarkably frank and detailed portrait of a particular type of gay man-one who is profoundly solitary, who decides that he could never live with a lover but that they must always have It is immensely wise, perceptive, forgiving, moving. This is definitely not a book to read if you’re looking for plot. Moves forward into this post-Thomas existence, he reviews their relationship, and his gay life more generally. But also with Life: What’s it all about? What role does love play in his life? As he The rest of the book isĮssentially an account of Leo’s attempts to come to terms with Thomas’s death, and with Death more generally. It opens with the main character, Leo, being called to Munich to say goodbye to his former lover, Thomas, who is dying. What is this landmark Italian gay novel about? and I’d picked up the book while in Italy in 2008, and. and there’s a pandemic, and not a lot happening. It was a landmark novel in the rather thin field that is Italian gay literature. So the Italian title is the one IĪren’t there enough books available for you in the English language? I read it (somewhat laboriously) in Italian. It’s not actually in print anymore in the English translation. A novel by Italian writer Pier Vittorio Tondelli, first published in 1989.

Camere separate by Pier Vittorio Tondelli