I know I leave a lot of five star reviews, but this one is truly perfect. ( )

Natalia Ginzburg was born in 1914 in Palermo, Sicily to a family of scholars and intellectuals. She and her first husband worked in the Italian resistance until he was captured, tortured and killed by the Nazis. She went on to be an editor and novelist, essayist, playwright and short story writer but not until the 1950s. I originally heard mention of her when I started reading Vivian Gornick's essays.

This NYRB book contains two novellas that were originally published in 1957. Her spare direct prose and the use of a first person narrator to tell each story add to the compelling nature of the narrative. In Valentino, the family lives in a small rented apartment and Valentino's sister narrates the story of their lives. Valentino's father expects his son to become "a man of consequence." Unfortunately, Valentino is a preening, selfish and lazy buffoon and everyone can see he will not amount to anything. But that doesn't stop the family from hoping things will turn out well. This is a theme with Ginzburg that flows through both novellas.

In Sagittarius, the narrator, a daughter who lives in a flat with a roommate, tells the story that centers around her totally self involved mother, who pins her hopes on another daughter who is quite beautiful, although sickly. In the meantime, the mother is continually scheming how to make money because she has very little.

Both books have much in common, particularly that the young narrators are the only sympathetic characters in the book. They both center on disappointment, fraud, unsavory secondary characters, selfishness, death, betrayal, down at the heels people and downright wishful thinking. And that seldom works out. Beautifully written and translated, this book gave me plenty to mull over. I'll be reading more of Ginsburg's work. ( )

Of the two novellas in this book, I much preferred Sagittarius. Even though it was fairly obvious (and perhaps it was supposed to be) that something was going to go horribly wrong, the leadup was still great. The narrator's mother was so clearly a lonely and unhappy woman, she was ripe to be a scammer's victim. Still, it was not quite what I expected.

Valentino--meh. I have no interest in reading about the spoiled favorite son. Just not my kind of topic. ( )

Two novellas, each told by one of the daughters of the family in question. In the first, the younger daughter watches as her brother, imagined by his father to do great things, instead wastes his life and the lives of others. In the second, the older daughter watches as her mother's fantasies and self-importance only cause destruction. Ginzburg's steady, observant prose relates the tales without dramatic flourish but with great economy and imparts a certain gentleness to the narrators and to the fates of these two families. Lovely writing. ( )