Sunday Morning! “Voices in the Evening” by Natalia Ginzburg

Rufus F.

Rufus is a likeable curmudgeon. He has a PhD in History, sang for a decade in a punk band, and recently moved to NYC after nearly two decades in Canada. He wrote the book "The Paris Bureau" from Dio Press (2021).

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3 Responses

  1. LeeEsq says:

    I’m reading a Sri Lankan novel called the Sweet and Simple Kind by Yasmine Gooneratne. Dr. Gooneratne is a Sri Lankan academic who specializes in Jane Austen. The Sweet and Simple Kind is a Jane Austen style drama, but with more of a focus on female friendship, set in mid-20th century Sri Lanka.

    My non-fiction reading is Alexandra Adieu which is written by an old Egyptian Jew reminiscing about the glory days of cosmopolitan mid-20th century Alexandria compared to the doughty Islamist present.

    Both are relating to something I’ve been thinking about recently. That is why are a substantial number of millennials and late Gen Xers very interested in the styles and places of the past. It could be the Regency period or the height of mid-20th century, but there seem to be decent number of thirty abs forty somethings that find the early 21st century lacking a certain elegance and sophistication. So they look for it in the past. The aren’t necessarily very right leaning in their politics but don’t like the aggressive informality of the present.Report

    • Rufus F. in reply to LeeEsq says:

      Yeah, I’ve noticed for a while how having an affinity for past aesthetics can be completely unrelated to politics, but is often taken for conservatism. I had this discussion with an older friend of mine a while back about the rockabilly folks. He seemed to think dressing like a 1950s greaser has to do with the alt-right. My considered point was that my band played shows on occasion with rockabilly revivalists and they seemed much more interested in records and clothes than anything political. Plus their girlfriends looked like Veronica Lake. In general, if you dress natty, you will attract people who also look good, which seems worthwhile.Report

  2. LeeEsq says:

    Correction, Alexandra Adieu is written by British journalist Abdel Darwish who was born to Albanian Macedonian parents in Alexandra.Report