So, the linnet of the title is both a real one and a metaphor. Let's see what the lamentation will be about.

One big difference compared to the other book from Ortese I read, which was a collection of short stories, is that when given enough space for describing she just went wild with it. Still, when I can manage to sit down and read the book it's genuinely gripping.

Starting again, since I had a long-ish break since last time I read it, and also so that I can go with some detailed personal thoughts about the book.

The first chapter is very solid and striking, with the first paragraphs sounding a bit like a fairy tale, only to have Ortese's narration constantly undercut it by noting that it's still the real world - at one point there's a very prosaic mention of the fact that the streets smellled like manure, due to the fact that the time horse carriages were still the main means of transportation. It feels a bit as if she's constantly going "Just keeping it real, son". However, the sarcastic edge gets a bit lost due to the very flowery prose - if the intention was to be sarcastic at all, but I'll see as I go further on with the book.

And speaking about the writing, in some descriptions Ortese just overuses commas, almost as if she got paid by the number of them she put in the manuscript. Even for a language like Italian, that allows for much longer sentences than English, it's a bit too much.

Doing another roll without having finished the previous book, because why not.

35. Has been adapted as a movie / In a language other than English

Sadly I don't have any books that fit those two criteria (technically there's "La briscola in cinque", but it's less than 200 pages). I'm just going to pick "Il Cardillo Addolorato", and next time I'll just have a single roll.

Also, would it be too late to try and jump on the Booklikes-opoly challenge?

Born in Rome in the year 1914, Anna Maria Ortese grew up in southern Italy (primarily Naples) and in Lybia, the fifth of nine children of a soldier's family often short on money. Like many poor girls of her generation, Ortese left school at age thirteen, initially with the idea of studying (and then, teaching) music in mind; until the discovery of literary romanticism, particularly the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and Katherine Mansfield, and her need for creative self-expression made her turn to writing. She eventually studied with Massimo Bontempelli, proponent of the "magical realism" she herself would soon make her own as well, and in 1937 published her first collection of short stories, entitled "Angelici Dolori." Yet, although her work has garnered her native Italy's most prestigious literary prizes (most notably, the 1953 Premio Viareggio for the collection of stories "Il Mare Non Bagna Napoli" – published in English under the title "The Bay Is Not Naples" – and the 1967 Premio Strega for the novel "Poveri e Semplici"), few of her books have been translated into English; and even in Italy, she has remained controversial despite all literary acclaim.

"The Iguana" is generally considered Ortese's masterpiece, winner of the 1986 Premio Fiuggi upon its republication, 21 years after its original release. It tells the story of the Milanese count Daddo (Aleardo di Grees), who goes on a somewhat lackluster voyage of discovery and, off the Portuguese coast, comes upon an uncharted island named (as his captain tells him) Ocaña, and inhabited by three impoverished noblemen – the brothers Avaredo-Guzman – and their servant Estrellita. While attempting to strike up a friendship with the dreamy don Ilario de Guzman, don Aleardo also finds himself strangely attracted to the humble Estrellita, who, he discovers much to his shock and surprise, is not a human being but an iguana in human clothes. Initially a mere observer of the goings-on on the island, Daddo's interest in don Ilario and Estrellita draws him, vortex-like, more and more into a participatory role; and as the narrative shifts between dreamlike sequences, reality and a growing sense of lunacy, drawn in, like don Aleardo, is also the reader.

Read more on my own website, ThemisAthena.info.

Preview also cross-posted on Leafmarks.