Literary essays – Globolibri.it

The Land of Sweet Forever

Arnaldo Ageno — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 12:01:59 +0000

Harper Lee remains a landmark figure in the American canon – thanks to Scout, Jem, Atticus, and the other indelible characters in her Pulitzer-winning debut, To Kill a Mockingbird; as well as for the darker, late-’50s version of small-town Alabama that emerged in Go Set a Watchman, her only other novel, published in 2015 after its rediscovery. Less remembered, until now, however, is Harper Lee the dogged young writer, who crafted stories in hopes of magazine publication; Lee the lively New Yorker, Alabamian, and friend to Truman Capote; and the Lee who peppered the pages of McCall’s and Vogue with thoughtful essays in the latter part of the twentieth century. The Land of Sweet Forever combines Lee’s early short fiction and later nonfiction in a volume offering an unprecedented look at the development of her inimitable voice.

Covering territory from the Alabama schoolyards of Lee’s youth to the luncheonettes and movie houses of midcentury Manhattan, The Land of Sweet Forever invites still-vital conversations about politics, equality, travel, love, fiction, art, the American South, and what it means to lead an engaged and creative life. This collection comes with an introduction by Casey Cep, Harper Lee’s appointed biographer, which provides illuminating background for our reading of these stories and connects them both to Lee’s life and to her two novels.

Harper Lee rimane una figura fondamentale nel canone letterario americano, grazie a Scout, Jem, Atticus e agli altri personaggi indimenticabili del suo romanzo d’esordio, vincitore del premio Pulitzer, Il buio oltre la siepe; così come per la versione più cupa, di fine anni ’50, della piccola Alabama cittadina che emerge in Va’, metti una sentinella, il suo unico altro romanzo, pubblicato nel 2015 dopo la sua riscoperta. Meno ricordata, fino ad ora, tuttavia, è Harper Lee, la giovane scrittrice tenace che creava storie nella speranza di essere pubblicata su una rivista; la Lee, la vivace newyorkese, originaria dell’Alabama e amica di Truman Capote; e la Lee che ha disseminato le pagine di McCall’s e Vogue di saggi profondi nella seconda metà del XX secolo. The Land of Sweet Forever riunisce i primi racconti di Lee e la successiva saggistica in un volume che offre uno sguardo senza precedenti sullo sviluppo della sua voce inimitabile.

Coprendo un territorio che va dai cortili delle scuole dell’Alabama in cui Lee era giovane alle tavole calde e ai cinema della Manhattan di metà secolo, The Land of Sweet Forever invita a conversazioni ancora attuali su politica, uguaglianza, viaggi, amore, narrativa, arte, il Sud degli Stati Uniti e su cosa significhi condurre una vita impegnata e creativa. Questa raccolta è accompagnata da un’introduzione di Casey Cep, biografo incaricato da Harper Lee, che fornisce un contesto illuminante per la nostra lettura di questi racconti e li collega sia alla vita di Lee che ai suoi due romanzi.

It’s Terrible the Things I Have to Do to Be Me

Arnaldo Ageno — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 09:08:57 +0000

How does an icon become an icon? How did Anna Nicole Smith model herself on Marilyn Monroe? What connects Lindsay Lohan with Elizabeth Taylor? How is self-made beauty Pamela Anderson like trans bond girl Caroline ‘Tula’ Cossey?In a series of interconnected essays about pairs of famous women, award-nominated essayist and art critic Philippa Snow explores the echoes and connections between a constellation of female stars and lays bare the artful and gruelling demands of femininity – from the golden age of Hollywood to the Instagram era.

Full of the fascinating, entertaining and lurid details you might expect from the lives of mega-famous celebrities, dissected with icicle-sharp intelligence and rendered in stylish, flamboyant prose, Philippa Snow’s first full-length non-fiction work is a radically insightful book about the complex meanings and layers of femininity in a male-dominated world.

We Are Not Numbers : The Voices of Gaza’s Youth

Arnaldo Ageno — Sat, 17 May 2025 08:40:22 +0000

A teenage girl stares at her roof, hoping it won’t collapse over her head. A young student searches the Internet for photos of libraries around the world, hoping he’ll be able to visit them one day. Another walks around the city, taking notes of all the buildings she dreams of repairing.

These are the stories of young people from Gaza, born under Israeli occupation and blockade. They are people who have endured unspeakable struggles and losses, who keep fighting to be recognised not as numbers, but as human beings with hopes, dreams and lives worth living. We Are Not Numbers was founded in 2014 to give voice to the youth of Gaza.

In this collection, vital, urgent and full of heart, spanning over ten years to the present moment, we gain an unparalleled insight into the past, as well as the current and next generation of Palestinian leaders, artists, scientists and scholars and imagine where we might go from here.

There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness

Arnaldo Ageno — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 11:54:22 +0000

In this collection of writings, the logbook of an intelligence always on the move, Carlo Rovelli follows his curiosity and invites us on a voyage through science, history, philosophy and politics.

Written with his usual clarity and wit, these pieces range widely across time and space: from Newton’s alchemy to Einstein’s mistakes, from Nabokov’s butterflies to Dante’s cosmology, from travels in Africa to the consciousness of an octopus, from mind-altering psychedelic substances to the meaning of atheism.

Charming, pithy and elegant, this book is the perfect gateway to the universe of one of the most influential scientists of our age.