Word: decameron
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Whenever someone asks me why I'm still a Roman Catholic in spite of the pedophile scandals and the retro dogma, I usually reach for Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron and its story about a Catholic trying to convert a non-Catholic friend. The friend insists on visiting Rome so he can observe the Holy See himself. This being the 14th century, when church leaders were about as saintly as Enron executives, the Catholic fears that his pal will return home appalled. And so he does - but he declares he's ready to become a Catholic anyway. The reason: he figures...
That's a pretty good description of Ten Days in the Hills (Knopf; 445 pages), a leisurely stretch of talking and rutting that takes its structure from The Decameron and a good part of its spirit from The Kama Sutra. Let's start with The Decameron. In Boccaccio's 14th century compendium of tales, 10 people depart Florence, where the Black Death is raging, for two weeks of food, drink and storytelling in the Tuscan countryside. In Smiley's update, the Iraq war stands in for the plague. Los Angeles, the silkier parts, plays Tuscany. As the war begins...
...mentions frequently), but decided to make a living blacking out, juicing women, and recounting his adventures on the Internet. “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell,” Max’s new book, is a collection of Max’s most infamous Decameron-like stories alongside some newer material. A perusal of the new book reveals that this same man once left a 20-foot trail of diarrhea in the lobby of a Texas Embassy Suites, got kicked out of a hockey game for wrestling the mascot on the ice, and had sex with...
...books” lists and “great books” courses. Before Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, there is James Joyce’s Ulysses. Well before either come Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, all of which were banned in the United States under the Comstock Law of 1873, prohibiting the sale of “lewd,” “indecent,” “filthy,” or “obscene” materials?...
...weeks later they staged a wedding that reflected their artistic interests at the Castello di Montegufoni, a castle in the Tuscan countryside. Sixty guests stayed in the castle for a week, during which friends and family joined the couple in reciting poetry and enacting scenes from The Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio's 14th century collection of fables, in the castle's theater. On the wedding day, Quirk's brother, a drummer, led the processional through the grounds while guests banged along on pots and pans. When they reached a hilltop olive grove, the guests formed a circle around the couple...