Word: partibons
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...eyes are an ageless blue, but the ancient Signora Partibon is dying. Life flickers in her like needlepoints of sunlight refracted on a palazzo ceiling from the Grand Canal. She grips the hand of her grandson Giorgio and thanks him for his visit ("Now the whole family has come"). But Giorgio, incorrigibly honest, utters a long-banished name: "One of your sons, Marco, is not here." In a paroxysm of coughing, the old lady dies...
Pedants & Peasants. The grasping Fassolas and the well-bred Partibons share an hourglass relationship. The Fassolas are on top, but empty, feeding on the fetid air of Fascist posts and poses. The Partibons are on the bottom, but filled with grit and their own brand of gallantry -the gallantry of being their rather idiosyncratic selves. Giorgio's tawny-haired sister Elena, with whom he is spiritually close to incest, drives motorboats and herself at a swamping pace. Brother Giuliano plays cards from morning to night and takes cute tricks to bed. With Chekhovian unconcern, Papa Partibon paints while...
...require, and almost justify, every episode and dialogue-choked page Novelist Pasinetti allots to them. Young Enrico Fassola falls in love with Elena, but she breaks his heart and pride by having an affair with a childhood sweetheart. Test Pilot Massimo Fassola plummets to a watery death, leaving another Partibon girl pregnant. Novelist Pasinetti does deft sketches of pedants and peasants, including a notable portrait of a venomous Fascist toady...
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