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Book Review: Vincenzo Latronico, Perfection
37 Plays22 days ago
In this episode, I review Vincenzo Latronico's Perfection (2022/5), trans. by Sophie Hughes.
These book reviews will drop into the feed in between interviews. You can also find the review on the YouTube channel. Go subscribe if you haven't already!
You can buy Perfection from your local bookstore, Fitzcarraldo, or Bookshop.org.
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Produced, hosted, and edited by Chris Lloyd.
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Transcript
Welcome and Introduction
00:00:02
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to Books Up Close. My name is Chris Lloyd. If you are watching on YouTube or listening on the podcast, hello, welcome. If you're new here, thank you for joining us. I hope you're reading lots of good books.
00:00:14
Speaker
Please, as ever, tell me what you're reading. i really want to know about it.
Book Highlight: 'Perfection' by Vincenzo Lutronico
00:00:18
Speaker
Today going to briefly talk about this book, Perfection by Vincenzo Lutronico and translated by Sophie Hughes into English. came out in 2022 initially originally and now there's this is new translation and it is pretty stunning.
00:00:34
Speaker
Again, it's a very short book, you know I love a short book, but in about 115 pages, Latronico really focuses in on the kind of millennial condition, if you like. And this is something that interests me if you know me or any of these other videos you'll know. But I'm interested in writing by and about millennials. And this book Kind of read me for Phil's but also it's very sharp, very wry, very precise and funny but also quite dark in a lot of places.
00:01:03
Speaker
Lots of the reviews have described the prose as quite kind of like flat and removed, this kind of like detached effect. And it kind of is in the the main two characters, Anna and Tom.
00:01:16
Speaker
They're living in Berlin in this flat, they're from elsewhere, and the book describes their life kind of from afar, the narrative voice is quite removed, and while it is quite plain in various ways, there are also lots of beautiful linguistic things that are happening. I wish I knew Italian to read the original, but alas, here we are.
Themes and Analysis
00:01:36
Speaker
But the prose really gives you this kind of insight into their lives that is both super highly specific, in finding about their kind of daily world, you know, checking emails, creating websites, buying takeout, going to clubs, inviting friends over, cleaning the flat, all these kinds of things that are both very specific and very general and somehow he's doing both at once and I think that's one of the strengths of the book, this kind of zooming in and out The opening chapter in particular is really funny. It's kind of just like a description of the apartment that they're kind of putting up for rent on like Airbnb or something that was not named.
00:02:16
Speaker
And it's just this really detailed description of the apartment, like room by room, the way the light falls, the kind of plants that are in the space. And like, as I'm reading it I'm like, I'm looking at my Monstera right here.
00:02:29
Speaker
it just feels very on the nose, but in a ah really insightful way. It takes in politics, it takes in culture, it takes in the kind of idea of the good life that we have been sold by both kind of popular media, social media, the news, and kind of gives us a version, if you like, of what the critic Lauren Belan calls cruel optimism, if you know that book, if you know their work.
00:02:56
Speaker
You know I'm talking about this idea of like the attachment to the idea of the good life, even as that good life storyline is depleting us, diminishing us and is relentlessly unattainable. And this book, therefore, is so good at depicting that version of a life or what a life, a good life might or could look like.
Character Representation: Millennials and the Gig Economy
00:03:17
Speaker
Anna and Tom are kind of just ciphers in a way for all kinds of millennials, but more broadly people in this fluid flexible gig economy and freelance work in a world in which people think, hey I can do the job that I want to do that's like exciting and enjoyable and like gives me fulfillment and they get that and it still doesn't give them quite the fulfillment that they want.
00:03:39
Speaker
There's some really beautiful passages and the the title, which I really like as Perfection, like the novel really works in sentences that are kind of aiming for this perfection, this real kind of precision if you like.
00:03:52
Speaker
But the idea of perfection comes up in the very last sentence. perfect, the word gets used in the very last sentence, that's not a reveal of any kind or a spoiler, but the way that word is used, the kind of context of that sentence is hilarious and devastating. I kind of laughed one of those, you know, like dark laughs, you're like, oh no, this book has really
Recommendation and Call to Action
00:04:12
Speaker
floored me. I highly recommend it. You'll fly through it in one or two sittings. It's quite short and it's very readable.
00:04:17
Speaker
I highly recommend it. And obviously all Fitzgrader books are beautiful, so you can go get this one if you're in the UK. Shout out to Sophie Hughes as well, who's clearly the translator of the moment. I highly recommend. Let me know if you've read it. Let me know what else you're reading.
00:04:32
Speaker
Get in touch in all of the ways via Instagram, the sub stack. Subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already so you get the new episodes. Subscribe to the YouTube. We're almost at a thousand subscribers, which is pretty wild. I know that's not a lot in YouTube terms, but to me, there's quite a lot of people that want to continue watching these videos. So thank you. If you haven't subscribed already, please do it. Tell people to subscribe that you know, that like books.
00:04:55
Speaker
Until the next time, next week there'll be another interview drop in the podcast feed, so listen out for that. Until then, take care of yourselves, take care of each other, love and solidarity.
Closing Remarks and Acknowledgements
00:05:07
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episode. Please subscribe if if you haven't already, leave a review and share with people you know. You can also follow the show and me on Instagram at Books Up Close and on YouTube.
00:05:20
Speaker
And if you can, please do fill out the feedback form linked in the show notes. It's really helpful
00:05:27
Speaker
You can get show transcripts and more information by subscribing to the Substack. This show is made possible by Impact Accelerator Award from the University of Hertfordshire and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.