happyone here's the bmis once again I tend to read not just Italian books but books written in Romans languages more broadly speaking in the Italian translation over the English on the assumption that uh the Italian translation of a French or Spanish novel is probably going to be closer to the original than an English translation um a consequence of that is that whenever I'm reading a book in Italian and whenever I'm loving that book I always have this sense of d that I'm going to find out after I've read the book that there's no English translation available because that means I won't be able to gush about it here on the YouTube channel this happened recently with happy are the Happy by Yasmin ARA an amazing hilarious novel of midlife crisis that packs the same hysterical punch of an Updike or a Richard the8 novel in a very elegant very com very slim format um and uh an English translation does exist for happy are Thea and if you can get your hands on it you should read it it's it's amazing it's heartbreaking and hilarious but it's as far as I could tell very hard to find so it seemed pointless to film a full review recommend a novel that most of you won't be able to Source I had the same thread when I was reading the art of losing luckily art of losing is much easier to obtain and it's one of those books you just have to read um if you trust me because it's a fantastic amazing novel the art of losing is an engrossing and gorgeous family Saga that is very emotional and very warm but it is also clear ey enough to tackle some of the the main dilemas and enigmas of history of identity and and very much of existence in a way that is very nuanced and and complex but always feels immediate yet and understandable this is the story of a family from cabila a region of Algeria who in the 1950s find themselves inevitably Tangled in the violence and the conflict and uh the the struggle between the French Army and the French government who at the time ruled Algeria as a colony and the um fln Rebels uh Guerilla Rebels trying to to um to obtain Independence for the country as a consequence of this war of independence life in the village where the the the protagonists uh live is disrupted this life of of Timeless traditions of very clear power dynamics of ritual of uh stability is suddenly uh torn apart is suddenly appended and Ali the patriarch of the family has to choose to make a choice between these Waring factions and he ends up choosing the wrong side he ends up siding with the French army instead of the FN with very longlasting consequences for his family this summary I just gave you however necessary does not make any sort of Justice to the Noel whatsoever if you've read the book it's probably not going to make any sense because one of the central concerns of the art of uses of zaner's Noel is that this idea that Ali chooses aside is ridiculous and Preposterous and really doesn't capture the truth of living through such a moment of conflict of of fratricidal conflict as a a war for independence the situation that Ali faces and that he has to cope with is so tangled and messy and colored by his own situation his own ethnic and and cultural identity his own experience and his own personal history it's tinged and influenced by all these things and the idea that he is just a um that you can reduce to the situation to a black and white Dynamic of true opposing factions is ridiculous uh even though history will have a very uh a very narrow View and and a very uh strong view on people like him who sided algerians who sided with the French side during this conflict during the war war of independence history will certainly not be kind to them the parallels between this novel and other engrossing fantastic works of um historical fiction other family sagas the parallels abound I could mention personal favorite The Amazing Adventures of cavalier and Clay by Michael chaon because both books show characters who use comic books especially as a way of coping and and coming to grips with a traumatic uprooting from their native lands and with the feelings of of guilt with the inner turmoil that coming that comes from having to build a new life in a in a completely different country at different place Comics allow this these characters to make sense of their condition their reality and their experiences the two novels however that came to mind most frequently as I was reading zaner's novel were middle sex by Jeffrey eugenis and the sympathizer by Vian Yan middle sex because of its structure first and foremost these a structure by the way that middle sex borrows from Stern from trist shendi um this is a family Saga where the alleged protagonist of the novel only really steps into the narrative halfway through and we spend a good chunk of the early novel actually learning about his um her uh forerunners her Grandpa grandfather and and her father both middle sex and the art of losing are also novels that shed a light on a a turbulent historical moment that is maybe not widely known or at least a historical moment that I didn't know much about at all um in this case of course we're talking about the Algerian war for independence uh in Middle sex it's the Turkish Greek conflict in the early 20th century and there are books that talk about the Immigrant experience in ways that are uh heartfelt but uh and very candid but they're also uncenter mental the art of losing for instance is is fairly Frank when it comes to discussing some of the most unpalatable and even horid aspects of the the culture from which this family comes from at the same time as it describes some of the rituals and the the beauty of the culture that they will be forced to to leave behind the sympathizer comes to mind because it's another novel that deals with a marginalized group that is rarely discussed and that is often excluded from mainstream historical conversations a group that is broadly tagged as traitors as sympathizers indeed um in that case it's the the South Vietnamese people who supported the South Vietnamese government in the War uh between North and South Vietnam the both novels deal with immigrant communities who maintain a strong connection to their native land and and try to carry on the their life and and bring their Traditions with them in the new land while at the same time knowing that they're unlikely to ever be able to go back to that land and this strange process where they they almost actively try to forget it while preserving the life they led up to the point of uh of leaving that land it's it's a it's a it's a it's a dynamic R within their conflict and it's it's quite a complex Dynam Dynamic that is captured beautifully in both books art of losing to paraphrase the novel itself is a book that deals with situations that cannot be described except with contradictory statements and to me that is the the highest task that fiction can aspire to capturing and exploring the the the contradictions and the complexities of existence it's a novel that is steeped in history but also engages with shifts in in the Contemporary world in the recent World it engages for instance with a backlash uh in France uh witnessed by the by French Muslim citizens uh after Terror attacks the the undeserved backlash that they receive uh for instance after the the back the ban attacks and other terrorist attacks in France um it engages with how connected 20th century history is with the the current Dynamics and the the current uh trends that we're seeing with the rise of farri parties with these unresolved questions coming back to the surface I think it's a fantastic novel and I couldn't recommend it more highly it's also one of those novels that I would recommend to any reader out there it's warm and insightful and complex enough that I think everybody will find something satisfying in it I look forward to hearing what you think if you're a fan of um uh art of losing uh I really look forward forward to discussing it with you in the comments and thank you as always for watching this R thanks to my patrons for supporting the YouTube channel and bye [Music] everybody