Revisiting or Re-read of "Places of My Infancy" by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

ISBN: 978-0-8112-2038-5

I read this book in 2012, and recently re-read it, due that "Places of my Infancy: A Memory" very much influenced me on my memoir "Tosh: Growing Up in Wallace Berman's World."   Both of our books are childhood memoirs, and what impressed me about Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's little book is that it is more about location, architecture, and things than people.   In my book, characters are essential, but what got me to keep on the page, to write, is actually the location of Beverly Glen and Topanga Canyon.  Lampedusa is an Italian or Sicilian aristocrat, and I often felt like I was a pauper prince.   Both of us grew up in extraordinary surroundings; him with the super wealthy, and yours truly in the bohemian world of the Beats and Hippies. 

When I purchased this book in New York City, six years ago, I was working on my memoir.  "Places of my Infancy" gave me the importance that character of the author and also the reflection of one's home, and how that affects the writer.   A significant book.  Down below is the original review I wrote for the Good Reads website:

Looking for a small book in size to read on the subway trips from Manhattan to Bushwick, I picked up the elegant Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's miniature memoir of his childhood "Places of My Infancy."  The most remarkable aspect of this book is that it's not about people.  It is about his home, or one should say estate in Italy during the turn of the Century.  

Reading this I reminded of "Against Nature" by Huysmann, but this is the real deal. At least through the eyes of an adult looking back at his life as a child.  Detailed architectural accounts of various rooms, including the dining room which has life-sized portraits of the owners (the first ones) eating their meals.  One would think why they would want a painting of themselves eating in a room where you actually take your meal?  But that's the charm of the super rich - if one could even use the word super in this category, it's more super-duper.

In his house, he had a theater that can hold 300 people, and his family would allow traveling theater people to do shows for the local citizens.  Some rich, but a lot were peasants.  Eventually, the theater became a movie theater. Lampedusa has a way to comment on changes that he remembers through his childhood.  

In the book, di Lampedusa admits that he is more attached to things than humans, and this is very much the tale of things - most cases the architecture of his home as a child, including detailed descriptions of rooms, furniture, etc.  But the truth (as he knows as well) that 'things' can tell a narrative better than a human at times.  Remarkable book.

"Places of My Infancy" by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (New Directions)

Looking for a small book in size to read on the subway trips from Manhattan to Bushwick, I picked up the elegant Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's miniature memoir of his childhood "Places of My Infancy." The most remarkable aspect of this book is that it's not about people. It is about his home, or one should say estate in Italy during the turn of the Century.

Reading this I reminded of "Against Nature" by Huysmann, but this is the real deal. At least through the eyes of an adult looking back at his life as a child. Detailed architectural accounts of various rooms, including the dining room which has life-sized portraits of the owners (the first ones) eating their meals. One would think why they would want a painting of themselves eating in a room where you actually take your meal? But that's the charm of the super rich - if one could even use the word super in this category, it's more super-duper.

In his house, he had a theater that can hold 300 people, and his family would allow traveling theater people to do shows for the local citizens. Some rich, but a lot were peasants. Eventually, the theater became a movie theater. Di Lampedusa has a way to comment on changes that he remembers through his childhood.

In the book, di Lampedusa admits that he is more attached to things than humans, and this is very much the tale of things - most cases the architecture of his home as a child, including detailed descriptions of rooms, furniture, etc. But the truth (as he knows as well) that 'things' can tell a narrative better than a human at times. Remarkable book.

"Places of My Infancy" is an influence on my childhood/teenage memoir "Tosh" (City Lights Publications).   Focusing on my youth, I realize, after reading this book, that placement or the landscape is equally as important as the characters that are in my book.  I read "Places of My Infancy" in 2012, as I was writing my many drafts of "Tosh."   An essential book for me as a writer.

"Places of My Infancy: A Memory" by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Looking for a small book in size to read on the subway trips from Manhattan to Bushwick, I picked up the elegant Gluseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's miniture memoir of his childhood "Places of My Infancy."  The most remarkable aspect of this book is that its not about people.  Its about his home or one should say estate in Italy during the turn of the Century.

Reading this I reminded of "Against Nature" by Huysmann, but this is the real deal. At least through the eyes of an adult looking back at his life as a child.  Detailed architectural accounts of various rooms, including the dinning room which has life-sized portraits of the owners (the first one's) eating their meals.  One would think why would they want a painting of themselves eating in a room where you actually take your meal?  But that's the charm of the super rich - if one could even use the word super in this category, its more super-duper.

In his house he had a theater that can hold 300 people, and his family would allow traveling theater people to do shows for the local citizens.  Some rich, but a lot were peasants.  Eventually the theater became a movie theater.  di Lampedusa has a way to comment on changes that he remembers through his childhood.

In the book di Lampedusa admits that he is more attached to things than humans, and this is very much the tale of things - most cases the architecture of his home as a child, including detailed descriptions of rooms, furniture, etc.  But the truth (as he knows as well) that 'things' can tell a narrative better then a human at times.  Remarkable book.