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Lisa of Troy's Reviews > The Little Virtues
The Little Virtues
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The author is the type of person I actively avoid
The Little Virtues is a collection of essays originally published in 1962.
The author seems to be buried under a mountain of complaints while missing the miracles swirling around her. Ginzburg bashes England and Italy. One of her aims is English food. The best red velvet cake I ever had was in London, and oh�..the gelato! There is magic and wonder in the streets and shops. Oh to walk upon the same pathways as Charles Dickens and JM Barrie!
All aboard the complaint train! Chugging right along�..
Ginzburg also complains about everyone wearing black and criticizes this as unoriginal. In my opinion, this is a narrow-minded view—there is more than one way to stand out in a sea of black than wearing an obnoxious outfit. For example, people can subtly differentiate themselves with a pop of color from a scarf.
But more importantly…�.
Who allows themselves to be defined by their clothes? I would rather be defined by the books I am carrying.
In the essay, He and I, Ginzburg essentially asserts that her husband is perfect, and she is hopeless aka more complaints about her lot in life.
“I can be very annoying at time.� You don’t say?
“He buys enormous quantities of bicarbonate of soda and aspirins.� He probably has a headache from all of the complaints.
Ironically, Ginzburg has a messy essay about how she was destined to be a writer. At the same time, her essay is boring, has no dialogue, and has three-page paragraphs.
Some of the essays also haven’t aged well.
“And perhaps this is the one good thing that has come out of the war. Not to lie, and not to allow others to lie to us.�
Hate to break it to you, but liars still exist.
In the last essay, Ginzburg asserts that people should not be taught to save money but to spend indifferently. However, at the time of this book, people didn’t have credit cards, student loans, mortgages (the author lived in Europe where staying in the family home was the norm), and health insurance. Life expectancy was lower, so people didn’t have to worry about living to 100 and outliving their assets.
If this book is about virtue, it certainly isn’t about the virtue of tolerance. If I had the privilege of sitting next to this author, I would wear earplugs.
How much I spent:
Hardcover text � Free through Mel-Cat (Michigan Library System)
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The Little Virtues is a collection of essays originally published in 1962.
The author seems to be buried under a mountain of complaints while missing the miracles swirling around her. Ginzburg bashes England and Italy. One of her aims is English food. The best red velvet cake I ever had was in London, and oh�..the gelato! There is magic and wonder in the streets and shops. Oh to walk upon the same pathways as Charles Dickens and JM Barrie!
All aboard the complaint train! Chugging right along�..
Ginzburg also complains about everyone wearing black and criticizes this as unoriginal. In my opinion, this is a narrow-minded view—there is more than one way to stand out in a sea of black than wearing an obnoxious outfit. For example, people can subtly differentiate themselves with a pop of color from a scarf.
But more importantly…�.
Who allows themselves to be defined by their clothes? I would rather be defined by the books I am carrying.
In the essay, He and I, Ginzburg essentially asserts that her husband is perfect, and she is hopeless aka more complaints about her lot in life.
“I can be very annoying at time.� You don’t say?
“He buys enormous quantities of bicarbonate of soda and aspirins.� He probably has a headache from all of the complaints.
Ironically, Ginzburg has a messy essay about how she was destined to be a writer. At the same time, her essay is boring, has no dialogue, and has three-page paragraphs.
Some of the essays also haven’t aged well.
“And perhaps this is the one good thing that has come out of the war. Not to lie, and not to allow others to lie to us.�
Hate to break it to you, but liars still exist.
In the last essay, Ginzburg asserts that people should not be taught to save money but to spend indifferently. However, at the time of this book, people didn’t have credit cards, student loans, mortgages (the author lived in Europe where staying in the family home was the norm), and health insurance. Life expectancy was lower, so people didn’t have to worry about living to 100 and outliving their assets.
If this book is about virtue, it certainly isn’t about the virtue of tolerance. If I had the privilege of sitting next to this author, I would wear earplugs.
How much I spent:
Hardcover text � Free through Mel-Cat (Michigan Library System)
Connect With Me!
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Reading Progress
December 7, 2021
– Shelved
December 17, 2023
–
Started Reading
December 22, 2023
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-8 of 8 (8 new)
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David
(new)
Dec 22, 2023 06:49AM
I don't think it would be at all ethical for you to return this book to the library.
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“I would rather be defined by the books I carry�! Brilliant! Such a great review! Lost book fine is the only way to remedy getting books like this out of circulation! 🤣~Marty 🚴
~Marty wrote: "“I would rather be defined by the books I carry�! Brilliant! Such a great review! Lost book fine is the only way to remedy getting books like this out of circulation! 🤣~Marty 🚴"
We all must make sacrifices for our fellow humans.
The suggestion that the husband portrayed in “He and I� is perfect could only be based on a partial reading. “He often says I don’t understand anything about food. . . . He never lets the usherette at the cinema direct him to his seat. . . . He sits by himself in the front row . . . and when I don’t sit next to him he gets annoyed with me. . . . He lost his temper. . . . After a quarter of an hour . . . he already wanted to go. . . . This [NG’s inability to recognize famous movie actors] infuriates him. . . . He tells me I have no curiosity.� It is one thing to fault an author for complaints, and certainly the essays on London are for that reason not the best, but to miss the essential point of essay after essay implies poor reading practices. Your visits to London were not in the 1950s and 1960s, so you missed the era of terrible food. And you completely miss the point of the titular essay, which is that by focusing on thrift, parents miss the chance to teach far more important lessons.
^^what Sam said. “Cruelty doesn’t impress me but kindness does� yet you rip into books you don’t like pretty well. Try and write one yourself Lisa.
What a strange review. Almost feels like you're taking everything very literally? (no offense, just confused)
ma'am, skimming is not reading
Genuinely confused as to how you were reading this book, what you were expecting, how you came to it, etc...
