Lottie Lomme
Giorgio Falco's twins H is about Hilde and Helga, twin sisters who grow up in 30s Germany. They are successful and lucky, because the Second World War offers their shabby mother and father unexpected opportunities.
Personal portrait of a Nazi
Vader turns out to be a cold-blooded, exemplary fascist. Hans Hinner is a perfectly constructed Nazi character as we know from the movie. Relentlessly out for personal gain. Full of rancor about his Jewish neighbor who has a bigger car. Hinner manages to get his revenge as soon as the war breaks out and manages to amass large capital at the expense of others.
How are the sisters doing?
Once the war is over, the family capital is still there. The sisters ended up in Italy and live in prosperity there. Yet something is gnawing. But the sisters can't put their finger on it, they haven't developed the ability to reflect on happiness. The rich life of empty consumerism continues. One of the sisters marries a plastic surgeon who takes care of her completely. Everyone must be beautiful and rich and with that there is a sense of superiority that offers no comfort in life. A superficial satisfaction that has to be satisfied again and again and that cannot be compared with happiness.
Deliberately poor prose
The book has received good reviews from the Corriere della Sera en La Repubblica, but doesn't read like a train. The twin sisters don't become likeable characters and you don't really empathize with them. The style of the prose does justice to the poor emotional life of the girls: the story is worked out almost point by point, as a summary of facts instead of being dragged into entanglements surrounding the characters.
Literally that's great, but it makes the story rather stiff and the fate of the twins didn't really appeal to me as a result. The twins themselves do not really come to life because of the missing pathos and there is also little sympathy for father and mother or for the women's hypothermic husbands. They are actually the post-war version of father Hans Hinner.
Second generation
The rave reviews will also arise from the interesting theme: what do you do with the consequences for you of your parents' choices? This has been an important theme for the post-war generation. although trauma is not hereditary, the psychological problems of the parents are transferable to the children. This theme is also elaborated on in the book. After all: how should the girls develop their emotional life if they have not learned that from their father and mother?
In conclusion
A fine piece of literature, but not so easy to read. The major themes that critics like to see reflected in literature with a capital letter are included. But that doesn't make the story accessible, accessible. As a reader, I had to struggle quite a bit to get through the cold-blooded story.
World Library
Many books by Italian writers are published at Uitgeverij Wereldbibliotheek, such as the epic about the friendship between two Neapolitan girls from Elena Ferrante.
I think we can expect more from the book too The lessons by Michela Murgia, coming out soon. Her book the accabadora, which was published in the Netherlands in 2010, was a wonderful book about living and dying in Sardinia.
The twins H
by: Giorgio Falco (translated by Els van der Pluijm)
318 pages
€ 19,99 (also available as an e-book)
World Library, April 2017
ISBN 9789028426795
Source: a review by Anna Maria Balzano on the website Qlibri.it, an article by Michele Lauro on Panorama.it
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