Va’ dove ti porta il cuore
Title : Va’ dove ti porta il cuore
Writer : Susanna Tamaro
Year : 1994
Language : Italian (translated into Indonesian)
I picked up this book in desperation of reading some sorts of European literary works beyond my busy days. I didn’t know why, it just happened. I decided to read this book just as I knew the title in Italian, I didn’t even care if it would be a bad novel. However, after reading the introduction early on the book, I believed that this book would be great, not from the best-seller label it had, of course.
This novel talks about a grandmother who has a relationship trouble with her own granddaughter. The trouble is more on the personality of the granddaughter and the way of life she chooses. Olga, the grandmother, realizes that her life won’t be too far anymore since the first time she is collapsed and gets stroke. So, in that condition, she decides to write a special diary for her granddaughter, not only to make her understand what life is and how the lives of earlier women in their family are, but also to make her understand that the history of her life is not actually like what she thinks.
The writer uses simple but philosophical words in revealing her story and the feeling of the main character. The writer doesn’t only tell a story in the novel, but she also delivers some thoughts and philosophies which can trigger the readers to think about their own lives. I can also say that this novel has little of feminist echo. It conveys some different paths of feminism, which are the philosophical and rational one and the radical one. The main character may deny that she is a feminist, but only revealing the true reality must be undergone by women. However, her thoughts somehow can be called as feminist thoughts of women’s position and sufferings.
I like this book, indeed. It doesn’t only try to deliver a story about an elder who wants the young to understand life, but it also reveals many interesting things. The easy to read language makes me easier to understand the message intended to deliver by the writer.
Rating: 3
