Family Lexicon - Natalia Ginzberg

 

“I have written only what I remember. If read as a history, one will object to the infinite lacunae. Even though the story is real, I think one should read it as if it were a novel, and therefore not demand of it any more or less than a novel can offer.” - Natalia Ginsberg

Family Lexicon is a 1963 memoir by Italian author, Natalia Ginzburg. It was originally published in Italy as Lessico Famigliare and was first translated into English in 1967 as Family Sayings. I’m not sure how it made its way into my library and I began reading it without preconceptions. It tells the story of an idiosyncratic Jewish-Italian family in the years before, during and after WW2 with the rise of Mussolini as a backdrop. The father is an irascible science professor, the mother is long suffering and amiably eccentric. The book opens with the family on an annual alpine vacation taking one of the mandatory daily hikes with their father which their mother described as “the devil’s idea of fun for his children.”  These treks resembled wretched forced marches with the father calling the children “numkulls”, “jackasses” and “negroes”. They wore uncomfortable, cumbersome clothing and were not permitted to stop for snacks in the mountain chalets. Natalia envied the other hikers who strode by wearing tennis shoes and lounged at the chalet tables eating ice cream. 

I was not sure of the time frame or where the story was going - was it a contemporary memoir about child abuse? As I continued reading, the story morphed into something else. Characters are introduced at a dizzying pace. The reader meets the family, their friends and befuddled maids whose essence Ginzberg captures with a concise wry wit. Then, amid the everyday banter, another story emerges as the European fascist movement gains traction in Italy. People move from place to place, some are arrested but these events are mentioned in an offhand manner, without detail, that belies the darkness of life in Italy at the time. The children grow up, they marry (their father almost always disapproves of their choices) and have children of their own. Natalia marries Leone, a writer. We know little about him and it comes as a shock when she mentions in passing that he died in prison some time ago.

Family Lexicon is an unusual book that I would describe as family life distilled through a filter of the stories and phrases that they hold in common. I’m not sure how I stumbled upon it but I am glad I did.