Armchair Escapism 25

BOOKS

A house in Sicily, Luisa Adorno

In the midst of the Second World War, a Tuscan woman — whose name we never learn — falls in love with a Sicilian man. When the country’s worst turmoil is over, the couple journey south to the small town where his family lives, and she is suddenly immersed in a world entirely unlike her own. Our narrator finds herself bewildered by the eccentricities of her new in-laws, giving rise to scenes that are at once comic and revealing. In this semi-autobiographical novel, Adorno explores Italy’s great north-south divide while also reflecting on the political extremes which shaped the country’s recent history.

My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein, Deborah Levy

A recently divorced British writer moves to Paris intending to write about Gertrude Stein, the American novelist, poet and legendary salon host whose Left Bank apartment became a meeting place for some of the twentieth century's most influential artists and writers. In this genre-defying work, Deborah Levy fuses memoir, fiction and biography using Stein as a pillar to explore themes of art, female identity, and the idiosyncrasies of modern life.

Sunstruck, William Rayfet Hunter

Our story begins on the sun-drenched shores of southern France at the height of summer. A mysterious, unnamed young man arrives at a luxurious villa as a guest of the wealthy Blake family on their annual holiday. It doesn’t take long before he falls for the dashing Felix Blake, and the pair begin a glittering summer romance. But as the season shifts and they return to London, the perfect sheen fractures.  Cracks that were invisible beneath the blazing Mediterranean sun become impossible to ignore, and as the two men confront their own demons, they draw one another into a series of choices whose consequences prove life-changing.

FILMS

Manon 70
Beautiful, beguiling, bewitching Manon seems to seduce every man that lays their eyes on her, and she knows it. The film opens with X, in the very process of ensnarement at X Airport. Manon yields to his good looks and advances, and the young couple fall in love. But JC can't resist his jealousy, and Manon can’t resist rich men and their gifts. A toxic and tumultuous love story ensues against the fashionable streets of 1960s Paris, luxurious yachts bobbing through the Med, and the exclusive private villas of Nice.

One Wild Moment
In the height of summer, Antoine and Laurent - best friends and single dads with two very different parenting techniques - take their ‘coming-of-age’ daughters to the rugged island of Corsica. Louna and Marie are desperate to stretch each evening a little further - another party, another drink, another late night. But when Louna develops an infatuation with Laurent, the dreamlike beach holiday begins to crumble. It's far from a perfect film: its characters often feel one-dimensional and its ending leaves much unresolved. Yet beneath the sun-soaked scenery lies an uncomfortable meditation on desire, hypocrisy and the blurred boundaries between adulthood and adolescence…all while making Corsica look like one of the Mediterranean's most irresistible destinations.

Mediterraneo

During the Second World War, a ragtag group of Italian soldiers are dispatched to a tiny Greek island to lay down their flag, only to discover it has been all but abandoned. Cut off from the mainland, the men slowly surrender to island life, swapping military drills for lazy days of fishing, afternoon naps, and burgeoning local romances. As the war recedes into the background, the men’s paradisiacal way of life begins to feel less temporary than initially thought. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1992, Mediterraneo is a bittersweet ode to escapism, posing the question of whether happiness is found not by searching for more, but by wanting less.