A review by carefulfearanddeaddevotion
Auntie Poldi and the Handsome Antonio by Mario Giordano

2.0

1.5 really

The story might have been interesting and fun, if only it weren’t for the writing. Instead, if it was too ridiculous to believe and too pretentious to enjoy.

1. It’s told in a weird mix of first and third person made worse by the fact that Auntie Poldi’s nephew writes too much and in too much detail about his aunt’s sex life. It’s weird and off putting.

2. It sometimes felt like I skipped several pages because two consecutive sentences made no sense in relation to each. Similarly, the plot points themselves had no transitions, so many things happened but also nothing happened at all. Suddenly Poldi was a spy. Suddenly Poldi knew who the murderer was. Etc etc

3. The writing often comes across as pretentious and too “clever”. I feel like this was the author’s attempt at mystery and intrigue, but it fell flat.

4. The weird little (2 page long) asides about the mafia or the market or Panarea as well as the random Italian words or phrases thrown in made the book sometimes read as a textbook on Sicily. Overall, Sicily felt like a caricature. If the author wanted to write an ode to Sicily, it’s only convincing for someone who knows nothing about it. Same thing with all the Antonio’s. Sure, I get it, lots of Antonio’s in southern Italy, I’ve got at least 15 of them in my family that I can name off the top of my head. Howeverrrrrr,and idk if it’s bc the rest of the book annoyed me so much, all the “handsome Antonio”s just came off as gimmicky, even if it was the whole point.

5. The book the nephew (idk if we ever learn his name but if we do I certainly didn’t care enough to remember it) is writing?? Completely unnecessary for us to get snippets of it. It’s literally just the book we’re reading plus some weird pretentious details. I wish the author had even attempted to make the in universe book so obviously not just the events of the novel we’re reading.

6. The ending. Firstly, as soon as he was introduced I was like “this is the murderer” and I’m always wrong about these things. Secondly, I’m so disappointed with the contents of the attaché case. Like r u kidding me ?? With all the blathering on about the mysticism of Sicily, this big thing worth ten million dollars was a manuscript? And sure I guess it was stated that the reason everyone was so after it was because it was written by Amy Winehouse, who’s alive???! And who Poldi knows, because of course she does. Overall it was incredibly disappointing and weird, but I shouldn’t be surprised because so was the rest of the book.