Book #19 |
Book: Perfection | Author: Vincenzo Latronico | |
| Source: Library loan Format: Print |
Pages: 125 | Duration: 03/17/26 – 03/19/26 (3 days) | |
| Rating: ★★★★☆ | Genres: fiction, Italian literature, existentialism | ||
| 📕10-word summary: Millennial expats Anna and Tom drift in search of perfection. 🖌6-word review: Excellently simulates existential ennui — without dialog. |
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| 💭A favorite quote: “But each time, after a while, they would remember those trips more generously, as if the act of remembering could alter the experience itself.” | |||
| 🎓New-to-me words: monstera, acanthus, vibratile, koine, tillandsias, “travel rabbit“ | |||
| Description:* Millennial expat couple Anna and Tom are living the dream in Berlin, in a bright, plant-filled apartment in Neukölln. They are young digital creatives, freelancers without too many constraints. They have a passion for food, progressive politics, sexual experimentation, and Berlin’s 24-hour party scene. Their ideal existence is also that of an entire generation, lived out on Instagram, but outside the images they create for themselves, dissatisfaction and ennui burgeon. Their work as graphic designers becomes repetitive. Friends move back home, have children, grow up. An attempt at political activism during the refugee crisis proves fruitless. And in that picture-perfect life Anna and Tom feel increasingly trapped, yearning for an authenticity and a sense of purpose that seem perennially just out of their grasp.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||
| Thoughts: My friend Todd mentioned he was reading this book, so I checked it out. The main characters are “digital creatives,” and I appreciated the industry-related tools and technologies named throughout the book — graphic-design tools, photo- and image-editing tools, social-media platforms, and internet infrastructure. There was no dialogue at all in this story, as the author has said he has “a terrible ear for dialogue.” As a result, there was a lot of description in it. Critics have noted that “the lack of dialogue makes the book read like a catalogue of objects and curated spaces, mirroring the couple’s image‑driven lives.” The main themes explored include: the illusion of aesthetic perfection; expat life and cultural detachment; ennui, aimlessness, and millennial drift; and authenticity vs. performance. I think the author succeeds in making ennui interesting, which is why among its awards is being shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. | |||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2026 and previous years: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
