The Sixteen Pleasures

Graceful, assured prose, a wry but empathetic view of the human character and an authoritative command of fascinating background detail are among the.
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I would have liked a great deal more of that. Margot may discover many things about her own sexuality in Florence, but she also spends much time reflecting on her relationships to other women. In the end, when she finally takes control of her own life, and I wondered if she would ever get there her loyalty to her sisters, both biological and metaphorical, is the overriding factor. May 05, Christine rated it liked it Shelves: Needing a change and some adventure in her life, Margot Harrington felt a calling to travel to Florence in to aid in the restoration of art and books after the famous flood.

Circumstance leads her to end up living at and working in the library of an impov Needing a change and some adventure in her life, Margot Harrington felt a calling to travel to Florence in to aid in the restoration of art and books after the famous flood. Circumstance leads her to end up living at and working in the library of an impoverished abbey. The nuns entrusted to help her rescue the waterlogged books come across an old prayer book, but this was no ordinary prayer book.

This book is bound together with another small book — the banned thought lost erotic poems of Aretino. Margot first lovingly restores the book and then entrusted by the, surprisingly worldly, Abbess attempts to sell the volume to help the abbey. Her lover tries to undermine her sale to make a profit for himself. Never one to be daunted, Margot persists with her quest leading to some interesting adventures.

And, in a small way it was, but it was mostly about Margot finding herself.

O.B.F feat CHARLIE P /// SIXTEEN TONS OF PRESSURE

Aug 28, liz rated it it was amazing Shelves: The Sixteen Pleasures sucked me right in, and I liked it way better than some other novels I've read about Americans in love with Italy. The Sixteen Pleasures follows an American girl in her mid-twenties in the mid-sixties who, feeling a quarter-life crisis, decides to move to Florence to help with book restoration following the horrendous flooding.

She'd spent two years of high school in Italy, and has amazingly positive, powerful memories and associations of living in Florence with her now-dead mother Her father is the protagonist in She befriends some nuns while staying at a convent, and the plot really picks up when she discovers pornographic engravings bound in a Renaissance prayer book.

She's extremely believable, even for being a female character written by a man. People say that God works in mysterious ways when they really mean that life, or something in their own lives, doesn't make any sense, but I think that's wrong. I think it means that we can't make any sense out of life until we give up our deepest hopes, until we stop trying to arrange everything to suit us.

But once we do, or are forced to. Jun 10, Jest rated it liked it. This story is about a young female book conservator who travels to Italy in , the year the Arno flooded its banks, destroying the collections of galleries, libraries and churches. While staying in a convent she discovers a lost book of pornography that dates back to the Renaissance. The blurb on the back cover describes this as an erotic book about an erotic book which I think is very misleading. The sexuality struck me as being very tame. However the main charcter is very well drawn.

Her experiences seem to resonant particularly well with women who were in their twenties and early thirties around If this book has a flaw, it is that Hellanga doesn't seem to know what sort of story he is trying to tell.

READERS GUIDE

There is at least one instance where the third person POV, which follows the protagonist, Margot, through most of the book, makes an abrupt leap to a scene outside of her consciousness. All of this contributes to the feeling that one is reading a series of writing exercises that have later been cobbled together into a novel. This book is a terrific example of writing that is enjoyable but doesn't inspire any desire to imitate.

Apr 02, Sarah Skye rated it liked it. I'm a little skeptical when it comes to books written by old men from the perspective of young women; I always expect there to be some sort of disconnect as if the author is writing about a subject matter that they obviously know nothing about. The Sixteen Pleasures captures all the romance of art, travel and young love, yet the love isn't so young and the heroin Margot seems a little world-weary for her 29 years.

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By the end of the book Margot is supposed to have discovered her sexual identity and purpose in life but to me she seems just as lost as she did at the start of the book, searching for love in all the expected places, settling for another old man. Jan 23, Jacolyn rated it did not like it. Anyone who knows me would recommend this book--and many did. I hated this book from the beginning and forced myself to read it.

I had a professor in college that made quite the impression on me and she gave us one exercise in which she had us read excerpts of certain authors. It was then our job to assign a gender based upon this tidbit. It was fascinating to see if we could indeed do that! This book is an example of a man writing for a feminine protagonist with devastating results. He has no business writing as a woman. Not at all convincing and quite frankly, pathetic. I renamed this book, the Sixteen Agonies. Feb 01, ehnonymus rated it liked it. Margot is a young American woman working to help preserve priceless works after a catastrophic flood in Florence.

She stays in a convent where the abbess asks her to help sell a forbidden erotic but priceless manuscript in order to save her convent without knowledge by the bishop. Margot works to help them while falling into a relationship with an older Italian man trying to save frescoes. The affair along with her journey away from home helps her come of age and gain a sense of her own identity Margot is a young American woman working to help preserve priceless works after a catastrophic flood in Florence.

The affair along with her journey away from home helps her come of age and gain a sense of her own identity. Jun 11, Pierette added it. I have enjoyed the adventure of the secret book that Margot has restored and is attempting to sell. I wish there was more discussion of her fling with Postiglione and the negotiations to sell the book, especially since she is doing it for the convent that hosted her during her stay in Florence to help after the '66 flood. It makes perfect sense, but the details about Florence and her life there are so pleasant that it would be great to have MORE.


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Dec 27, Nancy rated it liked it. Interesting, especially the historical background of the restoration of works of art damaged by the flood that destroyed so much in Florence, Italy. But, generally, I dislike these novels that portray an American woman who goes to Italy and falls madly in love with some hunky Italian guy. On the other hand, maybe I should brush up on my Italian! Nov 13, Marianne rated it really liked it. I loved this book. Hellenga's characters are so real.

The Sixteen Pleasures by Robert Hellenga - Reading Guide - leondumoulin.nl

I love when I hear myself saying "no, don't" or "go for it" to a character of print. It tells me that the author has done the job - brought me right there into the story. I only gave a four because I found the end a little wanting. A book this intense should have a powerful ending and I don't think it did.

Still a great book. May 10, Joe Matson rated it liked it. The plot has some of my favorite things: Florence, archives, and the value of art. The protagonist was interesting and complicated a little bit older than Lucy Honeychurch but similarly adrift , although I wasn't totally comfortable with a male author writing a female character's perspective in a series of steamy scenes. Jul 08, Pat rated it it was amazing.

The Sixteen Pleasures Reader’s Guide

I really liked this story. The book is set in Florence after the Arno flooded in the 60's. The main character is a librarian bored out of her mind who volunteers to help restore books. She has the adventure of a lifetime. Probably silly but I still loved it. Dec 08, Linda George rated it really liked it. Ah, just finished this book. It was a real treat for the senses! May 05, Theresa rated it it was amazing. I identified greatly with the "road not taken" story of the main character, Margot. During the Arno Floods of , hundreds of "mud angels" went to Florence to try to save masterworks or art and precious books.

Margot is a librarian, who wanted a life of adventure, but found herself denying herself that life to care for her dying mother Margot longs to return to Italy, but has never A pure favorite. Margot longs to return to Italy, but has never gone, and languishes in a dead end job with a rather thoughtless boss. She chucks it all to return to Italy during the flooding, as a book conservator--and finds the adventure she wished for I liked the information about art and library conservation, though some might find it tedious.

I found it fascinating! Her love affair is a believable, if unfortunately unlucky one, not a "sweep you off your feet" sort of thing, but a quiet passion with a rather kind and smart man, whose indecisiveness keeps him from being fully "formed" as a true partner not to mention Some of the best scenes occur after she finds her way to living in a convent during the floods due to a lack of lodging; and the discovery of a rather racy book in the collection of the sisters there.

I loved this book, and still do. Not flashy, not sensational, not always "happily ever after" If you love Tuscany or Florence Margot is at her worst totally implausible and at her best — boring. The setting and larger plot of the book is based on real events and utterly fascinating.

Besides being in search of herself, Margot is trained in book conservation and the book is set in late 60s Florence, when the river flooding has threatened a convent library, various frescos and other art works. Jun 19, Madeleine rated it liked it. I know this isn't a function of the actual book, but the Universe keeps dropping the flooding of the Arno river into my lap over and over again.

This is the second book that has made its way unsought to me in the last year; yet another piece in a long line of articles and off-handed comments I've stumbled upon. Hellenga wrote this book as part of an Artists Fellowship made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. His research and dedication to accuracy are evident, and I thoroughly e I know this isn't a function of the actual book, but the Universe keeps dropping the flooding of the Arno river into my lap over and over again. His research and dedication to accuracy are evident, and I thoroughly enjoyed all the passages on conservation techniques and book binding, and I felt like Hellenga's time spent writing in Florence was well spent.

I liked it overall, certainly, but I wished I could have loved it. The main character, Margot, is all at once likable and confusing, as though her creator would've done better to write from a male perspective than a female one. The plot seemed natural and I enjoyed Hellenga's portrayal of the Florentine convent and the architecture, but the author sometimes lost himself in peripheral stories.

In the end, she decides against it. Which do you think is the saving grace of life for her, art or religion? Historical Fiction Romance Literary Fiction print. Questions and Topics for Discussion 1. In what ways is The Sixteen Pleasures a coming-of-age novel? The idea of including The Sixteen Pleasures in his fictional story of Margot Harrington began in jest, as there are many, many jokes throughout English literature on this erotic Renaissance book.

Somewhere along the line, it became the engine of the book. It took Hellenga three years to write The Sixteen Pleasures and another three to get it published. He is currently doing research in Bologna, Italy, for his next novel. He lives in Illinois with his wife and three daughters. A year went by, two years, three years, four. Mama died; Papa lost most of his money. My sister Meg got married and moved away; my sister Molly went to California with her boyfriend and then to Ann Arbor.

I tried to plunge in, to get wet, to catch hold, to find a place in one of the boats tossing and turning on the white-water rapids: I spent a lot of time holding hands and singing "We shall overcome," I spent a lot of time buying coffee and doughnuts and rolling joints, and I spent some time on my back, too—the only position for a woman in the Movement. And I kept thinking about Papa and his money troubles and his lawsuits, and about the embroidered seventeenth-century prayer books on my work table at the Newberry that needed to be disbound, washed, mended, and resewn before Christmas for an exhibit sponsored by the Caxton Club.

So I was under a certain amount of pressure. Or on the wrong track, in which case they can turn back. Papa did all the cooking in our family. My sisters and I did the dishes and Papa took care of everything else, day in and day out, and whether it was Italian or French or Chinese or Malaysian, it was always wonderful, it was always special. Those were our favorites, the standards against which we measured other dishes; but our very favorite treat of all was the dessert Papa made on our birthdays, instead of cake, which was supposed to look like the hats worn by cadets at Saint-Cyr, the French military academy.

He was holding a suitcase in one hand and shifting his weight back and forth from one foot to the other, as if he had to go to the bathroom, and his parents were talking at him so intensely that I thought for a minute he was going to miss the train. That hat stirred something inside me, made me feel I was doing the right thing and that I ought to keep going, that things would work out. Just to make sure I closed my eyes and willed him into the compartment, just as I had once willed Fabio Fabbriani to turn and watch me plunge feet first into the sea.

I kept my face down in my book and waited, eyes closed lightly, listening to the noises in the corridor. I was, I suppose, still operating, at least subconsciously, on a fairy-tale model of reality: I was Sleeping Beauty, or Snow White, waiting for some prince whose romantic kisses would awaken my full feelings, liberate my story senses, emancipate my drowsy and constrained imagination, take me back to that last Italian summer.

The train was already in motion when the door of the compartment finally opened. These suitcases were to luggage what Burberrys are to rainwear—lots of extra pockets and straps and mysterious zippers concealed under flaps. I asked him about the Saint-Cyr cadet. You need an older man like me. You need to reserve a seat early. I felt for these American women some of the mixed feelings that the traveler feels for the tourist. These were saltwater women—sailors, golfers, tennis players, clubwomen with suntans in November, large limbed, confident, conspicuous, firm, trim, sleek as walruses in their worsted wool suits.

They reminded me of the Gold Coast women who used to show up around the edges of CORE demonstrations, with their checkbooks open, telling us how much they admired what we were doing, and how they wished they could help more. All fucked up ideologically, according to our leaders at SNCC: I had heard too much.


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