A Bell for Adano
Historical fiction is one of today’s most popular genres. From the Peloponnesian War to the war in Iraq and all points in between, you can read books that will give you a sense of what it was like to live in those times. Unsurprisingly, the most compelling of these works are created by the people who witnessed these momentous events, who were part of it. I think of such great novels as Hemmingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls, Heller’s Catch-22, and Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. John Hersey’s Pulitzer Prize winning A Bell for Adano, although not ranked as highly as these others, deserves praise. There is an authenticity to it that gives the reader a sense of what life in Italy must have been like as the war ended.
Marcus Aurelius, Philosopher King?
Plato wrote of the philosopher king. He described a ruler who combined philosophical knowledge and temperament with political skill and power. Since that time, there has been only one ruler who embodied Plato’s description. Although Marcus Aurelius, in his humility, saw himself as merely a student of philosophy, he was the personification of this Platonic ideal.
Giuseppe Garibaldi, Hero of Two Worlds
As Joseph Campbell said, “a hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” I can think of no greater example of a hero than Giuseppe Garibaldi. He was a man who combined the personal magnetism of George Washington, the convictions of Abraham Lincoln, and the swashbuckling joie de vivre of Errol Flynn.
Pineapple on your pizza, sure. Anchovies, no.
You want pineapple on your pizza? Sure, you could get that anywhere. But try asking for anchovies! Nowadays, you get anything on your pizza, from barbeque chicken to kimchi. What is happening to pizza?
Tony Bennette
This past July, we bade farewell to Tony Bennett, one of the all-time great crooners. Tony Bennett, an artist of whom Frank Sinatra said “is the best singer in the business.”
The Neapolitan Quartet
The Neapolitan Quartet is a set of novels to which many Americans have been introduced through the HBO series, My Brilliant Friend. While the television series does an excellent job of capturing the essence of the books and is well worth the watching, there is nothing that can compare to actually reading Elana Ferrante’s words. I devoured these books, not hesitating in going immediately from one to the next, as if each book were merely chapters of one complete work, which they were. Ferrante has described them as “a single novel” published in four volumes due to length and duration. They are like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, one story across multiple books.
Ukraine & Partisan Flowers
Lampadusa, The Last Leopard
The Origins of Valentine’s Day
They say Italians didn’t invent love, we just perfected it. We can, however, take credit for inventing Valentine’s day. Now, I will admit although the cynical assertion that the holiday was started by chocolatiers, florists, and greeting card companies to help bump sales during the post-holiday slump has some appeal, it isn’t correct. If you are one of these naysayers that dreads having to buy flowers and find a coveted seat at an overbooked restaurant every mid-February, blame the Italians.
Does this country have room for the Italian-American?
A funny thing happened to me the other day at lunch while I was eating a cobb salad. I realized that it was a great example of the United States of America. When I made this observation to my son-in-law, Ryan, he said it is the old question of whether the United States was a melting pot or a salad.
So, you’re Italian-American. What’s the big deal?
Everyone should be proud of their cultural heritage, even if you aren’t Italian-American. After all, not everyone can be an Italian-American. I guess my bias is pretty obvious. Someone once asked me if I could choose to be anything other than Italian-American, what would I like to be. I was shocked by such a horrible thought. The Italian-American culture is the confluence of two of the greatest civilizations ever to have existed. I wouldn’t want to be anything other than what I am.
Carlo Levi, Author of “Christ Stopped at Eboli”
Where do you live? Some place rural where the air is clean and you know your neighbors? Maybe you are an urban dweller, attracted to the excitement and diversity of a big city. Now, imagine all of that taken away. Imagine, someone from the government forcibly taking you to an unfamiliar place, far away from the place you live and the people you know.
Marco Polo Introduced the Chinese to Chop Sticks
Years ago, I had an acquaintance who was from China. He insisted that the Chinese invented spaghetti. He believed in the myth that Macro Polo introduced Italians to it when he returned from his travels. It did not matter what I told him; he was told this all his life. So, as far he was concerned, it was the absolute truth. Remembering the adage attributed to Mark Twain, it’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled, I gave up. Instead I told him that most people don’t know that Marco Polo introduced the Chinese to chopsticks.
If Italian-Americans aren’t Italian, what are they?
When I was a kid growing up in an Italian neighborhood in New York, we used to say there were two kinds of people in the world; Italians and those that wanted to be. When my daughters were just children, I told them they were very lucky little girls; not everyone gets to be Italian. Then I made my first trip to Italy. I started developing acquaintances with people born and raised in Italy, Italian Italians, not Italian-Americans. I was shocked by what I had learned. My daughters and I were not lucky. We were members of the second group, those that wanted to be. We weren’t Italian!
Are Italian-Americans Italian? Redux
I hate to admit being wrong, to publicly change my opinion, especially when that opinion is dear to me. I guess I could just cite the adage; to admit that you were wrong is to declare that you are wiser now than you were before. Maybe I should have started this post by telling you how much more wise I now am than I was in the past. See how I turned that around?