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.
Lampadusa, The Last Leopard
Mario Puzo
One of the many benefits of traveling to Italy, especially to Italian-Americans, is that you experience firsthand the differences between Italian and Italian-American culture. For me, some of these differences were quite surprising. One of the most memorable revelations was the reaction some Italian friends had not only to The Godfather but also to Mario Puzo.