Lunedì Letterario

Hotel De Dream

A New York Novel

by Edmund White

2007

I am in New York this week, so I thought it was a good time to mention a book that I read this summer in Sicily.

Hotel de Dream is a fictional account of the final months in the life of American author Stephen Crane.  (Every American high school student read Crane's Red Badge of Courage.) Crane is in Sussex, England, dying of tuberculosis at age 28 and he is being cared for by his wife Cora. In the midst of the confusion and tragedy of his last days, Crane dictates a strange novel called "The Painted Boy," set in seedy New York City at the end of the 1890's. Edmund White's novel flows back and forth between the words of the dictated tale and the narrative of Crane's final days in the English countryside. "The Painted Boy" is the story of a boy prostitute and the married man who ruins his own life to win the boy's love. Hotel de Dream presents two love stories: Crane and his wife, and the painted boy and his banker lover. This novel-within-a-novel has both the style of Crane and White and was a book that was difficult to put down.

October 31st

Click on the picture to see a bigger image.

Happy Halloween

Here are some of the pumpkins created by my students.

Lunedì Letterario

Being a 5th grade teacher gives me a lot of contact with children's literature. I enjoy reading aloud to my class and we began this school year with Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins. It was followed by Marvin Redpost: Why Pick on Me? by Louis Sachar, Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo and Granny Torrelli Makes Soup by Susan Creech. Because the World Series is happening now in the United States, we are currently reading In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Boa Lord.

On my own, I have recently enjoyed reading two new mysteries for young readers. 

The 39 Clues:

The Maze of Bones

by Rick Riordan

2008

The 39 Clues is a series of fantasy adventure books, the first of which is titled The Maze of Bones and was published in September. (Future books in the series will be written by different authors.) The story line involves relatives of Grace Cahill, a fictional character, who are challenged by her will to find 39 clues around the world. The winners are told that they will become the "richest and most important people in the world." Simultaneously, the series publisher, Scholastic, has launched an online game with players able to win prizes.

The Calder Game

by Blue Balliett

2008

The Calder Game is the third novel by this author to combine art and three students solving a mystery. This one begins with a class field trip to the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art and takes the reader with the three kids to England and the maze at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock.

Italian Politics

Recently these posters were all over the city of Rome announcing an upcoming rally.

Last April Silvio Berlusconi (People of Freedom Party) was again elected as Italy's Prime Minister. In American elections, the defeated candidate usually disappears into the woodwork. Not so, here in Italy. Walter Veltroni, (center-left Democratic party, PD) the former mayor of Rome and the defeated candidate, can be seen on TV every day, on talk shows and in the news, continuing to campaign for the ideas of his party.
This Saturday I was attempting to go into the center of the city and encountered tens of thousands of demonstrators making their way to the Circus Maximus for a rally and to hear a message from Walter Veltroni. The first reports were that 2.5 million people were there, proclaiming that "Another Italy is Possible!" The official police count was 200,000. Either way, it was a large rally for a recently defeated party.

Demonstrators going past the medieval Porta San Paolo

Marching past the ancient Aurelian Wall

Pumpkins: Waiting for the Knife

These pumpkins were in the Ambrit Rome International School atrium on Friday, waiting to go home with students. For €10 a family could take a pumpkin and participate in a pumpkin carving contest. The proceeds will go to the the Haiti Cherie fund to feed street children in Port-au-Prince. You can check back on Friday to see a posting with some of the carved pumpkins, Italian stlye!

il Vittoriano

A monument known to all who visit and live in Rome is the one to King Victor Emmanuel II. When I was in college and lived in Rome during the early 1970's we referred to it as a large white Olivetti typewriter. Today it is called a big wedding cake. It's "proper" knickname is il Vittoriano. It is also the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Altar of the Country, the Regimental Colors Museum, the Central Museum of the Risorgimento, and exhibition space for changing shows. (I once saw a great show of portraits by Modigliani here.)
On Sunday I went to the top of the monument, the Terrace of the Quadrigas, so named because of the bronze statues of chariots drawn by four horses. The panoramas of Rome were wonderful.
This is the view looking to the west, towards St. Peter's Basilica. You can see the dome of the Gesu Church in the foreground, and to the left of it is the rounded dome of the Pantheon.

This is the view town the Alban Hills with the Collesium and the Roman Forum in the foreground.

Fig Tree for the Balcony

On Sunday Vin noticed a fig tree for sale at our corner flower stand. On the way home from church he bought it and it is now enjoying a life on our balcony. Maybe the birds of the air will come and make nests in it's branches.

Here are some pictures of the one-block journey from the flower stand, up the stairs and onto the balcony.