Falling Palace: A Romance of Naples
Alfred A. Knopf, November 2005. First Edition. Hardcover. Used - Very Good / Very Good. Item #282798
ISBN: 0375414401
A portrait of the sun-drenched volcanic city from an American who has lost his heart to the place and to a beguiling and mysterious Neapolitan woman.
Weaving the tale of an elusive romance with a vivid and haunting evocation of a legendary metropolis, Dan Hofstadter brilliantly reveals Naples to us. He is our guide to the dilapidated architectural beauty and the irrepressible theater of the city's everyday life; the centuries-old festivals that regularly overtake the jumbled streets; the conversations in dialect that start in the cafes after work and continue into the night; the countless curio shops where treasures mingle with kitsch. And he brings to life on the page the natives he befriends, people whose gestures and superstitions seem as ancient as Vesuvius: a master baker who'd rather be playing the stock market; an agoraphobic aunt who must meddle by phone; and, always, Benedetta, the object of our narrator's fascination and affections, and, like her lifelong home-city, at once inviting and unfathomable.
Hofstadter's Naples is an amalgam of equivocal beauty, vestigial beliefs, betrayed resolves, and half-concealed secrets, a wounded city whose commonplace wonders are vividly conjured in this rich and lyrical book.
Weaving the intrigue of an elusive romance with the vivid and haunting evocation of a legendary metropolis, the author brilliantly reveals Naples in this sun-drenched and lyrical book. Price clipped, else very good all round.
Used Book
Price: $8.75
