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A Is for Amore
| Article
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20465 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
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5 / 1991 |
2,038 Words |
| Author
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Charlotte Green
Charlotte Green, who lives in New York, writes frequently for
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about literature and the arts. |
ABECEDARY
Goffredo Parise
Afterword by Natalia Ginzburg
Translated by James Marcus
Marlboro, Vermont: The Marlboro Press, 1991
147 pp., $17.95
A is for "Love" ("Amore") in this slender volume of vignettes, invented or remembered by Goffredo Parise and translated by James Marcus. A is also for "Friendship" ("Amicizia"), "Gaiety" ("Allegria"), and "Dislike" ("Antipatia"). B is for "Beauty" and C is for "Caress." Well, you get the idea. Originally published in Italy by Mondadori, this book of ABCs records "human sentiments, those ephemeral things, starting off with A and ending with Z."
Actually, Parise never did make it all the way through the alphabet, because, he claims, the muse deserted him after the letter S. But since the letters W and Y are rarely used in Italian and few words in any language begin with X, one can well understand the problem.
In Italian the tales appeared in two volumes: Sillabario No. 1 (1972) and No. 2 (1982). Marlboro Press of Vermont brings us the first of these, called Abecedary in English (an unnecessarily awkward title, perhaps), which covers the alphabet up to F for Family.
The stories are rich in detail, the way memory is. They are short (about half a dozen pages each), and all begin the same way--by setting the scene. "One day in late winter, in the mountains," or "One September day in 1941," or simply "One day." A man, a woman, a child, or even an animal is introduced (a dog is the main character of the piece that illustrates "Soul"). The place is established, a moment described, a glimpse captured, and the story ends, rather unfinished yet lasting.
Abecedary is a tantalizing buffet, an assorted "antipasto" of twenty-two delicious but tiny portions, enough to arouse your appetite and leave you hungry for more. The stories may or may not be autobiographical, but they are definitely informed by where and when Goffredo Parise lived.
'Love' in Parise's lexicon
The impression the stories leave, taken one by one, doesn't always seem appropriate to the title they've been given. Or, rather,
...
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