Latest work
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Extinguished
Read more: ExtinguishedThe smile few could ignore. My mother’s depression began in the fall of 1963. It deepened in the following month and throughout the next year. Eventually, in mid-1965, she left a 15-year marriage to return to Rome, her adopted home. She could no longer bear her husband, her churlish son,…
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The vengeful
Read more: The vengefulThroughout postwar France and Italy, women who collaborated or communed with the Nazis had their heads shaved by vengeful crowds. Just after the end of World War II, France and Italy slipped into gruesome internecine violence. Much of it occurred in the hinterlands and went unreported. Urban incidents were excused…
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Carnage
Read more: CarnageFor some, 2008 was a horror show. But they were drowned out, until now. January 2009 was a grim time for portions of non-coastal America. A black Democrat with a strange and un-American sounding name had won the presidency and was entering the White House. His optimistic “Yes We Can”…
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About bastards
Read more: About bastardsTwo bastards, with a side order of politics. Three Italian doctors convene in windowless room in a Fascist-era Rome hospital. I am there with them, in a chair. I am the object of their attention. I have advanced glaucoma. I am an unusual patient with highly fickle eyes. They are…
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Nella morsa
Read more: Nella morsaGo to St. Peter’s Square on a below-freezing night and you might have it to yourself. Rome has a uniquely peculiar relationship with freezing weather. In most European capitals, people bundle up. Here, they vanish. Or some do. It’s as if cold contained a malarial dimension. Busy streets grow vacant.…
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Clever Boy
Read more: Clever BoySometimes the obvious move isn’t the shrewdest one. Chess orthodoxy depends on thinking many moves ahead. It’s about visualizing grids and pathways available to block or pin back an opponent. It’s also about feigning strength to cover for weakness. Deception can catch lax opponents off guard induce blunders. In grandmaster-level…
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