Kirjahaku

Uncovers an overlooked aspect of the Italian American experience.In Beyond Memory, Dennis Barone uncovers the richness and diversity of the Italian Protestant experience and places it in the context of migration and political and social life in both Italy and the United States. Italian Protestants have received scant attention in the fields of Italian American studies, religious studies, and immigration studies, and through literary sources, church records, manuscript sources, and secondary sources in various fields, Barone introduces such forgotten voices as the Baptist Antonio Mangano, the Methodist Antonio Arrighi, and his great-grandfather Alfredo Barone, a Baptist minister to congregations in Italy and Massachusetts. Examining the complex histories of these and other Italian Protestants, Barone argues that Protestantism ultimately served as a means to negotiate between Old World and New World ways, even as it resulted in the double alienation of rejection by Roman Catholic immigrants and condescension by Anglo-Protestants. Though the book focuses on the years of high immigration (1890–1920), it also looks at precursors to post-reunification Protestants as well as Protestants in Italy today, now that the nation has become a country of in-migration.

Literary Nonfiction. Barone's work portrays how Italian American authors of different times and generations negotiated this challenging terrain called America. From the immigrant pick-and-shovel poet Pascal D'Angelo sleeping in workers' camps and dreaming of an artist's life, to John Fante finding his milieu, these writings weave complex identities between Italy and America, immigrant and native-born, and interpret such ongoing and unsettled negotiations.

I have organized Parallel Lines somewhat chronologically. There are stylistic (not thematic) groupings which break the chronology and there are repetitions, such as a number of "breath" poems, which go counter to the breaks and provide connections. The longest poem, 'Scarf', wanders and a scarf, as you know, can be wrapped around anything, any subject. Or a scarf can be comforting, keep you warm, or make you fashionable. Or it might be used by the magician for conjuring acts. (Dennis Barone)

Sound/Hammer resides at the interface of poetry and prose. The first half of the book, "Sound," yields poems that question, and explore, the division between poetry and prose. Some poems embark on narrative flights; others are insistent in letting music trump plot. "Hammer" lets prose do the work. Some stories unfold simple, and just happen. Other stories demand attention to their music, with a few stories evolving into a condition where the music is the story. Sound/Hammer tries to bring halves into a whole, to follow diverse yet unified thread, to knit rough seams together invisibly, to be targeted by exploding into multi-directional arrays, to opt for rubbing out the straight lines and shifting focus into the mind's eye.

Each poem in the collection is ingenious, touching and eloquent. The impression stays with us that these poems of feeling and vision will attract all readers. In places the poet displays the sublime beauty of intense imagination.