Moscardino

(Paperback)

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Description

A small masterpiece, Pea's lyrical autobiographical novel reveals a grandfather through his grandson's eyes. The old man and his brothers' madness, passion, and quirks are interwoven in intimate, mythical sketches and fiery portraits of family dynamics. The first installment of a four-part novel, Moscardino is linguistically adventurous and visual, vivid and anarchic. Pea's personal account of his first meeting with Pound accompanies the text.

Reviews

This is just announcin that Italy has a writer, and it is some time since I told anybody that ANY country on earth had a writer. Like Confucius [Pea] knocked round and done all sorts of jobs. ...Whats it like Well, if Tom Hardy had been born a lot later, and lived in the hills up back of Lunigiana, which is down along the coast here, and if Hardy hadnt writ what ole Fordie used to call that sort of small town paper journalese. And if a lot of other things, includin temperament, had been different... that might have been something like Peas writinwhich I repeat is good writing... Writes like a man who could make a good piece of mahogany furniture. Ezra Pound, 1941 (from his Radio Speeches)

...when the phantasmagoria of Pea's prose momentarily lifts in order to reveal almost Czanne-like notations of local landscape, we hear the old miglior fabbro turning out sentences as splendid as any in Joyce. Bookforum

Moscardino is a lovely book, printed and bound with grace by Archipelago. Ralph: Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy, and the Humanities

Author Bio

Novelist, poet, and playwright Enrico Pea (1881-1958) spent his youth traveling. He lived for years in Alexandria, where he struck up a friendship with Ungaretti. He published Moscardino in 1922. Translator- Ezra Pound's work as a translator stretched from Confucius and Li Po to the troubadour poets to Paul Morand and Enrico Pea. His interest in "regionalism" most likely attracted him to the work of Pea.