Books
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Hotel on Place Vendome: Life, Death,
and Betrayal at the Hotel Ritz in Paris
by Tilar J. Mazzeo
The Children Act by Ian McEwan
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Exploring Voice
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2010 BRESSANI AWARD FOR SHORT FICTION WINNER - Please click on cover to purchase
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Literary themes and events discussed, book and film reviews, short essays on life such as it is.
The Unfinished Dollhouse
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Made Up of Arias by Michelle Alfano
2010 BRESSANI AWARD FOR SHORT FICTION WINNER - Please click on cover to purchase
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Michelle Alfano's Made Up of Arias beautifully evokes an immigrant childhood lived against the backdrop of opera, which stands in for all that her characters have lost or will never attain even while it speaks to the most common and everyday of their tragedies and joys. Alfano writes with the humour and compassion of someone who not only understands her characters, but forgives them.
Nino Ricci, Governor General Award winning author of The Origin of Species and Lives of the Saints
As a writer, Michelle Alfano has it all. Her narratives are beguiling and true and populated by vivid, convincing characters. She has a mastery of metaphor, each one is effective. I can’t say enough about her prose; it is sensuous and crystalline, intelligent and insightful. I have read her novellaMade Up of Arias three times. It stood up under the multiple readings. Each time I was both entertained and moved.
Caterina Edwards, Finding Rosa: A Mother with Alzheimer's, a Daughter in Search of the Past
Cultural observer and literary editor Michelle Alfano’s A Lit Chick blog is sharp, funny and thoughtful; her Bressani Award-winning novella,Made Up Of Arias, shows another side of this talented writer. In a story as operatic as the central metaphor in the lives of the Pentangeli family, whose mother sings arias from the rooftop and children act out dramas in front of a billboard on Paradise Street, this novella explores the tragedy and comedy of everyday life, with grace notes that beautifully evoke both postwar Sicily and a working class Ontario neighbourhood of the nineteen-seventies. Highly recommended.
Terri Favro, The Proxy Bride (Quattro Books, 2012)
Made Up of Arias is all the voices of childhood, all the stories that allow a child's imagination to safely try on adult themes. Alfano is a keen observer, with an eye for detail and a gift for humour. ... This charming story is well worth reading.
Julie Booker, Partners, ICCT, Spring 2009
Made Up of Arias is an important and welcome addition to the tradition of Italian-Canadian literary voices. [Michelle Alfano] is also an outstanding writer whose fiction carves a distinct place in Canada’s national narrative. Beautifully observed, richly comic, heartbreaking and compelling, Made up of Arias, deserves to be read by a broad audience as well as specialists.
Lilia Topouzova, Italian Canadiana,December, 2009
In her novella,Made Up of Arias, writer Michelle Alfano speaks in the beautifully compelling, yet remarkably guileless voice of her protagonist and narrator, Lilla Pentangeli ... Michelle Alfano’s mastery of English and Italian, her knowledge of opera, and her ability to elevate the ordinary, are inspiring and transforming.
Lina Medaglia, The Demons of Aquilonia, Accenti Magazine, Spring, 2010
I laughed out loud and cried too as I read this wonderful novella...There is such joy in this family, and there is such sorrow too…and Michelle Alfano evokes all of that with her stunning prose and her ability to make us see and grow to love this family, and just like in an opera, we also get to see ourselves.
Rachel Guido deVries, VIA – Voices in Italian Americana, Fall 2012
Michelle Alfano’s [Made Up of Arias] is a colourful, beautiful and fascinating story of the Pentangeli family immigrating to Canada …
Stefania Bartucci, “Italian-Canadian author Michelle Alfano connects opera to immigration”, Tandem, February 13, 2010
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Who is A Lit Chick?
- A Lit Chick
- The (Not So) Nice Italian Girls & Friends were formed in 2009 to promote the work of Italo-Canadian writers and to create a dialogue with writers of all backgrounds, orientations and ethnicities. A Lit Chick (Michelle Alfano) is a co-founder of the series.
Blog Archive
We should not touch our idols; their gilding will remain on our hands.
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert
Upcoming Publications
- "Una Regina Senza Re", Moving Forward: The First Thirty Years of Italian-Canadian Writing, edited by Giulia De Gasperi, Delia De Santis, and Caroline Morgan Di Giovanni, Longbridge Books (Spring 2018)
Upcoming Readings & Events
- tbc
Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert
Reading Now
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Who if not you ... will stand fast against overwhelming odds, will break a lance for justice? Are you not ashamed that we old men are the ones who have become impassioned? That the generous madness of youth has inspired not you but your elders?
Emile Zola, Le Figaro, December 1, 1897
Emile Zola, Le Figaro, December 1, 1897
Book Reviews
- "H" is for Hawk
- A Gate at the Stairs
- A Man Could Stand Up
- A Perfect Night to go to China
- A Spot of Bother
- All the Sad Young Literary Men
- All this talk of love
- Anna Karenina
- Annabel
- Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
- Astray
- At Last
- Autograph Man
- Bad Girl, The
- Bad News
- Becoming Jane Austen
- Becoming Jane Eyre
- Behind Closed Doors: Her Father's House and Other Stories of Sicily
- Bishop's Man, The
- Blue Nights
- Boy in the Moon, The
- Breakfast at Tiffany's
- Breaking Dawn
- Brideshead Revisited
- Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
- Brighton Rock
- Brighton Rock
- Bring Up the Bodies
- Brooklyn
- By Nightfall
- Captain's Death Bed, The
- Carlyle's House
- Carmen
- Cassandra at the Wedding
- Cutting for Stone
- Darkly Dreaming Dexter
- De Niro's Game
- Dearly Devoted Dexter
- Death of a Heroine
- Demons of Aquilonia
- Down and Out in Paris and London
- Eclipse
- Edible Woman
- Edith's War
- Emperor's Children
- Empty Mansions
- Empty Mansions
- Enchantments
- Enduring Love
- Falling Man
- Family Fang, The
- Fifty Shades of Grey
- Fight Club
- Film Club, The
- Finding Rosa
- Florence Broadhurst
- Florence Gordon
- For Whom the Bell Tolls
- Frankly, My Dear
- Fresh Girls
- Gargoyle, The
- Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
- Girl Who Played With Fire
- Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- Glass Castle
- Golden Mean, The
- Gomorrah
- Goodbye to Berlin
- Great Gatsby, The
- Group, The
- Half-Blood Blues
- House of Mirth, The
- Household Guide to Dying
- How did you get this number
- Hunger Games, The
- I Was Told There'd Be Cake
- In th Garden of Beasts
- Inside Out: Reflections on a life so far
- Jane Eyre
- Juliet Stories, The
- Just KIds
- Kicking the Sky
- King Leary
- King's Speech, The
- Last Post, The
- Leftovers, The
- Life Class
- Lit: A Memoir
- Lolita
- Londonstani
- Lullabies for Little Criminals
- Madame Bovary
- Making Olives and Other Family Secrets
- Marie Antoinette: The Journey
- Massey Murder, The
- May Day
- Me and Orson Welles
- Measure of a Man, The
- Midnight at the Dragon Cafe
- Mistress's Daughter
- Motherless Brooklyn
- Mothers, The
- Mrs. Dalloway
- Mrs. Dalloway Reader
- My Brilliant Friend
- Netherland
- New Moon
- No More Parades
- Note Found in a Bottle
- On Chesil Beach
- Orange is the New Black
- Origin of Species
- Oscar and Lucinda
- Our Town
- Out of the Blue
- Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
- Periodic Table
- Perpetual Orgy
- Portrait of a Lady, The
- Prison Noir
- Proxy Bride, The
- Push
- Rage and the Pride, The
- Rajapaksa Stories, The
- Raymond and Hannah
- Reader, The
- Reading Lolita in Tehran
- Red Leather Diary
- Remarkable Creatures
- Romeo and Juliet
- Rules of Civility
- Russian Debutante's Handbook
- Sense of an Ending, The
- Sleep
- Smile Please: An Unfinished Biography
- Snow Queen, The
- Solitude of Prime Numbers
- Some Do Not
- Stations of the Heart
- Story of a New Name
- Sweet Girl, The
- Telling Some Tales
- Testament of Mary, The
- The Chaperone
- The Girls
- The Girls
- The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
- The Mothers
- The Sisters Brothers
- Things I've Been Silent About
- This Beautiful Life
- This Vacant Paradise
- Those who and those who stay
- Three Day Road
- Through Black Spruce
- Toby's Room
- True History of Kelly Gang
- Twilight
- Uncommon Arrangements
- Undone
- Virgin Suicides
- Visiting Mrs. Nabokov and Other Excursions
- Wapshot Chronicle
- War
- War and Peace, v. 1 & v. 2
- We have always lived in the castle
- When the Astors Owned New York
- White Tiger
- Wild Nights
- Wolf Hall
- Yiddish Policemen's Union
- Young Romantics
To see something as art requires something the eye cannot decry - an atmosphere of artistic theory, a knowledge of the history of art: an artworld. Athur Danto
The Blog List
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PERIOD DRAMA ALERT: THE PORTER2 years ago
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Film Reviews
- (2016) Jackie
- (2016) Birth of a Nation
- (2015) Sky
- (2015) Louder than Bombs
- (2015) Janis: Little Girl Blue
- (2015) I Smile Back
- (2015) Hyena Road
- (2015) Hitchcock/Truffaut
- (2015) Freeheld
- (2015) Eva Doesn't Sleep
- (2014) This is where I leave you
- (2014) Theory of Everything, The
- (2014) Still Alice
- (2014) Riot Club, The
- (2014) Nightcrawler
- (2014) Mr. Turner
- (2014) Leopardi
- (2014) Interstellar
- (2014) Imitation Game, The
- (2014) Ida
- (2014) Grand Budapest Hotel, The
- (2014) Gone Girl
- (2014) Gomorrah
- (2014) Foxcatcher
- (2014) Finding Vivian Maier
- (2014) Far From Men
- (2014) Cake
- (2014) Breathe (Respire)
- (2014) Boyhood
- (2014) Birdman
- (2014) A Most Violent Year
- (2014) A Little Chaos
- (2014) 50 Year Argument, The
- (2013) Violette
- (2013) Those Happy Years
- (2013) Sex, Drugs & Taxation
- (2013) Kill Your Darlings
- (2013) How strange to be called Federico: Scola Narrates Fellini
- (2013) Hotell
- (2013) Hateship, Loveship
- (2013) Great Gatsby, The
- (2013) Gabrielle
- (2013) Bad Hair
- (2013) Ain't Misbehaving
- (2012) Zero Dark Thirty
- (2012) To the Wonder
- (2012) The Master
- (2012) Skyfall
- (2012) Silver Linings Playbook
- (2012) Secret Disco Revolution
- (2012) Searching for Sugarman
- (2012) Reluctant Fundamentalist, The
- (2012) Queen of Versailles
- (2012) Passion
- (2012) Much Ado about Nothing
- (2012) Life of Pi
- (2012) Les Miserables
- (2012) Io e Te (Me and You)
- (2012) Imogene
- (2012) Iceman, The
- (2012) Great Expectations
- (2012) Ginger and Rosa
- (2012) Free Angela Davis
- (2012) Frankenweenie
- (2012) Frances Ha
- (2012) Flight
- (2012) English Vinglish
- (2012) Coriolanus
- (2012) Brave
- (2012) Blondie
- (2012) Beasts of the Southern Wild
- (2012) Argo
- (2012) Anna Karenina
- (2011) Your Sister's Sister
- (2011) W.E.
- (2011) Twixt
- (2011) Tree of Life
- (2011) Straw Dogs
- (2011) Short Cuts Canada: Programme 6
- (2011) Shame
- (2011) Pink Ribbons, Inc.
- (2011) My Week with Marilyn
- (2011) Moth Diaries, The
- (2011) Monsieur Lazhar
- (2011) Midnight in Paris
- (2011) Ides of March
- (2011) Hugo
- (2011) House of Tolerance
- (2011) Help, The
- (2011) Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- (2011) Friends with Kids
- (2011) First Man, The
- (2011) Damsels in Distress
- (2011) Carnage
- (2011) Bridesmaids
- (2011) Artist, The
- (2011) Always Brando
- (2010) Women Art Revolution
- (2010) Winter's Bone
- (2010) Trust
- (2010) True Grit
- (2010) Town, The
- (2010) The Fighter
- (2010) Solitude of Prime Numbers, The
- (2010) Social Network, The
- (2010) Salt
- (2010) Rabbit Hole
- (2010) Peep World
- (2010) King's Speech, The
- (2010) Kids are All Right, The
- (2010) Io sono amore
- (2010) Eclipse
- (2010) Daybreakers
- (2010) Conspirator, The
- (2010) Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer
- (2010) Black SWan
- (2010) Barney's Version
- (2010) Amazon Falls
- (2010) 127 Hours
- (2009) Vincere
- (2009) Videocracy
- (2009) Tyson
- (2009) The Informant!
- (2009) Public Enemies
- (2009) Precious
- (2009) Pontypool
- (2009) Nine
- (2009) New Moon
- (2009) Last Station, The
- (2009) Julie & Julia
- (2009) Jennifer's Body
- (2009) Invention of Lying, The
- (2009) Inglorious Basterds
- (2009) Hurt Locker, The
- (2009) Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist, Rebel
- (2009) He's just not that into you
- (2009) Glorious 39
- (2009) Giulia non esce la sera
- (2009) District 9
- (2009) Creation
- (2009) Cracks
- (2009) Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky
- (2009) Chloe
- (2009) Bright Star
- (2009) An Education
- (2009) A Single Man
- (2009) A Serious Man
- (2008) Visitor, The
- (2008) Tropic Thunder
- (2008) Synecdoche, New York
- (2008) Slumdog Millionaire
- (2008) Revolutionary Road
- (2008) Religulous
- (2008) Reader, The
- (2008) Rachel Getting Married
- (2008) Picasso and Braque go to the movies
- (2008) Other Man
- (2008) Me and Orson Welles
- (2008) Management
- (2008) In Bruges
- (2008) Heart of Jenin
- (2008) Gran Torino
- (2008) Gomorra
- (2008) Frost/Nixon
- (2008) Doubt
- (2008) Disgrace
- (2008) Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- (2008) Che
- (2008) Burn After Reading
- (2008) Adoration
- (2007) Then She Found Me
- (2007) Savages, The
- (2007) Reservation Road
- (2007) No Country for Old Men
- (2007) My Winnipeg
- (2007) Margot at the Wedding
- (2007) Jane Austen Book Club
- (2007) Into the Wild
- (2007) In the Valley of Elah
- (2007) Funny Games
- (2007) Factory Girl
- (2007) Elizabeth: The Golden Age
- (2007) Eastern Promises
- (2007) Deficit
- (2007) Cassandra's Dream
- (2007) Becoming Jane
- (2007) Atonement
- (2007) American Gangster
- (2007) 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days
- (2007) 3:10 to Yuma
- (2006) Snow Cake
- (2006) Little Children
- (2006) Half Nelson
- (2006) Good Shepherd, The
- (2006) Fur
- (2006) Dream Girls
- (2006) Black Snake Moan
- (2006) Alpha Dogs
- (2003) Best of Youth, Pt. 2
- (2003) Best of Youth, Pt. 1
- (2002) Hours, The
- (2001) Y tu mamá también
- (1999) Fight Club
- (1997) Anna Karenina
- (1985) A Room with a View
- (1979) Apocalypse Now
- (1972) Last Tango in Paris
- (1972) Godfather I
- (1969) The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
- (1960) Rocco and his Brothers
- (1960) La Dolce Vita
- (1958) Marjorie Morningstar
- (1954) On the Waterfront
- (1948) Red Shoes, The
- (1939) Gone With the Wind
- (1933) Dinner at Eight
- (1929) Pandora's Box (Lulu)
- (1929) Diary of a Lost Girl
- (1929) Blue Angel
- (1927) It
- (1926) Show Off, The
The one way of tolerating existence is to lose oneself in literature as in a perpetual orgy.
Gustave Flaubert, 1858
Gustave Flaubert, 1858
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