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March 3, 1945, turns into a fateful night of horror for a young American Marine caught in the onslaught of Japanese fire on Iwo Jima. But worse than the machine-gun wounds that he sustains is a reality that he will bury, a mental and psychological scar so terrible that he wont allow it to surface with doctors at Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco. It is only with a nurse who has an actual scar of her own from an abusive stepfather that he finds some respite. Given a medical discharge after V-E Day, the wounded Marine returns to his home in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, which lies on the fringes of the dying coke and coal country. There he begins the agonizing journey of recognition to confront a naked, shattering truth. How he deals with his strong-willed father, friends, one antagonist, and the nurse who makes her way to Mount Pleasant, will determine the outcome of his nightmare on Iwo Jima. The Oldest Son is a story of the triumph of hope that springs from the love between a woman and a man.
"Pilar Orsini Oquendo has just lost the love of her life. Her fiancé, Gonzalo, has been wrenched from her grasp by his untimely passing. Left alone to grieve, she finds herself at their favorite place, on a secluded beach in Spain. It is here where Gonzalo's childhood friend finds Pilar and, in a fit of lust, rapes her. Distraught and betrayed, Pilar soon finds the rape has produced a pregnancy. Despite the difficulty, Pilar decides to keep the baby. She struggles to wade through her emotional turmoil and continue her ambitious career as a translator of American literature. While speaking at Columbia University, Pilar meets Gus Brubaker. Gus is a Spanish literature translator, and he is imm...
Susan McKenna presents the innovative narratives of Emilia Pardo Bazán, Spain's preeminent nineteenth-century female writer, in Crafting the Female Subject.
Beyond the Family Romance explores parallels between Pascoli's work and such writers as Tarchetti, Boito, Poe, and Invernizio.
Set against the background of civil unrest in the late 1860s after the overthrow of the monarchy - a period of turmoil, brief restoration, and the eventual triumph of the republicans in 1873 - the novel portrays the life of a young girl, Amparo, growing up in the streets of La Corufia, the city Dona Emilia knew so well from her own wanderings there some years earlier.
Not easily translated, the Spanish terms cursi and cursilería refer to a cultural phenomenon widely prevalent in Spanish society since the nineteenth century. Like "kitsch," cursi evokes the idea of bad taste, but it also suggests one who has pretensions of refinement and elegance without possessing them. In The Culture of Cursilería, Noël Valis examines the social meanings of cursi, viewing it as a window into modern Spanish history and particularly into the development of middle-class culture. Valis finds evidence in literature, cultural objects, and popular customs to argue that cursilería has its roots in a sense of cultural inadequacy felt by the lower middle classes in nineteenth- ...
Shakespeare, Lee Oser argues, is a Christian literary artist who criticizes and challenges Christians, but who does so on Christian grounds. Stressing Shakespeare’s theological sensitivity, Oser places Shakespeare’s work in the “radical middle,” the dialectical opening between the sacred and the secular where great writing can flourish. According to Oser, the radical middle was and remains a site of cultural originality, as expressed through mimetic works of art intended for a catholic (small “c”) audience. It describes the conceptual space where Shakespeare was free to engage theological questions, and where his Christian skepticism could serve his literary purposes. Oser review...
José Maria Eça de Queirós (1845-1900) was a Portuguese author in the realist style, whose work has been translated into 20 languages. The Count of Abranhos was published posthumously, and this is the first time it has been translated into English. Alípio Severo Abranhos, born to poor parents in a small town in the north of Portugal, goes off to spend his boyhood and adolescence with an aunt whose material well-being constitutes, for him, the lap of luxury. And he likes and becomes accustomed to luxury. As he follows a course of study for his bacharel at the University of Coimbra, certain negative character traits come to the fore, and upon completion of his degree he leaves behind a preg...
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Literature Fellowship Program has helped new writers find their voices and established authors continue their work. Some of the early grants went to writers whose work is now a permanent part of America¿s literary legacy, such as Gwendolyn Brooks, Isaac Bashevis Singer, John Berryman, Denise Levertov, Robert Penn Warren, and Eudora Welty. The NEA Fellowships have also recognized many writers before their talents were acknowledged by a wider audience, such as Alice Walker, Tobias Wolff, and Maxine Hong Kingston. This publication, issued in the 40th year of NEA¿s existence, celebrates the history of the NEA Literature Fellowship Program. Photos.
In this book, eight stories written by Pedro Antonio de Alarcon have been brought together in English for the first time. The nail in "The Nail" is found driven into a disinterred skull, and if some of the events are implausible and others incredible, it is also true that there is considerable suspense and mystery. "The Cornet" draws more heavily on historical reality, with its depiction of the horror of civil war and factual detail. Noteworthy for its first-person narration and rapid-fire dialogue, "The Cornet" paints an episode of fraternal love and the power of the will. "The Orderly," although set against the same Carlist War background, has more to do with a military "attitude" than a C...