Renato!

The life and times of the painter Renato Stillamare have become a blazing magnum opus Publishers Weekly A bittersweet, beautiful story that merits wide attention [and] speaks wisely to life s truths. Kirkus Reviews Age bends and fate twists this artist, but he carries on with his perishable art and human love the indefatigable artist as his own work of art. William Kennedy, author of The Albany Cycle Mirabelli has reinvented the peculiarly Italian, extravagantly melodramatic and often comic vision the opera in the novel form. He is a master of montage, sudden narrative breaks, interwoven plots and themes. This truly is a wise and comforting book, funny and sad, wonderfully intelligent from the introduction by Douglas Glover A major canvas The real and the surreal blend together seamlessly; the love affair endures. Nicholas Delbanco, author of Why Writing Matters For anyone who loves the work of James Salter or William Trevor, Eugene Mirabelli is another writer to treasure. Elizabeth Hand, author of Generation LossRenato! is the sweeping autobiography of Renato Stillamare, a talented yet struggling artist in Boston. Renato is, in addition, an uncommonly gifted story-teller as he first sets out relating the outlandish family legends that lead to his eventual discovery and adoption as a foundling. Renato's early life follows, including the misadventures that lead to his marriage to Alba Quick. But the heart of Renato! is the eventful summer of 2000, Renato's seventieth year. Having retired from teaching, he retreats to his Boston studio where he is possessied by an unquenchable ambition: to have his paintings exhibited by a Newbury Street gallery despite his work being out of favor for 25 years. He is furiously painting painting painting when his world is suddenly turned upside down by the appearance on his doorstep of a young homeless woman and her child. A witty screwball comedy ensues that Billy Wilder would have been proud to film. Renato! is a marriage of story-telling forms that touch upon matters of love, sex, food, philosophy, religion, and the intricacies of family attachments. The larger canvas stretches from 1860 to the present, and from Sicily to Massachusetts. Renato is creative, noble, jealous, generous, foolish, warm, impulsive, selfish, and funny.


Genre: Literary Fiction