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Book Review: Dan Hofstadter's Falling Palace: A Romance of Naples

reviewed by anna battista

The XII Biennial of Young Artists of Europe and the Mediterranean took place in Naples just a few months ago. Its main theme was, very aptly, passion.

After all, passion is at the core of Neapolitan life: it pervades the chaotic streets of this city, but also its traditions, with its miracles and superstitions, its love for food and its colourful dialect. No wonder than that the American protagonist of Falling Palace: A Romance of Naples by Dan Hofstadter falls in love so much with this Italian city that he keeps on going back there.

We never learn much about the circumstances that led Hofstadter's protagonist to Naples, but we know that he is writing while he lives there. The focus of the whole book is his relationship with Naples, and with a young Neapolitan woman, Benedetta.

The book is divided in two parts: part one is about visiting Naples for the first time, part two marks the comeback of the protagonist after three years of absence. In each chapter the readers meet different characters, from Benedetta's family with her pastry chef father, to local actor Gigi Attrice, from wedding photographer Donato Bianchi and the Quaranta brothers, experts on the life of the subterranean Naples, to Gennauro D'Auria, a popular psychic with his own radio show.

Hofstadter guides his readers through the meandering labyrinthine streets of the Quartieri Spagnoli, takes them to visit the bassi, the typical Neapolitan houses, recounts the various conversations in Neapolitan dialect, and reports about the gossips heard in historical cafes such as the famous Gambrinus.

Falling Palace is a book full of marvels (the best bits are the ones about the subterranean Naples), of visceral love not only for elusive Benedetta, whose secrets he will never completely discover, but also for the city, its streets and buildings. While American and British tourists will probably fall in love with colourful bits such as the description of an inflatable crèche and manger scene that can also make real Neapolitan coffee, there will be those readers who won't completely enjoy this book seeing Hofstadter's romanticised descriptions as a series of clichés about the people from Naples (see Benedetta, described as woman with coffee-scented hair). Perhaps the best way to read Falling Palace is as a romance, a love story between a man and a woman and a man and a city.

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