Nearing his eighties this might be Edmund White's
finest book. It's a little over 200 pages
and you would swear you've gone through
600 pages, thoroughly enjoying yourself.
As he closes one of the chapters,
"There is great imaginative energy in Malaparte, as there
is in Gabriel Garcia Marquez; everything is compact,
eloquent, and endlessly inventive."
White just described his own book.
Relish the essays on Jean Giono and Malaparte
since few readers today take the time
with these lively authors.
[ BA ]
Bloomsbury
2018
