THE NEOREALIST IN WINTER

Eleven stories that cast different facets of Italian American identity in a neo-noir light.

In the collection's eponymous opener, an aspiring director must choose between his next film or his family. "Do I Amuse You?" profiles an English professor, stuck in a no-tenure job and unmoored by his parents' death in a car crash, who latches onto Goodfellas as his emotional safety blanket. In "Zeitgeist Comics," a comic-book editor fires his whole department to save his job, newly expanded to include writing six monthly issues. A woman goes through a medical operation to "Take It Out of Me," replacing her working-class memories with upper-class ones. An about-to-be-canceled children’s TV sitcom goes rogue in "The Complete Oral History of Monkey High School," spawning a dedicated subculture. Salvatore Pane’s stories can range from SF to neo-noir, but many start from a similar beginning: an Italian American upbringing in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, “where everything smells like tomatoes and garlic.” A cinematic thread weaves through them, and it can feel as though scenes are written with the camera in mind, what with dramatic last-minute trains to Siena, British hand models riding in shiny cars, and deals made while picking at shrimp cocktails. The most enjoyable stories are formally inventive; "The Complete Oral History of Monkey High School" chronicles the show's evolution in mock-documentary format, and “The Absolutely True Autobiography of Tony Rinaldi, the Man Who Changed Pro Wrestling Forever” includes angry footnotes from his ghostwriter. It’s in these stories that Pane’s sense of play is most evident, and they buoy the collection.

Vivid fiction that asks how you can run from your past when it made you who you are.