ring The Italian Pleasures Gabriele Paterkallos
In the creation of THE ITALIAN PLEASURES OF GABRIELE PATERKALLOS, brilliant young author and Byronic/Homeric scholar, Pietros Maneos, has rediscovered the importance and impact of an epistolary correspondence.
Before knowledge and culture were trivialized by the internet and media sound bites, and intellectuals were branded as nerds, all important knowledge was conveyed through the journals and letters of eminent scientists, historians, politicians, poets, authors, and theologians who were then known and respected scholars and worthy intellectuals.
The great historiographer, Georg Hegel, took this epistolary knowledge to a new dimension by creating and perfecting the dialectic--a method by which two people of knowldege come to learn from each other through conversation--spoken or written--and as a result come to a higher understanding, thus advancing civilization through the acquisition of higher, broader knowledge.
Maneos, in his epistolary work, has skillfully brought this form of intellectualism back to life. And, you, the reader will be wooed, seduced, and captivated by the character of Gabriele Paterkallos through his on-going epistolary relationship with Odysseus Pane.
Maneos' challenging and engrossing style is enhanced by his adept skill as a wordsmith, thus bring ing about a style of prose that is melodic and poetic. As a result, THE ITALIAN PLEASURES OF GABRIELE PATERKALLOS is a beautifully orchestrated novella.
Many accolates to Mr. Maneos for bring ing this type of literary correspondence back to life. Hence, Pietros Maneos has advanced the classic notions of art and beauty--Intellectualism is indeed Reborn!
This is a first novel by a young man, in structure a one-sided epistolary novel, full of vim and vigor, amatory adventures, braggadoccio, heroic ideals, the hero in search of beauty, love, and glory, in extravagant adjective-laden prose, more like poetry, that hearkens back to Homer, Byron, and Keats, with allusions to the Iliad and Helperin's A Soldier of the Great War. There is also a darker side, the hero in the modern world dealing with disease, drugs, depression, uncertainty, a young man out of touch with his time, yearning for hand-to-hand combat in a time of terrorist attacks and computer-driven warfare. I look forward to more from Pietros Maneos.
BalasHapusPietros Maneos' new novella is the Byronic quest of a young poet to embrace and embody his own aesthetic ideals in art and life. Written in epistolary form, it can also be read on another level as a kind of manifesto for a renaissance of romanticism and the pursuit of beauty.
BalasHapusGabriele, the hero, is a student in an American university of Greek origin who takes an extended vacation from both school and the U.S. in pursuit of his ideals in Italy--and Rome, in particular.The letters are to a novelist friend living in Paris, detailing sexual conquests, ruminations on art, Greek history and politics,literary criticism, as well as Gabriele's passionate longings for the heroic, noble and great in Man--and himself.
Once the reader begins the work, it is virtually impossible to put down. Maneos carries one out of this corrupt and poisonous, trash-worshipping culture, into a sunlit realm of passion, beauty and sensuality. One feels as though one has been transported into Olympus on a winged horse.
Unlike much of fiction today, the hero is not defined by any psychopathology---but by his values: what he longs and lives for. And what he would die for. This alone makes Maneos' first work of fiction a remarkable tour de force of Romanticism. Its language is superbly crafted, poetic, almost Pateresque in its beauty and descriptive power.
This book deserves the widest possible readership. The author is a new and refreshing voice in literature, of whom we will hopefully hear much more in the future.
Pietros Maneos has written a novela that quickly moved me from my ordinary life into a life of romantic culture and beauty from another world. His novela is written by a man named Gabriele Paterkalios, who writes letters to an old friend, Odysseus about Gabriele's trip to Rome. We quickly move from Miami International Airport -- which the author knows well as he attended the University of Miami -- in Rome. Once Gabriele arrives in Rome, his take on the beauty, culture and history astound him. He becomes child-like in awe of the city. It is, by no means, a travelogue; rather, it transforms the reader into the author's mind itself and allows you to see Rome in its glory as the romantic Gabriele does.
BalasHapusI have read this book three times now and take away something from it every time I read it. I love being transformed into a great traveler, who alone discovers the magic and imagines the history he sees around him. Pietros lets you become his character and transform yourself to Rome. His extensive knowledge of the place, its culture and its day-to-day activities of people show how well the author knows his subject. Pick up this book and give it a try. I promise, you won't put it down. Personally, I like to read The Italian Pleasures of Gabriele Paterkalios when I am down or having a rough day. The transformation into his character, Gabriele's world will indeed make your problems vanish -- for a while -- and send you on a special romantic adventure to another land.
A reader doesn't read the 'Italian Pleasures;' rather, the reader is ravished by them, drawn into a world of debauchery, pleasure, rare and mostly bygone aesthetics and noble ideals in a timeless yet undeniably contemporary account of the fictional Gabriele Paterkallos, set mostly in Italy though he does write of and from other locations. Maneos's book is a a supposedly stolen collection of letters written by the title's namesake to another writer, Odysseus Pane, that are a continual revelation of a robustly sensual interior world modelled after the likes of Byron and d'Annunzio, revolving around Classic virtues of beauty and heroism, juxtaposed against the often hateful contemporary state of culture; Paterkallos rails against Turks, Muslims, modern art and literature, sexual fidelity and anyone or anything else his aesthetics deem vulgar or ugly as he seduces a wide swath through Rome and wherever else his travels take him.
BalasHapusFor readers familiar with Maneos's epic, romantic poetry first seen in his 'Soul of a Young Man' (published by S. Perocchi in Rome in 2001), Paterkallos's 'Pleasures' read like a behind-the-scenes account of the poet's libertine alter-ego in Rome, Italy, and the US from that time; Paterkallos even reacts to the destruction of the twin towers on 9/11 in his letters, passionately pledging to fight in a combination of patriotism, Hellenism-nostalgia, and sheer vanity. Maneos's 'Pleasures' flesh out the fantastic life of this rare breed of poet and allow the reader to move past stylized verses into the life and experiences of a unique modern aesthete and hedonist. Maneos's Paterkallos belongs in the company of literature's great romantic heroes, and Paterkallos becomes a kind of rakish, diabolically seductive, contemporary Virgil, taking the reader into uncommon realms of beauty- from Classic sculpture and Hellenic ideals to the world of fashion and fitness models- and pleasure - from the carnal to the high intellectual. It is a trip worth embarking on, a welcome seduction, and a memorable read.
BalasHapusIn the creation of THE ITALIAN PLEASURES OF GABRIELE PATERKALLOS, brilliant young author and Byronic/Homeric scholar, Pietros Maneos, has rediscovered the importance and impact of an epistolary correspondence.
BalasHapusBefore knowledge and culture were trivialized by the internet and media sound bites, and intellectuals were branded as nerds, all important knowledge was conveyed through the journals and letters of eminent scientists, historians, politicians, poets, authors, and theologians who were then known and respected scholars and worthy intellectuals.
The great historiographer, Georg Hegel, took this epistolary knowledge to a new dimension by creating and perfecting the dialectic--a method by which two people of knowldege come to learn from each other through conversation--spoken or written--and as a result come to a higher understanding, thus advancing civilization through the acquisition of higher, broader knowledge.
Maneos, in his epistolary work, has skillfully brought this form of intellectualism back to life. And, you, the reader will be wooed, seduced, and captivated by the character of Gabriele Paterkallos through his on-going epistolary relationship with Odysseus Pane.
Maneos' challenging and engrossing style is enhanced by his adept skill as a wordsmith, thus bringing about a style of prose that is melodic and poetic. As a result, THE ITALIAN PLEASURES OF GABRIELE PATERKALLOS is a beautifully orchestrated novella.
Many accolates to Mr. Maneos for bringing this type of literary correspondence back to life. Hence, Pietros Maneos has advanced the classic notions of art and beauty--Intellectualism is indeed Reborn!
This is a book of the most stunningly written prose that I have ever read in English; the only comparisons that I can think of are prose translations of Homer into Polish or Hebrew. Beyond this I am speechless. Read for yourself. (Note to Amazon: I could not read the Amazon Kindle download to the Kindle App on my Samsung Galaxy Tab, but a .mobi file sent to me by the author works fine in the same App.)
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