I hardly ever look at this blog anymore, and it was so important to me when I was living in Naples. It was a lifeline, really. I don't want to let it go, and I am touched when I see a comment here and there from people who have enjoyed the blog and want to hear more. I would love to write about my trip to Naples last summer. It was a great trip, but not without complex feelings. The problem is, I am STILL writing my dissertation, plus teaching and organizing symposia and child-rearing and job-searching, so the blog will have to wait.

I do want to say here that I began reading Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan trilogy (now there's a fourth I need to get my hands on) while in Naples in July and it absolutely crushed me. I read the books in Italian, reveling in the multisensory way she captured Napoli. I read in a fever, actually having to put the books down for a couple of days because they were causing me such emotional upheaval. I recommend them highly. My friends who have read them in English say they are wonderful, so kudos to the translator.

I still have my heart set on a project--journal article at least--about Massimo Troisi and Neapolitan gesture as a form of resistance. Let me finish the dissertation and then we'll see.

Thanks for continuing to read. A presto!