John Domini is best known for his novels Talking Heads:77, Earthquake I.D., and A Tomb on the Periphery, but it is a little known secret that he is one of the most original and engaging poetic voices of our time. The Grand McLuckless Road Atlas is an eloquent examination of American (and European) life and mortality in the millennial era. This road, this hotel, this airport: you are there with him. "The compressed and fast-paced poems in "The Grand McLuckless Road Atlas" are full of wit an...

The Archeology of a Good Ragù offers a unique take on the recovery narrative. A damaged but savvy author finds new wholeness by way of a fascinating old city: Naples, Italy. John Domini's exploration of the place— little known to North Americans, yet rich in culture and challenge— draws on decades of research, living with local friends and family. His work has appeared previously in the New York Times and elsewhere, and he's published award-winning Neapolitan novels. This memoir will take ...

"The narrative has its requisite share of mobsters, cops and bloodshed, but for Domini these are mainly pegs upon which to explore Risto’s sense of displacement and belonging. ... Domini’s novel is determined to push the noir—and us—out of well-worn ruts." —The Washington PostA disastrous earthquake has Naples reeling. While the government scrambles to maintain appearances, poverty and anarchy rack the people on Italy’s margins—the illegal immigrants out o...

A wild, fragmented portrait of the late 70s and the punk scene with a rich and diverse cast of characters including an idealistic editor of a political rag, a pony-riding Boston Brahmin intent on finding herself and shedding her husband, an up-and-coming punkster who fancies evenings at the Knights of Columbus Ladies Auxiliary, an editorial assistant named Topsy Otaka, and more.

A witty and sophisticated examination of nontraditional storytelling in contemporary art and literature. The Sea-God's Herb contains reviews and essays on some of the most interesting authors and artists of the last forty years. From William Gass and Thomas Pynchon to Brian Evenson and Steve Erickson, John Domini takes readers beyond that which is impossible to explain.

A collection of stories set in Oregon’s Willamette Valley-many of the protagonists having moved west to start their lives anew.PRAISEStreetwise and pain-acquainted, John Domini’s new story-collection is a good rich read indeed.” -John Barth

MOVIEOLA! is a collection of linked short stories that delights and exploits the language and paraphernalia of industrial Hollywood. The collection delves into a night at the movies, featuring all the familiar types-the rom-com, the action-adventure, the superhero and the spy-but the narratives are still under construction, and every storyline is an opportunity for the unimaginable twist. Motive and identity are constantly shifting in these short stories that offer both narrative ...

This book is addressed to “lovers of paradoxes” and we have done our utmost to assemble a stellar cast of Neapolitan and American scholars, intellectuals, and artists/writers who are strong and open-minded enough to wrestle with and illuminate the paradoxes through which Naples presents itself. Naples is a mysterious metropolis. Difficult to understand, it is an enigma to outsiders, and also to the Neapolitans themselves. Its very impenetrableness is what makes it so deliriously and irresi...

Naples is an urban hive that has suffered many an earthquake over the centuries. The next such shakeup provides Domini with his premise. An American family, Jay and Barbara Lulucita and their five children, are something like innocents abroad. In the naive belief that they can help, they come to this crime-riddled and quake-broken city, which in recent years has also suffered another upheaval, namely, the impact of the illegal immigrants pouring in from Africa. There’s a child faith-healer...

These stories, set in both real and unreal locales, arouse more faraway yearnings. All sooner or later come round to the subject of love, but none finds it anywhere we might ordinarily have expected. Bedlam lurks everywhere, from the streets to the afterlife,and every point of view is nagged by glimpses of every other. Thank god for a resilient lyricism, a hint of better music playing not too far off. This electronic edition includes two published pieces that didn't appear in the original ...