Harvest

Postcards from Italy

by Steven Rydman
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Steven, a wonderful picaresque short fiction. Compact and amazingly transcending.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. Many of Narrative's Story of the Week selections just aren't my cup of tea, but this one is excellent. Excellent writer, excellent story.

Thank you, Steven Rydman, for touching my soul . . . I loved it; it brought the tears of truth to my eyes.

Steven,
What a surprise, welcome gift in the e-mail In-box this a.m. Your story is brilliant! I love the one-sided postcard brevity and the way you weave in Whitman fragments as well.

Very nice!

I like the story but the Italian in it is all wrong. All wrong. "I girasoli aspettano di essere raccolti" as an example of what the phrase should read. I feel upset that it wasn't checked before publication.

It was carefully checked, with the knowledge that it was wrong, and meant to be wrong . . . The young man in the story is struggling with Italian. Careless grace, you might call it, at least to the extent that the young man can manage to bring it off. A charm, if seen in a certain gracious light.

You are not the first to raise the question, however.