Saturday Review: “A Song From the Combustible Heart of Pittsburgh” a review by Michael Gaspeny in NCLR Online Spring 2024 of Joseph Bathanti’s collection The Act of Contrition & Other Stories (2023)
Gaspeny’s review gets right to the heart of Bathanti’s celebrated work: “In this, his twentieth book, blending realism and magic realism, Bathanti returns to his boyhood turf and frequent muse, Pittsburgh’s East Liberty section in the late 1960s.” The collection of stories lives in the ruin of that city, and it can be felt throughout.
Gaspeny takes their time, introducing the readers of his review to the complicated characters of Bathanti’s work, like the protagonist, Fritz, or his mother, Rita, who’s haunted by a father burned to death in a tragic fire. Gaspeny praises Bathanti’s commitment to them, as he writes that, “The author’s robust love for his characters prevents this fate-filled chronicle from being a naturalistic depiction of a life-stifling limbo.”
Read the entire review in the Online Spring 2024 issue out now! And order the book from Bookshop.org.
