PositiveThe Brooklyn Rail... stylized, artful, and heroic ... Domini’s different use of narrative modes shapes the reader’s response to characters. Just as the noir features emerged around cops and gangsters, the use of fairytales seems to romanticize the white female’s sexual romp in contrast to Risto’s hustling in order to live on his feet in the scorched earth. The tension created by the murder mystery plot returns to the question of \'who [do] you stand with?\' ... his book isn’t an academic exercise; rather Domini employs an artistic blend of psychology and sociology to dramatize the story of these migrants who have overcome significant obstacles to establish a new life in Naples. The Color Inside a Melon celebrates the common man who will risk his comfort for his friends.
Ramon Saizarbitoria, Trans. by Aritz Branton
PositiveThe Quarterly ConversationA grand and audacious novel, Martutene is just over 800 pages and presents a nuanced perspective of the contemporary Basque experience. History, politics, language, and culture ripple through the characters’ daily interactions. Saizarbitoria dramatizes the best and worst of the contemporary Basque experience — national pride and cultural intolerance, as well as gastronomy and terrorism ... Set in Martutene, a neighborhood in the city of Donostia (San Sebastián), the book centers on two couples struggling to maintain their relationships ...use of parallelism, repetition, and commentary creates a sense of self-awareness within the reader that the text is indirectly commenting on itself ...embedded stories are structured in a way that allows for the manifestations of themes ...relies heavily on narration and the omniscient third-person point of view ... Martutene is very much about beliefs, perceptions, feelings, memories, and the associations of its characters.
