Comments on: Guiseppe Pontiggia’s Great Novel About Fatherhood, ‘Born Twice’

By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom

1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 19:09:12 +0000

Knight of Swords: Thanks for getting why “Born Twice” matters. This novel is so worthy of redisovery. The tragedy of its publication was that this was Pontiggia’s first novel published in the U.S., and he died the year it came out in paperback here. So Pontiggia didn’t have much, if any opportunity, to do things like interviews with NPR and The New York Times that can be so much help to a literary novel. It’s tough to find the most basic information about him on the Web. I had to go to a site written entirely in Italian just to get his dates of birth and death.

Heehler: Maybe it’s because I used to live on Beacon Hill, a block or two away from HJ’s home on Mount Vernon Street? (We were at opposite ends of Louisburg Square …)
Jan

By: heehler

heehler — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 18:48:37 +0000

“leavened” with a dry wit…

I love it — a Jamesian verb if there ever was one.

By: knightofswords

knightofswords — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 18:26:11 +0000

The born twice concept aptly describes these children; I saw this when I worked with them at a state mental health center for children with developmental disabilities. Thanks for posting this review: I was unaware of the book.