A Man of Parts

As prickly as a chestnut, this little hardshelled conte from the Italian countryside is full of the tibald realism which began many years ago with Boccaccio. In Luino, in the years just before Fascism when the “”nineteenth century drew to a long-overdue close,”” Emerenziano Paronzini, a dour but distinguished looking man of 45, takes up residence, eyes the rather unattractive sisterhood–all unwed–Tarsilla, Fortunata and Camilla, and eventually proposes to Fortunata. Although Tarsilla does have a pair of legs as the sole support of her ugly face and “”lean chest,”” legs which become surprisingly pliant under the crude charms of one Paolino. However, after their naked discovery under the confessional of the convent chapel by the parish priests, Tarsilla confines her desires to her sister’s husband who by the close is trigamously servicing all of them. . . . A Man of Parts is a wholly funny, bawdy, small story told with scapegrace irreverence and a knowing leer.

– from Kirkus Review