Poetry. Translated from the Italian by Ruth Feldmann and James Laughlin. "LIKE IT OR NOT is a thematically and stylistically linked volume of seven poems, a brief title poem followed by six extended ones, each prefaced by a pair of sharp epigraphs from writers as diverse as Swift, Proust, and Mishima. Ruffilli's style has been compared to the stream-of-consciousness method employed by Joyce and other novelists, the historical precedent for which is, interestingly, found in works of Sterne. Through associative and impressionistic methods, Ruffilli's poems build and sustain an intense atmosphere of rear, guilt, and desire."—Michael Palma

Author City: FORLI ITA

Born in 1949, Paolo Ruffilli attended the University of Bologna, where he studied modern literature. After a period of teaching high school, he became editor with the Milanese publisher Garzanti, and is presently the general editor of Le Edizioni del Leone in Venice. As an editor, he has not only supported contemporary poetry but also shown a scholarly interest in the Italian literature of the nineteenth century, preparing editions of the Operette Morali of Giacomo Leopardi, Ugo Foscolo's translations of Laurence Sterne's Sentimental Journey, and Le confessioni d'un italiano by the poet, novelist, and patriot Ippolito Nievo. Ruffilli has also written a biography of Nievo. He has published criticism in a number of periodicals, and is the regular literary critic of the Bolognese daily Il Resto del Carlino.

Reviews and Other Links
author site