Works
A Pontiac in the Woods
A timelss and topical story about a young, independent woman's struggle for survval.
A Summer of Good-Byes
PASSION IN PROVENCE: a vital, romantic story, filled with the warmth of France's southern sun, colorful, famous artists, and violent personal conflicts concerning love, family loyalty, and the struggle to live and grow in the face of impending death and loss.
Arrangement in Black and White (a novel)
A novel about a marriage between a white woman, Margy, from Iowa and an African American civil rights lawyer, Everet, from Connecticut. Having met in Paris during the Freedom Summer of 1964, their lives take a tense turn years later when he decides to run for political office just as Margy moves forward in her own career as an artist.
Only Sons (a novel)
A compressed saga of Italian-American life in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania.
"The Search for Giovanni"
Sonny Salvaggi talks to his mother about his long-lost father. (A sample chapter from Only Sons.)
Lies to Live By (short stories)
Lies to Live By tells complex, frightening truths about people living from the 1940s through Vietnam to the present. The writing shows appreciation for ordinary people in difficult situations, at the same time providing sparkling lucidity and page-turning pace about their problems. These are beautiful, emotionally intriguing stories.
Short Time (a novella)
"What a pleasure to read this little novel by Fred Misurella! In it I recognize so much that I admire: sensitivity, a heart open to ordinary people who are vulnerable and weak. Weak before chance occurrences that give their own meaning and direction to events we (vainly) think we master."
--Milan Kunderra, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Understanding Milan Kundera:
Public Events, Private Affairs
This is must reading for any student of Milan Kundera's works and the history and philosophy behind them. It contains comments and a brief essay by Kundera himself.
"A Clear Eye on Life: Renaissance Style in Primo Levi's Writing"
One in a collection about Primo Levi, this essay places the Italian author's work, including his memoir Survival in Auschwitz, in the Renaissance tradition of Dante, Boccaccio, and Galileo, arguing that his clear, dispassionate, even humorous treatment of concentration camp horrors stems from the Italian Renaissance tradition of "rigorous observation and rational observation" to wrench goodness and spirit out of awful human experiences.