\u2018Tis the season! And it wouldn\u2019t be the holiday season without welcoming Suzanne del Gizzo to discuss a seasonally appropriate Hemingway work. In this episode, we examine \u201cA North of Italy of Christmas,\u201d a raucous article he wrote for the Toronto Daily Star one hundred years ago.
Del Gizzo \u2013 the celebrated editor of The Hemingway Review -- discusses the absurd humor in the piece, all the mistletoe, old favorite Chink Dorman-Smith, and Hemingway\u2019s early writing style. She unpacks the curious title, offers some unexpected background on the origin of the mistletoe tradition, and places the article in its biographical\xa0 context. We end the interview with del Gizzo\u2019s thoughts on the state of Hemingway studies as 2023 draws to a close.
And as a special treat to our listeners, we begin the episode with a reading of \u201cA North of Italy Christmas\u201d by former guest Mackenzie Astin, star of The Facts of Life, The Magicians, and In Love and War, where he played the young Henry Villard opposite Chris O\u2019Donnell\u2019s Hemingway and Sandra Bullock\u2019s Agnes von Kurowsky.
Thanks for a great 2023, everybody! Enjoy!