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| | village voice > books > Giorgio Manganelli's Centuria by Angela Starita |
 | | Manganelli's "novels" telescope time so that his characters end where they started, like the ouroborous of the subtitle—an ancient symbol of renewal showing a snake that bites its tail. |
| | In his preface, Manganelli writes that for maximum effect, readers should be installed on separate landings of a building and made to read one line while the Supreme Reader, who has flung himself from the roof, passes each floor's window. |
| | Manganelli warns, "It is understood that the number of the building's floors must exactly correspond to the number of the lines and that there will be no ambiguity on the second floor and mezzanine, which might cause an embarrassing silence before the impact." Less gory but equally satisfying surprises fill the stories themselves. |
| www.villagevoice.com /books/0525,starita,65162,10.html (628 words) |
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