READ — Ravioli Parachute

FICTION

Rug Man (2023)

Paul Dry Books

Frank “Ace” Renzetti has been installing carpet for over forty years, working the upscale neighborhoods of Philadelphia’s Main Line. At a time when he should be considering retirement, Frank takes on one of the biggest—and strangest—jobs of his career. The house is owned by a volatile and eccentric divorcee, its rooms teeming with weary contractors, many of whom have been on the job for months. A pampered dog regularly sabotages everyone’s work, and the general contractor patrols the site as if it’s the border. Amid this week-long circus, Frank’s body starts to fail him, and when he loses both his helpers to a drug bust, he is left to complete the job by himself on one good leg. Desperate, he poaches a day-laborer from his competitor and finds that the young, paperless El Salvadoran has a way with carpet and just might be the future of the trade. As the physical challenges of the job mount, the fate of Frank’s business, and, with that, the fate of his blue-collar genius, become increasingly uncertain. Wry and insightful, Rug Man is a tribute to a bygone era of craftsmen whose work was the source of their greatest suffering but also their greatest pride.

“Saint Cosme” (2019)

Masque & Spectacle

In a reluctant homecoming, Royce Demarco visits his elderly parents at the Jersey Shore. His mother, who has Alzheimer’s, goes missing during his stay, and to find her Royce teams up with his ornery, wine-obsessed father. Their search brings them to Atlantic City’s Ducktown neighborhood, where Royce learns the true extent of his mother’s disease, and what he must do to help her.

“The Medical Supply Expo” (2016)

Talking River

An eager yet inexperienced salesman is hired to showcase a kidney dialysis machine at the Medical Supply Expo in Atlantic City. The machine breaks on his way to the Expo, security bars him from entering the Convention Center, and his partner is off gambling at Caesar’s. The only place where he might find acceptance is that egalitarian esplanade known as the Boardwalk.

“A Path to Citizenship” (2015)

Masque & Spectacle

Edgar Portillo, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, rides his bike home from work at an Upper Darby restaurant. As he navigates the shadow-ridden streets, flashing back to the town of his birth, San Miguel, a fellow immigrant attacks him and steals his pay for the week. Against his protests, the police accompany Edgar back to his apartment, but light shines on him when he receives an important piece of mail.

“The World’s Largest Bubble Bath” (2015)

Packingtown Review

Gotlieb is the oldest—and best—diamond cutter on Jewelers’ Row. However, his experience and expertise are no match for the gaudy, commercial-minded Jules Jourado, who opens up shop across the street. Lost business and lost pride send Gotlieb into a prolonged funk, but a sleazy radio promotion at Jourado’s store pushes him over the edge.

“All These Streets Are Hills” (2014)

Masque & Spectacle

While walking to the office one morning, an uptight businessman is confronted by a transient who has just been hit by a car. Initially, the business-man refuses the vagrant’s petitions for help, accusing the man of digging his own grave. But charity eventually wins out, as the businessman opens his heart, his wallet, and his home to one of society’s nameless victims.

“The Delight of the Couch” (2014)

Nerve Cowboy

There are many obstacles to the act of Venus, and some of them are insurmountable. When a husband and wife attempt to have sex on a Friday night, agents both internal and external conspire to derail them. A reimagining of the Kama Sutra not as a series of positions, but as a series of impositions.

ESSAYS

“Facing the Book” (2016)

Main Course

This piece chronicles the author’s attempts to achieve “relevance” via Zark Muckerberg, and ponders the essential question: Is Facebook the world’s most “powerful information gatekeeper,” or a dumping ground for the lower brain?

“Graffiti: An Appreciation” (2014)

Main Course

Graffiti, one of the five elements of hip-hop culture, has a long history in Philadelphia. This reflection briefly touches on that history, and explores the silent dialogue that takes place between those who write graffiti and those who read it.

ACADEMIC ARTICLES

“I Kinda Like to Go off the Track: Finding David Lynch in the Middle World of Dune” (2021)

Adaptation

For many scholars of David Lynch’s work, Dune is considered a spectacular failure, a costly creative misstep on the way to Blue Velvet. While it may not be regarded as one of his signature films, Dune contains enough of Lynch’s creative personality to warrant a critical reexamination. The purpose of this study is to place Dune within the context of his earlier work, namely Eraserhead and The Elephant Man, and to mine it for those tropes with which Lynch has become synonymous: enabling the grotesque, interiority and the unconscious mind, and the relationship between industry and flesh.

“Men of Ice and Steel: Richard Kuklinski, Clark Kent, and the Fortress of Identity” (2018)

Lincoln Humanities Journal

Because of the extreme nature of their public lives, Superman and the Ice Man (mafia contract killer Richard Kuklinski) create separate identities that they assume when in private—one a journalist, the other a family man. They expend a great deal of energy holding the line between their two selves, enduring personal anguish and social isolation to preserve the front. Though they reside at opposite ends of the moral spectrum, both are driven by a fear of disclosure, which, as their personas mature, becomes the overriding problem of their lives.

BOOK REVIEWS

“I & You, by J. David Stevens” (2019)

Cleaver

“Sam the Cat and Other Stories, by Matthew Klam” (2001)

Mid-American Review

“A Werewolf Problem in Central Russian and Other Stories” (2000)

Mid-American Review

SCREENPLAYS

Awkward Endeavors (2018)

The lives of three lonely men become intertwined as they try to bridge the gap between themselves and the rest of the world.

The Ballad of Sandeep (2012)

After his job is outsourced to Bangalore, ambitious programmer Sandeep Majumdar sets up a remote access in his apartment, tricking his former company into believing that he is really working from India.

Straight On Till Morning (2007)

Four old friends abandon their adult responsibilities and put nostalgia into action, reliving their heyday through a series of pre-pubescent pastimes.