Renato!

Renato! is the sweeping "autobiography" of Renato Stillamare, a talented yet struggling artist in Boston. Renato is, in addition, an uncommonly gifted story-teller as he first sets out relating the outlandish family legends that lead to his eventual discovery and adoption as a foundling. Renato's early life follows, including multiple misadventures that lead to his marriage to Alba Quick. But the heart of Renato! is the eventful summer of 2000, Renato's seventieth year. Having retired from teaching, he retreats to his Boston studio where he is possessied by an unquenchable ambition: to have his paintings exhibited by a Newbury Street gallery despite his work being out of favor for 25 years. He is furiously painting painting painting when his world is suddenly turned upside down by the appearance on his doorstep of a young homeless woman and her child. A screwball comedy ensues that Preston Sturges would have been the obvious choice of directors to film. Until life turns tragic. Renato the character is creative, noble, jealous, generous, foolish, compassionate, self-deprecating, impulsive, selfish, and witty. His eye for detail is acute and revealing; his metaphors are apt and often hilarious; but his heart is vulnerable and his suffering is real. Renato! is a novel about having a passion for life and encountering its inevitable vicissitudes.