When I began to read this collection of eight short stories I easily recognized the streak of rage and despair. For generations, women within traditonal cultures were powerless, except, at times, in the sphere of the home. The written voice of the modern Italian woman is raw, painful, sometimes bitter.

But more importantly, now, it is often defiant and proud of its renegade independence and that's what draws me to Darlene Madott's voice.

There is a susceptibility for women to succumb to certain powerful elements in our culture - whether it be the idol of family, sexual love, wifely duty or children. It is a siren call that is difficult to resist if you were raised to believe that those duties come before everything, before your own needs and desires and well being. One character notes "For this was love, this wretched devotion ..." It sometimes controls and destroys the women that embrace it.

But here, in virtually every story, the female characters waver but finally resist the temptation to be swallowed up by lover or family or duty.