Issue 15. August 2011 : ROLAND MERULLO excerpts from In Revere, In Those Days

The opening to Roland Merullo's 2003 novel In Revere, In Those Days sets us squarely down in Revere (02151), and in the mind of a narrator for whom the city of his childhood is more than geographical location. For Anthony Benedetto, Revere is a place outside time, a world full of blue-collar families dreaming for something bigger. He looks back on the "ordinary heroism of the household, the factory, and the street" and reflects on those who are able to transcend the bitterness and hardship of their lives.