SOURCE: "A Lizard for the Ages," in The New York Times Book Review, November 22, 1987, p. 40.

An American educator, critic, and editor, Venuti has won several awards for his work as a translator. Frequently rendering Italian works into English, he has been the recipient of a Renato Poggioli Award for translation from International PEN, a National Endowment for the Arts translator's fellowship, a Columbia University Translation Center Award, and the Premio di cultura from the Italian government. In the review below, he remarks on the themes, plot, and stylistic features of The Iguana.

Anna Maria Ortese's prolific career has been marked by paradox—the kind of critical recognition and reader indifference that often greet a writer who departs from the worn grooves of association cultivated by large commercial publishers. Born in 1915 and raised in the impoverished south of Italy, she has produced a steady stream of short-story collections and...