The Indiscretions of Curzio Malaparte

The Indiscretions of Curzio Malaparte

Malaparte: A Biography By Maurizio SerraTranslated by Stephen Twilley NYRB, 736 pages, $39.95Maurizio Serra’s biography of Curzio Malaparte mostly consists of digressions, which is just the right approach in recreating the “mythomaniac, exhibitionist, and serial turn-coat” Kurt Erich Suckert, born in industrial Prato south of Firenze to a well-paid Austrian textile expert. He turned Kurt into Curzio and acquired a surname by reversing Napoleon’s…