Paolo Valesio, professor of Italian at Yale University, is a widely known scholar in the fields of linguistics, literary criticism, critical theory, and rhetoric. He is also a novelist, poet, and short story writer. A good point of departure for a critical assessment of his writings is the word between as a geographical as well as a critical and aesthetic preposition. Valesio, who calls himself an "Atlantic witness," is both Italian and American; metaphorically his work may be located between the poles of Italy and the United States. Valesio also operates between the poles of prose and verse, between the mind-sets of critical-theoretical writing and creative writing. The result of these geographic and cognitive scissions is not a cultural pathology but instead the enriching "contamination" of all of his writing. In particular, his two novels--L'ospedale di Manhattan (The Hospital in Manhattan, 1978) and Il regno doloroso (The Kingdom...