Infernas by West Ambrose

SFINCS

Dante Alighieri, amateur grifter and recent college graduate, has no plans for the Summer after his senior year, except to finally have sometime off and relax. After several months in New York City, he strikes up a deal with Virgilio “Virgil” Eco Olivares, carefree and semi-well known writer on a visa always almost expiring : a two-week trip to Italy together to find their old bodies to beat those reincarnation blues. A journey that was meant to be about reconnecting with past lives and recovering what was lost in ancient times suddenly turns to peril. With danger at every corner and turbulent emotions running high, relaxation is quickly thrown out the window. In this satirical work of verse-novel, the trip of a lifetime leads to daunting revelations about Italian-American culture and the Western canon’s perspective of literature, fraught with raising important questions about cultural collectivism and the complicated intersection between race, sexuality, disability, age, and gender identity under Capitalism. While in transit, the important personal questions revolving around both Dante and Virgil’s present lives still persist– a truth that neither is ready to confront: What does it mean to love someone too late? What does it mean to be you when you don’t live in your own body anymore?