The Fall of a Sparrow

Readers familiar with Robert Hellenga's first novel, The Sixteen Pleasures, will hear its echoes in his second, ruminative book, The Fall of a Sparrow. Classical, Italian, Persian, and American cultures are superimposed on one another much like the palimpsest of history that Alan "Woody" Woodhull, the protagonist, sees in Rome's skyline. The layers give the…